Fat boat in the Med?

Since arriving here, the wind hasn’t stopped and some days the rain has been torrential, so it doesn’t yet feel like we’ve arrived!  Waiting for the rigging is a inconvenience but at least we’re getting stuff done that would otherwise have been put off to go sailing.

Around Port Napoleon

Horizontal washing! But it dried super quick

We picked up a car today that we’re going to share for a few days with our Aussie friends Megan and Steve - they’re selling their boat in Port Napoleon so need a car for a couple of days to empty it to a flat they’ve rented. We took the bus to Arles to pick up the car - fascinating place, large ancient centre complete with a Roman theatre and a 20,000 capacity roman amphitheatre - used for bull fights nowadays.  Plan to go back next week for the market and a proper look around.

Arles market - a while stall of just different onions and garlic

The famous black fighting bulls are raised near here

Now we’ve got a car we’ll take a look around the area, a great French couple invited onto their boat last night and have given us loads of tips on where to go, we’ve also got boatie friends in this area so should be able to meet up with them too.

On Herve and Chantelle's boat

We’ve been out and about in the car as well as spending the time to sort out a lot of little jobs on the boat.

Martigues - coastal town nearby

We visited Aigues-Mortes in the heart of the Carmargue as well another intact medieval town and met up with Graham and Bridgid and Sue and Robin - more boatie friends we met on the trip through France.

lots of flamingos around

Jasmine bushes grow wild everywhere - smell amazing

We went back to Arles, this time with Steve and Megan - great place, fab market and a large “old town” area that looked pretty much untouched.  This is where Vincent Van Gogh spent the last part of his life, creating lots of paintings, but also going insane and eventually killing himself. Steve and Megan have spent 5 years living full time on their Bowman 40 yacht, bringing it to Port Napoleon to sell before they head back home to Australia - anyone want a beautiful, classic, ocean going yacht then their boat is for you!

When it rains it really hammers down

Steve buying herbs at the market

Megan sporting her new French beret (looks like Steve is not too sure)

Carole going riding on Carmargue horses on Monday so that should be fun - will try and get some good photos.

Carole's Interesting Facts:

No. 21:  The Camargue is famous for its Guardians who are the cowboys of the area.

No 22:  The fighting bulls are exported to Spain for their bullfights.  

No 23:  The Camargue is also famous for its salt production which has taken place since pre-historic times.

Port Napoleon

Port Napoleon is where our mast was shipped to; we’ve arranged for the boat to be lifted as well so we can check the hull and the antifouling.

Up she comes

As ever you can always tell who the boats owner is by the nervous look on their faces when the boat is suspended in mid air - its just not a good moment.

Boats are just not meant to fly

Having her bottom power washed

Then came hull polishing and finally titivating the antifouling up - it had survived remarkably well, but the bottom of the keel needed re doing where the weed and silt had scoured the antifouling off, and we gave it some extra coats along the waterline too.  This should help keep it weed free until next year when we think we’ll haul the boat out again and leave it on a hard somewhere for a while, we’ll then have all the old antifouling stripped off and some fancy new copper coating applied.

Not a Greek Tragedy, just Dave 'dressed' in an old sheet for anti=fouling.

Planning to be back in the water tomorrow and then it’s time for the mast and an engine service before we set off long the coast.

Have just got some bad news from the riggers, the standing rigging has some corrosion in the upper parts of the rig and they won’t step it unless we sign a disclosure to say its not their fault if it comes down!! - Great stuff. 

We’ve examined the rig closely and have decided to replace the whole of the standing rigging (the wire bits holding the mast up) - no question really as it has got to be safe, but it means we’ve got to wait for the new rig to be made before we can step the mast.  Somewhat irritating as if they’d identified the problem when we first arrived we’d already be a week into the two it’ll take for the new rig to come.  We always knew we’d have to replace the rig fairly soon due to its age but it’s just come sooner than expected.

Our mast waiting now for new rigging

It also means we’re stuck in Port Napoleon for another couple of weeks - but storms are forecast for the next few days and this has got to be the safest place to be with the forecasted Force 9 winds and heavy rain. We've also met some new friends here, so our social life isn't too quiet either.

Plenty of fenders for the approaching storm!

Think we’ll look into hiring a car to have a look around the area and to visit some friends.


And then the storms came!

There's always one!

Best place for us is tucked up in Port Napoleon!

The Last River Stage

Stupid O’Clock start,got up before the sun to make sure we could get to Port St Louis in time for the last lock at 18.45.

Dawn in Avignon

Sunrise was beautiful to see and then we set off.  With the current we were making 7 knts on the river.  The penultimate lock was at Beaucaris, a 15m drop. We radio’d in before we got there and a few minutes after arriving the lights turned to green and we went in, all too easy really.

Sunrise as we set off

We carried on past Arles, pity we didn’t stop as it looked like a very interesting town.  We could see a Roman arena which the pilot book said seated 12,000 people for gladiator fights  The same number come for the bull fights today - we’re in the Camargue region now !.  Even saw a mosquito in October!!

The area is littered with castles

The Rhone slowed and widened after Arles but we still made around 7 knots so we ended up arriving at Port St Louis du Rhone early.  We parked up and waited - its a bit of a sad, run down place.  The lock from the Rhone to St Louis opened at 16.15 and let us in the the St Louis basin - salt water at last.

Waiting for our last lock  

First sight of the sea

Then it started raining!

The last 6  miles before we got to Port Napoleon was in increasing rain - welcome to the Med!

Did it rain!

That said, at Port Napoleon - the end of our canal odyssey - the rain didn’t stop us celebrating with a bottle of champagne

Champagne to celebrate meeting up with the Med.

So - 965 Nautical miles is 1,787.15km or 1,110.5 UK miles - not a bad trip really, and we’d do it again tomorrow, although maybe without the keel!

We kind of like the fact that it’s raining when we got here -  just proves that travelling is about the journey not the destination's sunshine quota!

Now need to get our mast back and sort the boat out for real sailing(!) and the next stage of our trip.


Carole's Interesting Facts

No; 20  We negotiated  257 locks on our journey down, both large and small, automated and manual, and managed not to damage the boat - marvellous.

Around Avignon

Old, old, old - its everywhere here, from the walls - almost complete, to the Pope’s Palace.  Thirteen popes lived here after leaving Rome due to the instability and violence after the Great Schism.  They certainly brought their money with them - there are palaces and churches everywhere. 

Villeneuve Lez Avignon

The bridge was apparently a money pit, despite tolls being paid, because the floods damaged it each year and the rebuilding costs were huge. We saw a reconstruction of the 14c structure, 22 arches and nearly 1km long but by the 17c it was damaged beyond repair and today only 4 arches remain - those of the famous song. The original words were sous (under) the the bridge but changed over the centuries to sur (on) the bridge - as Carole ably demonstrated by singing the song on the last arch of the bridge.(its on Facebook!)

I apologise!

We’ve been out on the bikes a lot - there is a large river island opposite Avignon and we’ve cycled the 20km around it and then over the road bridge over the main Rhone channel to find that the “new” town near Avignon - Villeneuve Lez Avignon - built in the 15c is quieter and just as pretty and quaint as its older sister.   It has its own monastery, fort and the tower at the entrance to the town was the far end of the bridge. 

We just caught the last performance of a sound and light show held inside the main courtyard of the Palais de Papes - the french love these “spectacles” and are really good at them.

The light show in the Palais de Papes.

The Halte Fluvial here is slightly odd - fab location, just below the main rocky outcrop of the town but its separated from the town by a very busy and noisy road. It also has very low electricity amperage for the boats meaning that we have to switch the hot water heater off before we can put the kettle on and everything off before the toaster is switched on, otherwise its a trip to the circuit board on shore to reset the breaker switch - that said at €84 for a week so we can’t complain too much - cross the road and you’re straight into the medieval city.

Our Halte fluvial - not pretty but 1min walk to the centre 

Off to the med tomorrow;

 A long day and touch and go that we’ll make it before the lock in the Canal de St Louis - the entrance to the Med - closes.  You can’t take the Rhone all the way to the Med as it spreads out into a wide shallow delta so we have to take a short canal into a port area to where our mast is waiting.


Carole's Interesting Facts:

No. 18.  'Lez" in old french means 'near to'.

No. 19.  Avignon bridge was so narrow that people often had trouble walking past each other in places.

TO AVIGNON

Crack of dawn start today - well got up at 6.30, still too dark to set off, back to bed, finally set off at 7.15 - Small boats aren’t allowed out in the dark!

Dawn - Almost worth getting up early for.

Again more beautiful scenery and chateaux along the way.  But the most impressive thing was the lock at Bollenne - 200m long and a drop of 23m - felt like we were going down in a lift.

We made good time but by 4pm we realised that it was going to be very late at Avignon so were lucky to find a place to stop at St Etienne des Sorts, great little wine village - one of the Cotes de Rhone Villages domains - we managed to add to the wine cellar and find a good, cheap restaurant. 
         (only pictures on my phone  put one on Facebook).

A man in his element.

Stopping here meant we only had 40km to go to reach Avignon but the forecast was pretty rubbish so we’d half decided to stay another night but by 11.00 the next morning the sky had cleared and we decided to make a dash for Avignon.  We had two slow locks, one due to a gas ship taking precedence, you’re not allowed to share a lock with explosive vessels - makes sense really, but we had to wait an hour before we could enter the lock.

Gate going up

Dave crawling to the lock keeper- told him his Ecluse was Magnifique.

What - your'e getting bored of lock photos! - never! (don't worry, only 2 left to go before the Med.)

This led to us only getting to Avignon about 4.30 and as you can see from the picture the sky got very dark, it was spitting a bit as we moored but then the heavens opened and we we deluged - best rain we’ve had since leaving the Netherlands!  The view of the Pont d’Avignon on the way to the quayside was great - the silhouette of the people on the bridge - built in the 13c by the way, and condemned to traffic in1668! - was really dramatic.

First view of Avignon

Umbrellas silhouetted against a stormy sky.

And the rains came.

Today we wandered around the old town getting a feel for the place. we’ve decided to stop for a while as there is lots to see and we think the next stage down to the Med will only either be 1 long or 2 days