Tuesday 14th May Guideron Castle

We set off early on a pleasant morning and enjoyed a scenic hours drive to find the building site which is Guideron Castle. En route I called in at Gravelines lock to survey progress. Not great sadly.

We did not really know what to expect at Guideron but it had been recommended by the americans bill and Genevieve who had thoroughly enjoyed their visit yesterday.
Guideron castle is basically a 25 year project to build a castle from the 12th century using only tools materials and skills of the time. The only exceptions to this rule are health and safety issues but these have also been well masked to limit any visitor distraction. The site of the encampment was carefully chosen to provide resources neccessary. Started in 1996 they are on target as per original plan, so the main house is well progressed as is the tallest tower and the bases of the front corner towers.

 The thickness of the walls is truly awesome. the stones are quarried and shaped here. the floor and roof tiles are all made from clay and wood sourced here. The forge produces and maintains all the site tools,

 movement of materiel is by hand built wagons and horses.

Cranes in the form of squirrel cages lift materiel to the required heights (see top picture right hand tower) the cages operated by a man running in the wheel as opposed to a hampster or squirrel. All of the oak beams are produced from wood felled within the site and shaped by hand with axes. We watched enthralled at the skill of the woodcutter who displayed his art for us.

We found somewhere for mum to rest whilst Collette and I went for a long lunch of medieval fayre.

It was truly a fascinating day, the paints which decorated the bedroom in the castle had all been produced in the dye shed on site.

 The coachloads of schoolchildren all seemed to be very happily sat in education shelters having a try at stone masonry or rope making or tile making. Of course all the while the building is a live site.

 

It was easy to understand the pride that the workers must have thinking when laying a wall stone for example of how in 200 years people will be gazing at the finished castle and at their work. there are some 50 people full time on site, all dressed of the time, their wages are funded by the visitor fees. they also attract many enthusiasts who work voluntantarily as a privelidge to be invoved. I understand why!
A fantastic project and a place we now have to return to to monitor progress. It had been a superb day.

Monday 13th May So Frustrating!

Up and at it, we were ready to rock and roll by 8.45. But nothing from Big Chief Simon who was going to update us on the river opening. I strolled to the office where I found him in conference with his secretary Phillipe. Sorry Andy, doesn`t look good! sens vnf office have said its closed. Kit in Maggie May is being lifted in this afternoon so you will need to move the boat, so at least you will get to test the shafts in action.
Crap news. I drove to the first lock at Gravieres. It was immediately obvious as to why the river was closed, considered dangerous. With half the barrage open, a Torrent was piling through causing a whirlpool frenzy right in the lock entrance. I found two vnf guys working on repairs to the lock gates. They told me that there was no definate date for re opening of the river. With the Nivernais now open, we are just 9 locks and 18kms from it but are unable to move. Sooo frustrating. We spend the day blogging reading and mum watches the last 5 episodes of Homelands series one. Think she has enjoyed it somehow!
After lunch, maggie may is craned in. We get to take Doucette for a spin up and down the river. The current is still awesome and I have to really give the engines some throttle to move upstream. She feels great though. Once rafted back alongside the 22 tonne Maggie may, I check the stuffing boxes and find the stbd needs adjustment. I also discover the upper helm stbd key is not working. I take the upper helm apart and find two, not one but two leads on the back of the starter switch have unbelievably come away from the terminals. I replace them and they are very tight which just makes me more staggered as to how they got disconnected in the first place.
Collette cooks a lovely spaghetti Bolognese for dinner with epoisse and bread for dessert. Marvellous.

Sunday 12th May Grottes D`arcy sur Cure

Greek Yoghurt and bread and eggs and pain au raisin for breakfast got Sunday off to a good start. We put together a picnic and headed off around 11 in search of the prehistoric caves at D`arcy sur Cure. Closed for lunch on arrival, I was really pushing it with this one. Mum is very claustrophobic and this was a 900m round trip inside a mountain.  Add to that her mobility issues with stairs and we may have a problem with this choice of pleasure trip.
the entrance was tiny aqnd it looked very dark but Ma was up for giving it a go. We were joined by about 50 others as we entered the darkness with our guide.
Sadly we were unable to take any photos but suffice to say, it was stunning. It was truly like walking through a disney set withawesome formations, and underground lakes along with fossils and cave paintings including one of a wooly mammoth. The tour took us along some very narrow and low passages. Mum was a star and was enthralled by the whole tour. An hour and a half later we emerged back out of the cave into the daylight and onto the cafe terrace overlooking the delightful River Cure teeming down the wooded valley below this prehistoric bungalow.

 

We were still full from breakfast and so headed toward a 19th century chateau with a fabulous viewpoint commanding a horseshoe in the river and canal de Nivernais at Mailly Le Chateau. It did not disappoint.

 

 

It was a fantastic spot to enjoy our lovely picnic tea.

 

 We got back to the yard to find the swedes had gone and to hear a  rumour that the river was opening tomorrow. I wanted to run the engines for 15 minutes. They started on the button  and all was good. Fantastic! I had told Big Chief Si that we may leave in the morning and I wanted to settle my account so he popped over with my Bill and joined us for a couple of glasses of wine. The bill was exceptionally reasonable and I cannot recommend him highly enough. I would never have got Doucette to this stage without his unlimited help, advice, gear and general support. Top bloke!

Saturday 11th May Please open the damned river

It was great to awake on the water but sadly it was another wet horrid day. we set about finalising the boat readiness chores for travel on the waterways. The swedes were heading off up the bourgoyne as the River Yonne was still closed. I offered help with lines and pushed them out toward the still fast flowing current. Mysteriously but very fortunately the bow started to return to the quay. why was he not moving out. His gearbox was jammed. He was a very lucky chap. It transpires that he had changed the steering and gearbox cables but had not checked them. Had the current caught his bow he and his boat would have been splintered plywood down stream. He was almost in a state of shock as the realization of how close to disaster he had come dawned on him. He moored again and decided to stay the rest of the day.
took a comparison photo to show how much the river has dropped since last weeks flood. bear in mind the river rose a further 2ft above the level in top picture at its peak.

We watched the cup final in the afternoon, and then came a shock to us with some very sad news of a friends sudden death at home. We retired early full of sad thoughts and sympathy for those back home who were suffering badly at their great loss.

Friday May 10th Lift in Day

Lift in day dawned with a grey heavy sky set in stubborn looking. Simon was over at 9 with the dewalt and within ten minutes, the shaft was beaten and I had finally completed the job. A casual breakfast followed and with lift in scheduled for late afternoon following Aussie Dave in anjde, bill and genevieve in River Pipit and our swedish friends in their fiord sailing ketch, we set off to the shops. Its fish friday baby!
A tour of Lidles, aldi`s for saumer sparkling, intermarche and it was nearly 2pm. We needed to sort out the internet so it was into Orange.
Now a visit to orange always takes a minimum of 45mins. It is possibly the worst customer service experience one could ever endure. The staff have no idea of the complexity of their website and will tell you whatever comes into their heads to get you out of the store. Normally for us it is the routine line "that is no longer available". This translates into English as "I cannot find it and cannot be arsed to look for it any longer because this website is a bloody nightmare and I wake up every day wondering why in gods name I work for this bloody stupid company with a very silly name now please leave"
Today would surely not be a problem. We have the Domino, we had already purchased the recharge but due to the fact that we cannot of course access the orange phone system to process the recharge from an english phone, we must visit the store from hell to arrange.
only 6 in the queue is a reasonable bamber gascoigne. (starter for 10 for the uninitiated). We make direct contact with an assistant within 15mins. Not bad.
he recharges within 3 minutes and we are ushered away.
Time to check the connection.
"we are unable to connect you to the internet"
Francoise has of course already moved onto the next customers. A couple of deaf pensioners buying their first mobile phone. 30 minutes later, Francoise has sold them an android with unlimited texts 4gigs internet use and an Ateam ringtone which sees our happy couple dance out of the shop doing an impression of morecambe and wise doing bring me sunshine. At least we are back in. 10 more frustrating minutes before, "you need to leave now and try it with the mains lead plugged in" translated as I haven`t got a clue why it is not working, you are english, I do not speak english and your french is rubbish so please leave now!
we got back to the car just over an hour after arrival and within seconds the internet started working.
Do I not Like Orange!!!
Off to Leclercs for some Fish and prawns before heading back to the yard. River Pippit is just leaving the building and we make final preperations for our big moment.

Fenders out and checked, handling lines attached. The yacht is soon craned in and big chief Si and his not so glamerous assistant Roger arrive with the riglooking like a couple of worzels groupies.

 

 They smile and generally take the p out of me as I frantically touch up the antifoul as the stands drop away. I find it helps calm my shredded nerves.

 

I cannot look as Doucette is hauled away with half her stern hanging over the back of the trailer it seems.

Alongside, the strops are on and Doucette is finally headed for the river at last.

 

 

 

Mum takes refuge in one of the workshops impatient to get back to Homeland series one episode 7.

 

 I am in heaven as she nestles into the fast flowing current.

 

 I lift the engine covers and find a steady flow of water coming through the stuffing boxes. With houdini like powers of contortion I am down there in a jiffy,

 

10 minutes later, adjusted stuffing stops the flow and all bilge checks show a sound hull. Bloody Brilliant! It is so good to be finally wet.
Fish curry and lots of wine to celebrate the dunking before the heavenly feeling of laying in bed feeling the tug on the lines and drifting off to sleep to the sound of water running past the hull.
Bugger I need a p bob!

Thursday 9th May Bonjour Mum

A horror 6am start began at 6.45 having over slept. We left in rain. 10 am we were hugging Mum and her escorts Alex and Ange. The weather had cleared to a lovely day so we set off over the magnificent Pont Du Normandie and slipped into Honfleur. It was teeming with tourists. JC. it was another national holiday ascension day. Why am I not surprised.

Honfleur is just lovely and after a quayside coffee in the Albatross, an old favourite.

 

We stroll the town taking in the plethora of art galleries, the churches, the restaurants and the whole fantastic ambience of this stunning old port.

 

 

 

We head for lunch at 1.15. Not a seat in the house. I have never seen it this buzy. We wait 20m ins patiently for a table and finally sit down to a long 2hour lunch in the sun. we all have le menu, for me this was fish soup, moules and frites and fromage while Clo enjoyed prawns, ham, egg and cheese gallette and a creme caramel. washed down with cider and a carafe of rose all very nice.
It ended up a bit of a rush to get Ange and Alex back to the boat for their 5pm sailing.
A long return trip to Migennes saw us arrive back at 8.30.
Simon was passing in the Forklift and offered to hoist Mum up on it. Not sure her laugh was genuine! Collette introduced her to the now thankfully dry facilities and she was pleasantly surprised that they were actually clean although she indicated that showering would have to wait a few days. She very gamely managed the ladder and after a swift unpack, we settled for some cheese pate for supper. It was nice to have her aboard  and she was delighted to be here.

Wednesday 8th May Half hour job... yeah right!

Ok today was the day. Another bloody French national holiday and yet more rain but at least the flood waters have receded back to the river. Picking up Mum tomorrow so with the gearbox leak apparently repaired, it should be a straightforward case of pushing the shaft through and tighten a few nuts and bolts.

The shaft is slipped through the cutlass bearing.... bang, it smacks against the side of the stern tube. Surely it should go straight through the middle?

Off to seek guidance. Woe is me is the desperate news. May need to heat up the P bracket which has clearly been bent in the fouling incident. "You really are not having much luck with that Andy" laments Big chief Si. "I am off to Sens for a day in a minute but will drop over on my way out, this would probably have been an insurance claim had you realised the extent of the damage caused by the fouling incident, We may have to remove the bracket to heat it or we may be able to insert shims, go and see if you can get access to the bolts"
I drag myself back to Doucette to give the crew the desperate news when I hear those dulcet tones. "Andy, come and give me a hand" Simon is putting the old shaft through the cutlass bearing. "ok, if you are happy to try this, its not exactly good engineering practise but we may be able to twist the bracket back using the old shaft" "lets give it a go big boy", I retorted.
With him heaving on one end and me pushing on the other and me pondering Mike of Lancing`s words "to a thou" we centralised the shaft into the stern tube and Simon departed scarily telling me to check for any hull damage around the bracket and fill with silicon if necessary. I used a tube full even if there was no sign of any damage!
The shaft was pushed through and clamp fitted with grub screw aligned. Engine alignment check without the flexi coupling showed a tad of misalignment but that would need to be checked after a few days in the water. I had to remove the stuffing box studs to allow for the fitting of the coupling and happily despite the mis alignment, the coupling bolts lined up ok. Being a tad pessimistic I naturally assumed a distorted coupling was the reason.
I had to cut down the studs and remove a bolt and nut from the shaft clamp and with much patience and force I got the studs back in and the job was finally done. All the FT torque was applied and I had a cup of tea.
the half hour job had taken 5 hours. I just had to drill the shaft for the prop split pin. Easy!
Big Si is back thankfully and has a tungsten bit in 4mm. Plenty of oil and slow speeds he says. 2 hours and a can of oil later I am just a mm short of getting through but  hit a wall. Just cannot break through. Simon says it has probably hardened with the tapping of the thread as it is this that is stubbornly refusing me.
He has a dewalt drill and will sort it Friday.
Early night with a 6am start for Le Havre to collect Mum with mind full of frustrating thoughts re the boat still in the yard, ladder only access and a half flooded shower and toilet. Happy Holidays Mother!
Ange calls at 11 to say they are just leaving. I cannot bring myself to describe the issues mum is heading for, that can wait til we see them tomorrow.