September 3rd, 2012

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Monday evening Sep 3 Richardmenil

Monday, September 3rd, 2012

It was a beautiful late summer day. It warmed up into the low seventies. I left at 9.15 a.m. and stopped at 4 p.m. and this time I managed to do 30 km. So, a slight improvement, 11 locks. Tomorrow I should make it easily to Toul, 20 plus kms and just 5 or 6 locks. The waiting time at each lock is between 12 and 15 minutes. There was one hick up a Dutch barge from the opposite direction got stuck in one of the locks.

I am alongside a quay in this small village, sitting high up above the banks of the Moselle. I crossed the Moselle just a short distance before my moorage in an aquaduct, high above the Moselle. The picture looks like it was taken off a road but I am floating right over the river.

The September/October issue of Wooden Boat Magazine is now available and I recommend you reading the “Botter” article that I contributed. It has a lot of interesting information about the history  of this traditional sailing fishing vessel. The Botter was the Bread and B(o)utter of my grandfather’s mastmaker business and also plays a part in “The Mastmakers’ Daughters”/ “De Mastmakers Dochters”.

Tuesday morning: My battery ran out for the pictures, yesterday.

French Herrons are stupid. Every time I try pass a herron, standing on the water’s edge, they fly away and then they take an identical position 100 feet ahead of me and then they repeat these moves twice more. Then they finally have it figured out and disappear. This routine has happened to me numerous times.

A Swedish couple, Lasse and Marrianne from west of Stockholm are on their way south. He has a trick that I should have known going uphill. He wraps a 30 mm tubing around the bow and stern line’s end and instead of having to climb up the slimy ladder he whips it over the bollard from below with his bamboo stick. Clever Swede!