Tuesday 3 June 2014

Introduction

We have been cruising with Saskia for several years now  around the French inland waterways, and up to Belgium by way of Paris last year.  This summer the plan is to head off from St Jean de Losne, our home base, in early July, up the Rhone to Rhine canal to Mulhouse and the Rhine, down through Strasbourg and on, with a side trip to Heidelberg, to the Rhine Gorge, Lorelei and all that. Then up the river Lahn to Limbourg (home of the bling bishop), and back down to Koblenz. After that, up the Mosel back into France, past Nancy and through the Vosges to the upper Saone, and so home to St Jean. It should take a couple of months or so.

Previously we have been rather uncommunicative, but this time the idea is to keep a diary/log on this blog, in case anyone is mildly interested. Not being very tech savvy, it may have teething troubles: we will see. However I seem to have managed to post a rather ancient pic of Saskia (with Gary crewing a few years ago) above. So we will see.

Starting off

We arrived at St Jean in the rain this afternoon, and made the usual marathon with mounds of luggage and supplies, getting the boat in order and everything stowed away. A few minor problems to sort out with the yard, and some final shopping at the local supermarket, then we should get away in the middle of the morning - with luck reaching Dole by evening. The weather is not great - plenty of thunder storms today. But actually its better to be doing the work in the relatively cool, rather than in blazing heat, which has happened some years. The best news is that our dongle that converts 3G to WiFi seems to be working immaculately - so far, so good.