Since arriving in Migennes we have been working away on the boat. Amazing what you find once you start looking…….
Basically we are redoing things that were not done well from the outset or were not maintained once the boat was handed over. Nothing mega big but could end up being so if not dealt with properly now. So whilst the hull is being stripped back, re-welded and generally given a good going over , we are doing stuff up on deck. Needed to sort out the railing under the wooden handrails cos David discovered plenty of the steel boater’s arch enemy present – rust!!!! And then the big locker underneath also had lots so we have been redoing that whole area. Takes ages to sand, prime, undercoat and topcoat (6 coats in total). Anyway that is finally done and the wooden handrails re sited having had several extra coats of their special oil. Looking good! One area down, goodness knows how many more to go!! We’ve decided to do what we do as well as we can so as to avoid a recurrence of M. Rust for as long as possible.
We have also been trying to decide if Piedaleau can go all the way down the Canal du Nivernais. There are some low bridges marked in the book and we know that Piedaleau has quite a high air draft, particularly at the rails along the top deck. But different people say different things and it is unclear exactly where / how the measurements in the map books are done. So the other day, armed with a tape measure, we took ourselves for a little jaunt down the Nivernais to see these infamous bridges for ourselves. And we were very pleased we did – it looks like we can do it although we’ll have to take care and duck a bit at certain points.
Just when we thought all was well we met a Scottish couple at Chitry who said ‘the bridges are ok but watch the lifting bridges!’ Apparently they don’t open fully virtically so that could be interesting. Go slow once again!
We have decided that we will go that route and leave the boat at Chitry or Baye for August, as originally planned. Good to have a plan again.
The Scottish couple bought the boat ‘Liberte’ which we saw a couple of years ago at St Jean and really liked. It was built in New Zealand and sent by container ship 15 years ago. Unfortunately they bought it through h2o at St Jean and told us another horror story of the sharp practices at h2o. Makes our geezer look like a pussy-cat!
Back to work – another coat of yatch primer before heading bck to the gite for a glass of wine and our last night there.
Piedaleau 
Bonjour les heureux navigateurs,
Nous suivons avec plaisir vos navigations et menus travaux que vous êtes en train de faire sur Piedaleau … Petit bateau petits problèmes, Gros bateau gros problèmes dit-on habituellement 🙂
Pour votre problème de tirant d’air et concernant les passages sous les ponts, utilisez-vous le logiciel de calcul d’itinéraire de V.N.F. dont voici le lien : http://www.vnf.fr/calculitinerairefluvial/app/Main.html ?
Vous pouvez sur ce logiciel renseigner toutes les caractéristiques de votre bateau (Longueur, largeur, titant d’eau, tirant d’air, pied de pilote …) et ainsi le trajet vous sera indiqué si vous pouvez passer …
Pour le “pied de pilote”, qui est la marge de sécurité que se donne le navigateur concernant le tirant d’eau, je dirais qu’il est, à peu de choses près et en centimètres, égal à l’âge du capitaine !! 🙂
Pour le moment et suite à quelques soucis de santé pour nous deux, nous sommes à Valence et pensons retourner rejoindre “Arion IV” à Mulhouse dès que possible … le plus tôt possible !!
En vous souhaitant de ne pas découvrir d’horribles choses en soulevant quelque plancher, bonne navigation à vous deux.
Bises de nous deux.
Michel et Nadine
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Merci Michel – Adrian a essaye de l’utiliser, sans grand succes! Nous n’avons pas besoin de parler de l’age du Capitaine!
Nous esperons que vous ne sont pas malade et que vous serez pret a partir en l’Arion bien tot.
Bisous
J & A xxx
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