Thurs April 27th
Yes, you guessed it we are still here and not really any further forward. Still getting exercise going up and down the pontoon umpteen times a day…..
But we have still not received the promised quote for the works needed or any update regarding the state of the Victron inverter which was taken away for examination. Last week the guy we saw said the quote wouldn’t be ready until sometime this week. And now he is not answering Adrian’s emails. Needless to say our patience is running out. We decided to drive up to the shop / office to ‘rattle some cages’. We ascertained that the inverter has been checked by Victron and is fine, no problems identified, so now awaiting its return. And the guy who needed to visit for quote for solar panels came in the evening. Promised quote asap – but we are still waiting!
At present Adrian is trying to establish if the batteries are indeed completely done for (being aware that my blog is fairly widespread I have used more polite language than is current in use on the good ship Piedaleau) by trying to use a charger on them – if they won’t take any charge then done for they are, but if they do there may be hope. Fingers crossed.
Uncross your fingers ….. some improvement seen after 24 hrs, not maintained for even a few hours, so we will, indeed, have to replace the lot.
Several other boaters here have suggested a different battery geezer / supplier to use. We may well seek his opinion. At least to try and get alternative quote. Having visited the ‘shop’ we are reassured about PK Fluvial as a firm but think they are rather chaotic. More table bashing may be required!
It has become increasingly apparent that there are dodgy geezers everywhere & particularly, it would seem, where boats are concerned. It is not easy to differentiate between good and bad geezers particularly in a new place. Talking to others around and about seems to be the most effective means of weeding out the dross – ie word of mouth and the personal experience of others ‘sur le ponton’. I think we would certainly start from there in future rather than only using the net.
We are doing a lot of talking – we have the time and the opportunity whilst walking to and from the loos! We are therefore coming to know quite a few of our neighbours. As we have found elsewhere there really is a sense of community and mutual help and support.
An example: in amongst all of this, we decided to replace the fridge on board. Whilst it wasn’t that old it was pretty heavy on juice ie not the most energy efficient for a boat. But I hate throwing stuff away when it could be helpful to others. There are several families with young kids permanently living here. I wondered if any of them might need a fridge. Hervé said there is a place in the port where people put such things for others to take but that there are already a couple of fridges and we didn’t want to leave someone else with a disposal problem later. He did, however, suggest a local website ‘donne-a-vos-voisins’ basically a website to give unwanted stuff to others locally. He offered to put it on the site and hey presto it has gone to a good home today! In fact it has gone to a friend of Hervé who runs the Maison d’Alphonse Daudet. This is a charitable organisation which aims to support artists, particularly writers & story tellers which was Daudet’s line. So our fridge will be in a communal kitchen in the house for use by visiting artists. We were all well pleased with this outcome! I wonder what stories it may ‘hear’?
And we have a smart new super energy efficient fridge. Getting it in was fun ! Adrian even had to remove the shower room door handle as there to give enough width for it to come down the steps!We have rearranged the kitchen, moved the fridge along, and now have room for a narrow dishwasher!!! This will not be so energy efficient I’m sure but it will be great when we are hooked up to electricity. What makes you think taking our dishes up to the sanitaires every night is a bit of a chore? Hopefully this will also be bought, delivered and installed before we leave Port aux Cerises.
We are off this weekend for a bit of luxury – ie running hot and cold – in St Jean de Losne. We will stay with Elizabeth at Cascarot and catch up with several friends in St Jean.
Stop press: We have now finally received quotes from both geezers – one to supply and fit everything (!!!) and one to supply only so that we (ie the Royal We) will do the work ourselves with him on hand to advise and check the process. The latter option is obviously much less expensive…… ie it is the referred option
Therefore our latest plan is to negotiate to remain here until the end of May to do the works ourselves – Jean-Paul (another neighbour) will help if we need. Adrian’s son needs some help so we will then return home for a week and finally start cruising at the beginning of June. Fingers crossed all goes according to plan.
Stop stop press: Elizabeth hopes the plumber can fix the hot water problem at Cascarot before we arrive later today! I need a long hot soak!
Piedaleau 