The winter has flown by this year but it's time to get moving again. I hope you'll be able to follow us and I promise I'll try and post blog updates more regularly.
Social life in the port of Roanne is quite hectic during the winter. We play darts in one of the bars in town on Monday evenings and played against the bar regulars (we lost) just before we left. Every other Tuesday afternoon is 10 pin bowling and every Thursday evening is Happy Hour in the local bar/restaurant. It's not a typical British Happy Hour with cheap drinks but everyone does get happy and Katia and Jeremy who run the bar provide copious quantities of free chips (bring your own ketchup) There are also many evenings spent on other boats eating and drinking, well mainly drinking, and every so often there's an impromptu musical soirée.
Before we left port Roger needed to repaint the inside of the water tank, not a job he was looking forward to as he's quite claustrophobic. Thankfully the access hatch is quite large.
Hopefully that'll last for a couple of years.
We finally managed to get away early on Wednesday morning. For the past few weeks the weather has been hot and sunny, so typically Wednesday morning turned for the worse. It was cold and windy but that didn't deter us and we were soon back into the swing of things.
We never make firm plans for cruising as something always happens to change them and our first cruising day was no exception. As planned, we stopped at Briennon and went for lunch in the local restaurant, mooring up just as the heavens opened. The meal was great value at 14.50 euros for 3 courses including wine and coffee and by the time we'd finished the rain had stopped and the sun popped out for a while. We then had a phone call from from friends Dave and Jane who had left port the day before us but had broken down further up the canal, so initial plans to stay the night in Briennon were changed and we carried on for another couple of hours to find them at Artaix. Roger ordered the necessary parts to repair the boat from UK and we settled in to await delivery. And waiting for parts is a good enough reason for an evening drinking and jamming with friends so that's what we did 😀
See you soon X