On the Canal in Marans

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

On the Canal in Marans

So here we are back on Snork Maiden, hoping to leave this afternoon. We arrived via Easy Jet to La Rochelle on Sunday, schlepping around 70Kg of luggage between us - no wheelies since they don’t fit on the boat very well. After a couple of hours dozing and reading under a tree in Place Verdun, we caught the local bus to Marans then struggled into town. (Taxi apparently on holiday). Our favourite café was open and so we stopped for a drink and met a nice Belgian man, attracted by Al’s guitar, which they got out and played for a bit. By that time it had cooled down a bit, and so we set off on the second section of the route march, only to be caught up by Belgian Derek on his bike, offering to load up our heaviest bags and wheel them down to the boat. So he did, and we arrived without any major joint dislocations.

Snork Maiden was fine - of course. It always takes us a couple of days to get ready - packing the boat, flushing tanks, cleaning her and just getting used to being on board. Sorry - this will be a short one - Al’s just got back with 10L of diesel, and I have to go and collect the laundry that he dropped off in the machine on the way. We’ve paid up for our berth and now there’s very little to do except head for the open sea!

Oh yes, and post the blog - almost forgot in a flurry of downloading weather forecasts.

Incidentally - you don’t get to read the best blogs ‘cos those are all written in my head whilst doing other things!! I’ll try to remedy that.