We broke part of one of the propellor blades off, somewhere on the Canal du Midi. I felt the boat slow as though we were dragging over sand or mud then the engine slow to nearly stalling before I knocked it out of gear. Afterwards everything seemed fine, the boat travelling as fast as normal with little vibration however the inspection of the prop at La Maguelone showed a considerable piece missing. Given the prop is nearly a metre wide, ‘a considerable piece’ measured about 10cm (4 inches) across. We were therefore waiting with some anticipation for Monday the 17^th of May to get the boat into the dry dock in St Jean de Losne to have the prop repaired, as a replacement at some i 5,500 ($A 9,000) plus the cost of the dry dock, was somewhat difficult to contemplate.

We travelled to the enclosed bassin at St Jean from the Ancien Ecluse on the Sunday afternoon and were up early for the supposed 0830 start. It was more like 0930 when the workers closed the road after opening the sluices in the gate of the dock, flooding it to remove the gate and then the incumbent barge within, leaving it open for us to manoeuvre Van Nelle into the narrow entrance through the main access road of the bassin. We completed this by 1000 and soon after were propped by the boss in his SCUBA gear while the water was let out into the adjoining Gare d’Eau.

Three years of use had left hardly a scratch on the bottom, the anti fouling was still in fine form and none of the anodes had any sign of erosion - except the one that was missing - obviously taken off during a close encounter. The prop was left in place but ground into a regular Vee shape for the acceptance of the new piece which was quickly fabricated in the nearby atelier (workshop). It was about 3.00pm (1500) when the boss re-appeared to begin brazing the new piece in place and then grinding it into perfect shape. We, meanwhile, were busy with the pitch like paint and a couple of rollers and by the end of a hot day had completely repainted the hull to the water line. By 1700 the jobs were done and the task of getting us out was quickly effected, allowing us to return to our mooring at the ancien ecluse that evening before the lock closed at 1800.

The next 10 days passed with a round of social occasions including dinner on Arjo, a small Tjalk(sailing barge) owned by an ex RAN warrant officer John Doughty and his wife Jan. We had a couple of barbecues and drinks parties on Van Nelle as well, reinforcing our friendships with Phillippe Gerard and his fiancé Emma, Carline and Matthew from Vixit and John and Rosemary off Passe Pierre. Plans we had made for a Mad Hatters Party at L’Amiral (site of many raucous soirees) had to be cancelled due to lack of people, most by now having begun their summer cruising.

We finished our painting by repainting the top deck, the white stripe and touching up the black rails and took on 800 litres of white diesel, paid our account at H2O and had a final afternoon tea at John and Rosemary’s house away from the Saone river and finally - on the 28^th of May - headed back into the Canal de Bourgogne for the trip up to Dijon, on to La Bussiere and our four next guests - Ian and Anthea Murchison and Clive and Jenny Willis. On the way, we took a couple of days at Dijon where I was able to find some extra champagne glasses exactly the same model as those we had bought nearly 30 years ago and had with us on Van Nelle. I also found one replacement 19^thC French antique crystal wine glass, having carelessly broken one of my collection.

The next couple of days saw us slowly cruise through a number of pretty canal side port towns - Plombiers, Fleury and Gissey - where the eclusier kindly opened the canal museum for me - and on to the meeting place of La Bussiere. Strangely, the hot weather changed to rain, leaving us wondering what this summer would be like - hot as hell for 5 months as for 2003 or more normally changeable as France’s summers tend to be. (NB So far by mid June, the weather has remained changeable with hot spells turning cool after a couple of days).

We had the cheerful West Aussie team aboard for ten days and had therefore planned a varied program of some long and some short cruise days to towns with, or near, interesting tourist attractions. The first night aboard we had the beginning of these - the Abbaye Labussiere where the diocese of Dijon, having bought the property back after the Revolution had removed it from their ownership, now open it to groups for retreats, conferences and lunches or dinners. These are a set price, set menu affair in the refectory, a vaulted hall with musicians galleries and stained glass windows. This evening a string quartet was engaged by the group holding a conference at the Abbaye, so we were entertained during dinner by their renditions of Mozart and other composers.

The beginning of the Canal de Bourgogne features more locks (ecluses) than kilometres as it ascends the gentle Burgundian hills, rich in the many green and yellows tones of the grasses, crops and trees and dotted with the white daisies and red poppies that proliferate the canal banks. The canal is operated by fewer and fewer eclusiers these days so if you want to progress at a reasonable pace you need to get off the boat to assist in closing gates, opening and closing sluices (vannes) and opening the departure side gates before progressing on to the next lock, sometimes only 300- 400 metres on.

We had plenty of assistants for working the locks, the deck ropes and indeed, steering Van Nelle, Ian and Clive taking turns each day to master the physical and mental strains of operating such a vessel in enclosed waters as the girls, Maureen, Anthea and Jenny walked between locks or sat on the fore deck watching the country slip by and the locks approach. Both teams became proficient very quickly and we were unhampered by other boats for the first few days, passing only two in the first week and only 6 the whole trip. Tourism has been hit badly by the almost total disappearance of Americans since September 11. Whether the fear of terrorist action or disdain for the French attitude to the war is the cause is debatable, the effect is that more than 50% of the numbers booking boats, coaches and hotels have just vanished - and now for two years going on three.

On the other hand, we had met two American couple with barges, Don and Patty in Dijon on their fine Luxemotor ‘Maria’ and Joe and Lisa on their baby barge ‘Jolie Folie’ at Vandenesse and these two couple played hop scotch with us for the next few days as we progressed through Vandenesse, Pouilly, Gissey and Pont Royal. One of the highlights of this section is the 3.5km Pouilly Tunnel, for which we have to de-mount the roof.

We arrived at the tunnel bassin ecluse at 1100 and advised the eclusiers (who control movements through the tunnel) that we would be ready to go through in 30 minutes. They inspected our safety gear - gilets de sauvetage (flotation jackets),une seau (a bucket (why ?)), gaffes (boat hooks) and a powerful bow light and gave us our pass to allow us exclusive use of the tunnel for one and a half hours. We were right on time to depart 30 minutes later and after just less than one hour had completed to very dark, cold and moist passage through, arriving at Pouilly by 1230 to be met by the girls (who had decided to chicken out and ride over the tunnel) and rain. A quick scramble had the roof back in place quickly and we soon tied up at the Pouilly port for lunch.

We departed Pouilly for a wild mooring (a canalside stop far from towns or ports) next to a field inhabited by fat and friendly Charolais cattle. Next morning we continued our travels - now locking down as we had reached the top section (bief de partage) of the canal at Pouilly. Marigny, Pouillenay and Veneray were the next stops on the way to Montbard where the four from Perth would leave us.

On the way however there were things to do, places to see and tastes to indulge in. The great fortified town of Chateauneuf was worth a long, tortuous bike ride up the hill from the canal while the team took a mixture of taxis and hire cars to get much further afield to visit the markets in the cheese town of Epoisses, the Chateau of Bussy Rabutin, the ancient towns of Semur and Flavigny and the wine areas of Romany Conti and others.

Meanwhile on board, Maureen was cooking up gastronomic feasts of pates, veal, duck, rabbit and salmon while I selected a range of wines to wash them down including whites - Puligny Montrachets, Marsannay, Chablis, Sancerre, and reds - Nuits St George, St Estephe, St Emilion, Gevry Chambertin and Aloxe Corton - plus some Minervois, south west chardonnay and Sauvignons - a reasonable mix of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Not to mention the Champagne - I think we saw the bottom of over a dozen varieties of that particular tipple. Clive also tasted most of the beer brands available on the continent, both pression (draft) and packaged.

We danced on deck after the awards dinner on the last night having visited the second group restaurant visit at the fine Marroniers Restaurant near St Remy on the penultimate night. All in all a busy program with good weather throughout and convivial company. Some were better than others at Petanque (boules) but as we only had one chance for such a competition it was probably not a good indication.

Shortly after the stop for boules we enjoyed a shady stop at Veneray where, in jumping down from the boat to shore, my left foot turned completely under as my full weight crushed down. The cracks could be heard plainly and as I writhed on the ground in agony the taxi arrived, returning the team. They thought I was having a rest.... After some recovery time with frozen packaged pasta wrapped round the ankle I was able to continue my duties - albeit painfully and slowly. After arrival at our point of departure for the guests I was able to get to the hospital where X-rays revealed to the intern that there were no breaks so an ankle support was prescribed.

After nine nights the team left for different destinations, Ian and Anthea on the TGV for Paris CDG and the flight to Hong Kong and home and Clive and Jenny into their hire car for a trip to Reims, Epernay and Paris, then the UK and home. As for us, we had a day of washing, and several days of rest and recuperation before our next guests, Sandy and Tony Denham were to arrive by train from Paris. Before they arrived however, we hosted aperitifs on board for the galaxy of local lovelies who had recommended the restaurant we had all enjoyed on the penultimate night.

I had wandered into a decorator shop in town looking for antique glasses and ended up chatting to Mme Beranger the owner who recommended two restaurants and had one of her younger friends (she being nearly 70) take me in her car to inspect the same. I invited them to visit and they came in force. Beranger and husband Tibor, their friends Chistiane, Caroline (my guide) and Caroline’s parents. We demolished a couple of bottles of bubbly and were in turn invited to dinner the next time we visited Montbard. We also renewed our acquaintance with young New Zealanders Jeff and Salina Howell in their ex-rental boat and made acquaintance with a young West Aussie girl now working on the Hotel Boat which arrived in port to change passengers.

So, the first couple of weeks has been busy, full of good food, wines and company and we even managed to get about 150km up the Canal de Bourgogne.

2004 JOURNAL