Sunday 9th June Royal Flush

A rapid Banette raid and we slipped our berth at 9.15. After throwing  departing waves to our neighbours and with Duet following me out, I glanced down at the gauges and was horrified to see port engine oil pressure guage pegged hard over. No strange noises, no smoke, she sounded fine, must be electrical but I was taking no chances so by 9.20 we were back alongside. I insisted Eric crack on and we would catch them up later. Typically ten minutes later he was back. I again insisted he head off as I was now sure it was an electrical issue.

Had a quick perusal for anything obvious like a wire hanging off but when there was nothing, we had a cup of tea and I spoke to my UK agent, smedlar. I was soon testing pressure senders and following a later second call, was removing wires from the upper  helm and lower helm guage with no joy. I split the two commoned wires at the sender which I should have done first and fitted separate connectors. With just the lower helm wire fitted, I had joy as the guage worked correctly. Its a short somewhere on the upperhelm then. I wanted to confirm so fitted the other cable to the sender but now the guage still worked. The long and short of all this is that I have no bloody idea where the short was happening but clearly having messed with so many wires and connections, it had been cleared. This was all very well but for how long?

We had taken lunch during the whole investigation, rather lovely merguez and onions hot dogs. And so it was approaching 2pm as we tried to depart Comercy again. Of course, the second I started engines two hire boats rounded the corner. Had not seen one through all morning but now there were two. Good news, the first pulled in and surely the second would follow, but no they only had eyes ahead and so I fell in behind the second noddy.

 

A text from Jill said they were waiting at a lovely spot with free everything , Villiers sur yonne.  Just 4 locks and 10km. It was a beautiful run again and on one engine at tick over, it was a perfect Sunday stroll. In fact at the second lock we were passed by two couples walking the towpath with a pram and baby. We caught them up twice but they still beat us to Villiers, such was our leisurely pace.

We did not get a great view of the old chateau at Cuncy

 

but did rather naughtily enjoy the lock antics of our accompanying noddy. The lady was at the helm while the chap tied the two mooring lines round his waist and would skip up the lock ladder and rather than tie off round the bollards, he would attempt to hold them both. This inevitably led to lock carnage at the front. The boat took a hammering and frankly I am surprised it did not hole. The poor chap was teetering on the edge of exhaustion with the strain and despite the student lockkeepers help and advice, we witnessed the same hilarious episode at each lock. The last one of which was particularly delightful as was the pretty young student attending us and sending us on our way with a beaming smiling “bon vacance”, such a contrast with the stasi witches of a few of days ago.

We approached Villiers with Jill waving a welcome. Noddy was just tying up perfectly in the middle of the two available berths as we approached. They appeared to ignore my first call but I could see they werer exhasperated having nmanaged to get alongside in one piece and gave them time to recover. I called out again and with a nod, the lady said they would pull the boat forward. I slipped into the huge space left with 6ft clearance still at either end. Eric leant me a scaffold board and suggested a leffe. We quickly sorted electric and settled Doucette before grabbing a bottle of ice cold muscadet and slipped along to Duet for a well earned leffe. It was 4pm. We left her at 7.30. The scaffold plank crossing took a massive amount of concentration and proved interesting.

Knocked up a pasta dish in minutes and stupidly had a glass of red with it. At least that gave me a royal flush  for the day. Red, rose, white , bubbly, leffe and heinekin. I separate the beers by under percentage alcohol logic. Leffe being 6 whilst heinekin a still healthy 5%.

 

The night was even more improved when we got a call from Fred and Zoe. Had been perturbed to hear there crossing from Uk was delayed but the call confirmed it would be only a few days late and that they were on good form and excited at the prospect of returning to the canals on Chartwell. It seemed an age since  we shared our first unforgettable magical trip to Paris on very different boats, a trip which inspired our current situation.  http://andyonangeline.blogspot.fr/

Needing air there was still time for a sunset stroll at 10ish crossing the canal bridge looking back at our delightful mooring

 

andtaking in the village and the adjacent River Yonne, which still acts as a feeder for the Nivernais. It is a very different proposition to the Yonne we battled up two weeks ago instead now displaying its more sedate and beautiful virtues.

Retiring drunk with a ridiculous bag of crisps and glass of fizzy water I attempted to watch episode 8 of band of brothers. With the crew asleep in a second, I must have seen only 10 minutes before someone knocked me out.

It had been quite a day.