Kerr Barging Blogs

We are close to Lens and Bethune, in the North of France and go to Lille tomorrow where friends will join us for a week or so.

July 14th in France is celebrated in most places as "Republic Day". However, in Paris and New Caledonia it is called (for us, the more familiar) "Bastille Day".

People in France had recovered to some extent (though no-one can forget the horror) from the massacres last year. Many outdoor events, particularly those involving fireworks, were cancelled following those terrible events. Finally, people seemed to be settling down and we sensed there was a desire to celebrate on Republic Day. Penny was very concerned about fireworks because the noises would seem to be a good cover for terrorist events and did not want to attend anything big. So, we selected the small town of Long to celebrate Republic Day. Nothing was publicised, but when we asked the butcher the day before, he checked with someone else and said that something was happening. David saw fireworks being prepared in an area near our barge (well, about 300metres away) on the 13th.

That night, we heard a band playing far away on a hill leading to the town. The band wound its way through the top of town, collecting townsfolk behind it. There were many families and lots of young children carrying lit paper lanterns on sticks. It was like the story of the Pied Piper. The crowd grew bigger and bigger to several hundreds (about the town population) and came down across a bridge where a couple of hundred more people had gathered. There were no gendarmes around and no traffic control. Motorists trying to go down the main street were faced with a big crowd and had no option other than to reverse away. Then there was a short but excellent fireworks display. After that, the band marched away towards the top of town, leading the townsfolk back and the crowd diminished as their homes were reached. What a beautiful night and there was the sound of fireworks from many other towns in the nearby countryside. We were about a third of the way up the Somme Valley and there are over 400 villages and towns, of which 380 were destroyed in WW1. Many of them were also celebrating.

  It was then with great sadness when we and others learned of the terrible events in Nice. These occurred a few hundred metres from where we had stayed a few weeks before and where we frequently walked. Our hearts and prayers go out to all affected- indeed, everyone has been affected.

Now, the terrible events have occurred in Rouen (as well as those in Germany). Here, there have been many marches and religious services held with attendance by Catholics and Moslems who are expressing huge solidarity and condemnation of the violence. If the terrorists want to start a war of religion, it is not working though undoubtedly there will be some xenophobia around.

David and Penelope

This one is for the technically minded people. Others can skip!

Back in 2010, we discovered that our barge's alternator was totally unsuitable, barely able to sustain the boat's batteries even when motoring. This is because someone fitted an alternator designed for a high speed engine to our low speed engine. We rectified this in 2011 with an alternator that they use on the American yellow school buses.

We also built a generator unit in the garage at home in Sydney and shipped it over to France. Heart of this generator was a 1 cylinder diesel engine, driving a US built Zena welder-alternator. This impressive unit is either a 200amp welder or a 200amp battery charger, at the flick of a switch. In the early years, we used the welder quite a bit making things (such as bike racks) and also for repairs in all sorts of areas. For battery charging, the Zena is impressive and can quickly recharge our very large AGM battery bank in about 45minutes.

All went well with the Zena until 2014 when it stopped working. Basically, it is a rewound alternator originally designed for a small truck. Zena add a second set of diode rectifiers and beef up the windings. However, we discovered that there really is not enough air flow and the configuration/connection of the extra diode rectifier is not electronically correct, leading to unbalanced heating of the diodes. They added a false back to the alternator to house the second set of diodes. There were also problems with internal nuts working loose and poor soldering. These would not normally be a problem, but our one cylinder engine does vibrate a lot and things have to be perfect to survive well.

So, this year, I rewound the alternator stator with very high quality, high-temperature wire and removed the diode rectifiers. I built a new rectifier box with big copper bus-bars and new high powered diodes. The box has two fans that turn on one by one as the temperature increases. Everything is interconnected by much bigger wires and large brass nuts and bolts.
Rewound Stator with special wire, nomex insulation and new three phase connections
Unfortunately, everything worked really well except that the small wires leading into the rectifier diodes fractured due to the vibration because I mounted the rectifier box onto the engine frame. Even strengthening the wiring was unsuccessful with the diodes fracturing again after a relatively short time.
Rectifier box with fans, copper bussbars and original fragile diodes
So, I was able to obtain some much more rugged diodes here in France and mount them on the copper bus-bars. I also moved the rectifier box to the side of the generator box-cover which has far less vibration. Either solution would have been okay but both together should be more than enough.
New rectifier box
We have now run the whole new arrangement for many hours with no troubles. The alternator winding are 100degrees cooler than before and the alternator diodes are also more than 100degrees cooler with the second fan never coming on. Also, we are getting more amps out of the generator.

So overall, a big success which should continue to give trouble-free service for years to come.

Best Regards,
Dave

A day and a half after the Fete Nautique, we were on the Somme River, which we last visited (and thoroughly enjoyed) in 2013.

We made our way down to Amiens, which was the perfect place to meet up with our daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren. They had a good flight from Australia and were able to take the TGV direct from the Airport to Lille and then back down to Amiens. The little two year old had been expecting to be on grandma/grandpa's boat every day for the previous week. We think it was hard for her to understand that there are actually two boats, on opposite sides of the world. She was apparently very puzzled when the journey to the boat included Sydney Airport!

All went well with the visit. We cruised down to Abbeville (not far from the sea)  where the family members took the train to Saint Valery, including the historic steam train which goes around the Bay. Wiliam the Conquerer left from here to conquer England.
Anja at Amiens
Abbeville also had an excellent "Plage" set up for the summer. There were separate sections set up for different age groups, plus jumping castles, climbing frames and heaps more. It was also free and the children loved their two visits.


While cruising up and down the Somme (192Kms in total), we made sure to eat the Picardie specialties such as Ficelle Picarde and Maroilles cheese and see a few things we missed in 2013.
The pretty town of LongOne of these trips included Le Hamel and the Australian memorial there. Le Hamel was the site of the famous 93min battle planned and executed by General John Monash. This meticulously planned battle was totally different from the earlier battles where the Generals typically threw men into suicidal charges as if they were just numbers on a sheet of paper. The memorial does an excellent job of portraying the events of 100 years before. This area is also where Baron von Richthofen was finally shot down, having downed 80 enemy aircraft.
Le HamelAustralian Memorial
The weather was excellent for the three weeks on the Somme. One or two days were over 30 but the remainder around 25degrees.

We went kayaking on a 7Kms round trip up a disused arm of the Somme- we enjoyed fantastic scenery and birdsongs. Muscles were only a little sore afterwards. Our family members also went kayaking and the girls really enjoyed it despite being only two and five years old.
The girls were amazingly fond of and discerning about French cheeses. We started with eight different cheeses and they ate all of them. The younger grandchild particularly likes blue cheeses, but they both enjoyed them all.
Artist at work in AmiensFeeding healthy Rocqefort appetites might get a trifle expensive when they return to Australia!
Unusual "floating" houseEntry to Hortillonage (island gardens)
Now, we are off the Somme and at the North end of the Canal du Nord (only 12Kms from Cambrai) and are heading towards Lille, where we will pick up some more visitors who will be with us for about a week. Then we head further North towards Dunkirk and Belgium.
Notre Dame Amiens (2.5x Notre Dame, ParisBest Regards,
Dave and Penny

Fishing contest (Concourse de Peche)

It has been a very busy week, after the slow start. We were pleased to finally escape the Yonne River and get onto the Seine.

There, we made the decision to travel a lot further than normal, aided by the good current in the River. So, we got to Paris in one day (instead of our normal two days) and then spent another day getting to Andresy instead of our planned two days.

At Andresy, David picked up some new diodes for the big alternator/welder. These were ordered the night before and came from France, Belgium and England in less than 24hrs to the local Bric a Brac store which is a Relais for UPS. Fantastic service!

It was about this stage that we learned our daughter and family would be arriving in Amiens a day earlier than we had expected. So, we headed off North on the Oise River- This time pushing against a strong current and only making half the speed we did on the Seine.

We are over-nighting at Longueil-Annel and are fortunate because it is the annual "Pardon". There are many boats here and they are well "dressed" with flags. There is music, food and the very entertaining jousting competition on the river, just above the locks. So, we have put up Anja's mast and added a number of flags so that we fit in with the other boats, large (110 metres/2000tonnes) and small (7 metres).

The trip through Paris was uneventful. We were very lucky because (at 055am) Penny noticed that the first lock at Port a l'Anglais was showing green. The lock keeper had started early to accommodate a couple of commercial boats that wanted to make the 15minute window for getting past Notre Dame. We did not think there was much chance of us making it, but went at close to our maximum speed and DID make it- with 4 minutes to spare. We were the last boat through and the only non-commercial craft. We had an excellent and non-stressful view of Paris's magnificient bridges and other attractions as there were no Bateau-mouches (tripboats) at that timne of day.

This was Penny's fifth time in Paris in the one month since we arrived. This is a record.

Incidentally, did you know that there are 1,000 electric cars in Paris with 5,000 allocated parking spots? They are 6euros for the first 30 mins. You put your destinbation into the GPS and it reserves a parking spot near to your destination. You park, plug in the power cord and you are done! What a fantastic service and as with the rental bikes (which are free for the first 30mins) take a lot of polluting traffic off the Parisien roads.

Other cities in France are installing the same system.

Best Regards,

Dave and Penny

Due to a shortage of internet download/upload until the end of the month, there might be a shortage of photos on our blogs until then.

The good news is that we were craned back into the water on Monday 20^th of June. This went well and Penny (who hates watching it) arrived back early from shopping to witness the last steps. I (David) always explain why Penny is not there- because she is scared to watch- and Simon who drives the crane always says he too is scared to watch! We made a turn in front of the boatyard and sped off down the river at more than twice our normal speed with the engine just idling. As the river was still officially closed, we stopped 2kms downstream at a small town called Laroche St. Cydroine. A nice spot where we have stayed before. We went to the town square for the Fete de la Musique with town singing groups performing. We kept to the outskirts until the Mayoress spotted us, welcomed us and ensured we sat on some of the few available seats. We left before it concluded and tried to sneak away but the Mayoress made sure we understood there was more of the performance to follow.

Unfortunately, the local Boulangerie has closed down but we still managed with baguettes from the Depot du Pain at the Epicerie. During our stay, we went to the Migennes Market (which is an excellent market) and Penny travelled to Paris to vote at our Embassy in the Australian elections. This was her fourth trip to Paris in three weeks! We also discovered that our TV was not working. By a strange coincidence, we also found that France moved to all high definition TV this April. Our TV displays HD but does not receive it. Fortunately, I was able to cycle to a large hypermarche and purchase a small box which gets arounbd the problem plus, as a bonus, the TV receptions is now all high definition.

David stayed behind to mind Anja and also to construct a new front railing. The old one had become rather dilapidated and had also been made in five parts with lots of joins. The new one is made in two parts with very nice wood provided by Simon Evans.

On Friday night, via the internet, we got the exciting news that we could travel further the next morning. We radioded the lock on Saturday morning but received no reply. So we headed down there at 0910 and when almost there, got a call from the eclusier to say he was closed and we could not come. So, we headed back upstream and heard him calling someone else on the radio. Just as we were tying up at the town mooring, he called us, apologised and and that we could come! We did finally enter the lock though it was delayed because of a problem with the sluice gates (this was the first time the lock had been used for a month).

Anyway, we have made it 20kms downriver but are stopped again because the eclusiers (lock keepers) are having to manually re-lift the barrages. This involves lifting steel needles about 8cm wide and dropping them into the water, suspended on a cross beam. There are about 800 of them per barrage and it is very time consuming.

We just got word that we can travel a further one lock tomorrow but then no more until Tuesday. Hopefully we can get onto the Seine later in the week and speed along without delays because we are about 17 days late on our plan for the year.

At the moment, we are at the pleasant town of Villevallier.

Best Regards,

Dave and Penny