Week 212: Preparing to go

Monday morning, far too early I left the flat in Belgium to go and meet the architects for the 7 hr trip back to Luneau in France and Clair de Lune (the third trip up or back in six days). It was exciting to be leaving for "good" this time.

We'd arranged with the architects for two of the team, Eva and Anïa to come to Clair de Lune and measure up so they could start the planning process for the modifications. They kindly agreed to give me a ride so that we didn't have to make a one-way car hire.

One of my goals in Belgium (beyond returning the car) was to collect a package delivered to a Mondial Relay store. Mondial is essentially a local delivery point. Small shops etc. receive packages for you, which is great for things that can't be posted through the mail slot in our flat.

I'd been to the store to collect the delivery on two separate occasions but it was closed both times. After I was picked up by Eva she agreed to visit one more time on our way out of Gent as the store supposedly opened at 4.30 AM. Unfortunately, it was closed again, so I wasn't able to collect the wireless headsets we'd been waiting on. We'll come back to this!

The trip south was both familiar and uneventful. It was fun chatting with Eva and Anïa and learning more about Belgium and Belgian culture. There was also a lot of discussion about the history of Clair de Lune and what we were planning to do. We had an uneventful journey time and by about 2 pm, we'd arrived at Clair de Lune. Karina greeted us with some fresh cupcakes and after a cup of tea, we got to work briefing them both on the boat.

I think it's an unusual assignment for them as they don't often get to stay in the places they are designing and this is also the first boat. This has led to an intriguing discussion about the contract which is full of language on what to do with issues in designing a house! We're not too fussed, but it's good to be accurate I suppose.

It was also exciting for us as in a way, they were our first guests! We learned a little bit about the practicalities of guests aboard and I think we both enjoyed hosting people on Clair de Lune.

For dinner on Monday night, we just did something casual for dessert and had some After Eight mints. Australians and people from the UK will be familiar with these staples from dinner parties, and possibly Americans as well. We learned a valuable lesson about serving lesser-quality chocolate to Belgians (i.e. don't), especially chocolate that tastes like toothpaste. Like the Dutch, the Flemish Belgians are direct (not so sure about the Walloons as we haven't spent much time with them). They say what they think. They aren't rude, but if they don't enjoy it or have an opinion, they will let you know. It's one of those fun cultural differences.

Eva and Anïa worked hard measuring Clair de Lune which was a challenging task. If you know anything about boats, you'll know that they don't have a lot of straight lines. The walls curve in, the ceiling curves, and the heights change. I asked how it was going and they expressed "It would be nice if just one thing was straight!" Karina was pleased that her rough measurements had come in useful–they arrived with a basic floor plan that was nicely proportional based on these to add their more detailed measures.

They left on Tuesday at lunchtime to head back to Belgium and we got to work on our list of tasks. On Saturday night there was a fault with the electrical system and Karina had worked around it (after a lot of heading in and out of the engine room to reset the inverter), but we needed to resolve it. Eventually, we narrowed it down to one circuit and then discovered that the dishwasher was no longer on a separate circuit (which is how the system was designed for that to run directly off of 240v and not through the inverter) but instead, it was plugged in with the fridge (which does run via the inverter).

It had worked the first couple of times we used it, but now it seems to have developed an earth leak and is tripping the power panel. Fortunately, the fridge is working fine, but the dishwasher is now consigned to the do-not-use pile. We're back to hand-washing dishes.

I rang Mondial to chase up our package and find out why the store wasn't open. They told us that after the delivery, the store decided to close for holidays for thirty days and we couldn't get our package for the next month. It's really put me off using it as a delivery service. The concept is fine, but the idea that the delivery location can then just close, holding your package ransom for a month is very frustrating.

Once the shops had reopened (everything closes from 12-2 here) I needed to go collect a rental car for a few days. Of course, now I was stuck in Luneau and while Uber said it worked, there were no cars available. So I hitchhiked the 25km into town. I waited about 15 minutes and one of the locals (the mechanic who helped change the batteries) came by and gave me a lift to the main road, then the man who pulled up behind him at the intersection as he turned around gave me a lift most of the rest of the way. In town, I had to walk about 40 minutes to the rental place.

The rental was the only car available, a tiny Hyundai i10. With the car, we were able to now run around, collect more fuel in containers, and get in and out to do lots of shopping and purchasing of ingredients and more visits to the hardware stores.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday passed in a blur of driving in and out of town, fetching things, working on Clair de Lune, cleaning, repairing, emptying, and then collapsing into bed at night. The air horn now works, and most things are in place. There were lots of small interruptions, with neighbors popping by to chat, and in one case giving us a bottle of wine as a thank-you for all the free furniture we'd been placing on the road!

Friday morning (after a brief attempt on Thursday but with the wrong parts) the Perkins mechanic came a serviced the engines. We now have new fuel and oil filters, and the engine is all topped off with Coolant. No issues were reported with the engine, so we should be good to go there!

Finally, on Friday, it was time to go and collect Paul and Mal, who are going to assist us with moving Clair for the first couple of weeks and ensure that we get trained properly in handling a boat this size in and out of the locks. As they keep reminding us, it's a different set of skills from cruising at sea.

We had lunch together in Digoin and did a last run of shopping then bought them back to Clair de Lune to settle in. Then it was time for me to return the car, fortunately, this time I was able to find a taxi in town to take me back to Luneau.

On Friday night, I drafted up a long list of the remaining tasks that are needed to prepare for departure. Life rings to go up, smoke alarms to be fitted, water tanks to be filled, the rudder to be checked, running the engine up in gear, etc., etc.

Paul and Mal are a huge help. They have been barging for a lot of their lives and Paul is an experienced mechanic and knows a lot about the systems on this type of boat. It's been very useful to have an experienced person on board to ask questions and we've been over everything in close detail.

He's also an ex-heating technician and looked at the boiler for the internal radiators. The boiler works, but a valve which switches to allow water through the radiators has seized so it's non-functional at the minute. We purchased wood for our wood heater instead. It's getting cooler in the evenings at the moment!

With Saturday drawing to a close we sat back and looked at the list. Almost everything was checked off, some things couldn't be, and the last few could wait until departure. We've concluded that Clair de Lune is now ready to cruise. Or at least, she's as ready as she's going to be here. It's time to move.

Today (Sunday) we decided to take it slow, sleep in, have our traditional pancakes for breakfast and then we're going to make our first attempts at moving Clair and relocating about 5 km down the canal towards Digoin. This will be long enough to test everything out, move us in the direction we need to go and prepare us for an early (8 AM) start on Monday morning when we have the first three of our 240+ locks to Belgium to clear!

So wish us luck! We're hopeful that this week is going to be a lot more relaxed, cruising and enjoying the canals and scenery while we get a lot of practice handling Clair de Lune. The major jobs have come to an end and it's time to travel.

Until next time,

Tim and Karina