Monday August 19, Condrieu near Lyon

Written by Jack van Ommen on August 20th, 2012

It turned out that mass is served every other Sunday at the R.C. church in St. Vallier. One priest for a number of the surrounding parishes. Makes me think of one of Geert Mak’s books “Hoe God verdween uit Jorwerd”. (How God disappeared from Jorwerd, Jorwerd is a small town in Friesland, the northern Dutch province that plays in “The Mastmakers’ Daughters”).

There was a strong southerly pushing me up against the current to Condrieu. I arrived here a 3 p.m. My new English friends, Robin and Wendy on “Pippin”, rose up with me through the one lock at Sablons and just left a while ago for Lyon. Sofar I have heard only from my friends near Concarneau about the plan to make a road trip from here to pay a visit to a number of friends in France, mostly in Bretagne and Normandie. Today I will try to contact a few more  and if I cannot make more dates with these friends I shall leave it for another occassion, possibly this winter or spring from Amsterdam. And I will then push off again today or tomorrow. There is a coin laundry here in the marina and I have the life lines covered with my laundry. The last time I was able to do a machine laundry load was late April on Chios, since then it was just boiling salt water aboard and rinsing with fresh water. I had to go for a long walk to a grocery shop. On Monday the smaller nearby shops are closed and some are closed for the summer holidays since their customers are gone as well.  “Vagabond” the motor yacht from Mechelen I met a few days ago waiting at a lock is here as well. I had watched, with some amazement, that they just tied the boat up to the floating bollards and then sat on their aft deck till it was time to exit the lock. I was always sitting midships pulling and pushing my fore and aft mooring lines, trying to control the constant changes in the direction the inflowing water was pushing the stern or the bow. I had done this through the 64 locks on the Main and Danube. Here on the Rhone it sometimes took all of my muscles and sore hands trying to keep the boat from pushing into the lock walls. But now I have borrowed from their set up and moved the lines in closer to midships and just tying them off. It gives me chance to go down below while the anywhere from 15 to 30 minute filling of the lock takes place. The scenery has changed from the flat delta to hills covered with vineyards.

 

 

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