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For those who are interested, here's a brief account of our latest
boating adventure.

On Thursday, September 9 we drove to Miami with some friends of ours
from here in SWFL and caught a 6:00PM flight to Paris, France. Since
the flight is about 8 hours in the air, and you lose another 6 hours
in time zones, we landed about 10:00AM Friday morning, Paris time.
Luggage retrieval, customs clearance and car rental all went very
smoothly and by early afternoon the four of us arrived at the town of
Dijon in eastern France, famous for its excellent mustard, and on the
edge of the Burgundy wine region. Dijon is a great place for sight
seeing and we enjoyed a nice lunch at a cafe near the town center.
Following lunch we drove a little farther south east to the small town
of Nantilly where we spent the night at the very old and interesting
Chateau de Nantilly.

http://www.chateau-de-nantilly.com/

Next morning after a leisurely breakfast at the Chateau, we drove a
few kilometers farther to the little village of Gray where we returned
our rental car and picked up the chartered canal boat which was to be
our home for the next week. The boat turned out to be nearly new and
in excellent condition thanks to the efforts of the "Le Boat" charter
company, more on Le Boat later. It was purpose built to be a river
and canal charter boat and although quite unique by US standards, well
suited for its intended purpose. Ours was about 45 feet long with
ample cabins and private head/showers both fore and aft. Mid-ships
was a large galley and main cabin, with stairs leading up to the
flybridge. There were both upper and lower helm stations. The lower
helm had full instrumentation but somewhat restricted visibility,
while the upper helm had excellent visibility in all directions but
was only minimally equipped with wheel, throttle/shifter and tach.
We drove from the upper helm almost the entire trip except for one
brief rain shower. Power was a small 4 cylinder diesel of only about
40 horsepower but ample for moving at hull speed of 5 to 6 knots. The
engine was mounted athwartships in a stern lazarette and drove the
prop through a hydraulic drive which was very smooth and effective.
The hydraulic system also powered a very efficient bow thruster which
is a useful accessory on a relatively large single engined boat.
Another unique engine feature was that it contained an integral AC
power generator which provided Euro style 220 volt/50 cycle
electricity when operated at 1600 RPM. The control panel on both
helms contained an indicator light to indicate when frequency was
within the correct range. Navigation is easy on the rivers so no
GPS/chartplotter or radar was provided. I did bring a small laptop
with a GPS however so we could follow our position using Microsoft
AutoRoute software. AutoRoute proved to be useful in the rental cars
also.

By mid-afternoon Saturday we had stowed our gear, received our boat
briefing and navigation books, and were underway southbound on the
Saône River after transiting our first lock. More on locks later. We
stopped for the night after a short distance at the very medieval
looking town of Mantoche where we enjoyed dinner at a nearby pub along
with some of the local wine. Virtually all of the towns on the Saône
have some sort of facility for overnight docking, sometimes along a
stone wall equipped with wrought iron rings, sometimes at modern
floating docks. There is usually no charge for dockage unless shore
power is provided and even that is modestly priced. For those not
inclined to dock in towns, there are ample opportunities to tie up
along the river bank. All of the charter boats are equipped with two
steel spikes, a small sledge hammer and a rudimentaty gang plank for
going ashore. A typical strategy is to nose the bow of the boat into
the river bank near a tree; put someone ashore with the bow line,
hammer and spikes; tie the bow line to the tree; bring the boat in
parallel; and tie the stern up to the driven steel spikes.

Sunday morning we got underway after our usual leisurely breakfast
(almost everything is leisurely on a canal boat), and got some more
experience navigating the river, locks and canals. For those
unfamiliar with locks, they are basically a stair step used to
transit a change in water levels, most often used as a way to bypass a
river dam. A typical lock has a gate on each end and a system of
valves which can either let water out of the lock to lower its level,
or let water into the lock to raise the level. Since we were going
down stream, the procedure was to wait for the upper gate to open
after the lock was filled with water; enter the lock and tie to the
side wall with bow and stern lines; wait for the rear gate to close
behind us; wait for the down stream valves to open and lower the water
level; adjust the bow and stern lines as the water drops; wait for the
front gates to open after the water level equalizes; retrieve the
lines; and exit. This all sounds complicated to write it down with
an explanation but a smoothly running small lock can be transited in
about 15 minutes.

Something unique in our experience was that locks on the French rivers
come in 3 different flavors: fully manual/self operated; unattended
automatic locks; and the more typical manned and operated by a lock
keeper. We had never encountered unattended locks before in our
previous travels so that required some learning. On the upper Saône
where we started our cruise, these locks are typically of the
automatic type. Approaching the lock there is a blue pole suspended
over the water from an overhead cable. If the lock is closed with a
red signal light, the procedure is to approach the pole slowly and for
someone on the boat to give the pole a half twist which activates a
switch causing the lower gate to close, and the lock to start a refill
cycle. Meanwhile the light signal turns to both red and green with a
flashing strobe. After the lock fills, the upper gate opens, the
signal light turns green, and all of the boats enter that can fit in.
When everyone has their lines secure, someone activates another blue
pole along the side of the lock which closes the upper gate and starts
the lowering sequence.

The locks which require the most knowledge and effort are unattended
and manually operated. If the lock is closed when you arrive it is
necessary to put one or two people ashore to hand crank the valves and
lock gates before the boat can enter. There are signs with
operational directions but they are in French and tersely written, far
better to go through first with an experienced boat if that is
possible.

To make a long story short, we spent the next six days slowly cruising
down the Saône and Seille Rivers, making a number of interesting stops
along the way, almost always in quaint medieval looking towns, with
good french food and wine in great abundance. We eventually ended up
near a fair sized city named Chalon-Sur-Saone where we rented another
car and spent the second week on a road trip through Geneva,
Switzerland; the Barolo/Alba/Piedmont region of northern Italy;
Portofino, Italy on the Italian Riviera; and another several days on
the French Riviera near Monaco, Nice and Cannes. More on that later
along with some pictures, especially the Monaco boat show which is not
to be believed.

http://www.leboat.com/destination/france/burgundy

The 'Le Boat' web site is very well done. Right up there with the
best of US charter companies. I was also pleasantly surprised by the
weekly charter costs----ranging from about $1500 to $2800. That's
well below the weekly cost of a Grand Banks 36 in the Pacific Northwest.
I suspect the canal boats are much simpler and lighter in construction
and that is reflected in the capital costs for the charter company.

Of course, the overall costs for the trip will be increased by air fare
from the West Coast and all that good French food and wine ashore. When
we cruise in the Northwest, we cook on the boat most nights----but I
can't see doing that in France.

http://www.monacoyachtshow.com/



Mark Borgerson