Learning Curve

Because we got a slightly later start to our cruising season than anticipated, the visit of our Dutch friends Carla & Ebe DeJong coincided with these first few days of our cruising. We were very happy to have them aboard, but from a "confidence" perspective, it would have been nice to have had a few days of cruising behind us beforehand to gain familiarity with C.A.R.I.B. III and French cruising in general.

Ebe (at the helm) and Carla enjoying the beautiful weather
we had for our cruising on June 13. The green umbrella
was not long for this world--see learning experience #1 further
down the blog.

As expected, our learning curve was fairly steep as we made our way upriver from Tournus to Chalon-sur-Saone. Some of the things we need to adapt to are:

• C.A.R.I.B. III is much larger and heavier than the trawler we owned in the U.S. (and which we used to do The Great Loop several years ago). This significantly impacts our docking/mooring and how we tie up the boat to get through the waterway locks.
• Our barge has multiple heavy-duty bollards (fitting/post on the deck to which the rope/line may be secured), quite unlike the deck cleats on the trawler. This means that the process for working a line during tying-up procedures is quite different.
• We have 3-strand nylon dock lines instead of braided line. I'm finding it to be less pliable and much heavier, so after a summer of tossing and pulling lines I may have a body-builder physique!   
• The mooring fixtures ashore are also quite different from what we are used to. On C.A.R.I.B. II we could generally stay aboard when coming into a dock or quay because I became adept at tossing lines over cleats or bollards and setting temporary lines to keep us in place. Here we most often encounter large metal rings--or cleats that don't have ends that will retain line--which means that one of us must get off the boat to loop a line through the ring or cleat and bring the end back to the boat.
• When we cruised the Great Loop in C.A.R.I.B. II during 2014-2015, we spent most nights in marinas. That's not going to happen this summer. Most marinas (portes) and haltes (temporary mooring spots with few or no services such as electricity) can't accommodate boats of our size. Fortunately, we are finding that that power set-up aboard makes us quite self-sufficient. And Lon is pursuing his body-builder physique by pounding mooring stakes!

Some individual "learning experiences" of the day:

1. Always, always, always tie down the umbrella on deck. Lon forgot to do it one time and a brief gust of wind lifted it out of its base and dropped it in the river. Too bad we hadn't practiced an "umbrella overboard" drill--we tried to retrieve it, but weren't able to snag it before it sank.

Lesson learned: Lon attaching lines to our new deck umbrella.
At least this one is a little better color coordinated with the boat.

2. Check concrete quays and lock walls for cracks. As we were departing Tournus and pulling in the last mooring line, it snagged in a crack in the quay wall and would not come loose. We had to drop the line, then "re-land" at the quay so that I could get off the boat and retrieve the rope.

Our destination for the day was Chalon-sur-Soane, a city of about 50,000 inhabitants 30 kilometers north of Tournus. We were a little familiar with the town from having stopped there a couple of times last year as we made our way to and from St. Jean de Losne for the pre-buy inspection ("to") and boat collection after purchase ("from"). The 2018 visits were very short--overnight only--so we weren't too unhappy that stormy weather kept us in Chalon on June 14 and 15 and gave us time for shopping and exploring the older parts of town.

A Roman city existed on the site and it was an active town in the Middle Ages. Chalon in the 19th century is best known as the birthplace of photography (1824), attributed to Chalon's most famous resident Nicephore Niepce. Chalon was on the dividing line between Occupied France and Vichy France during WWII.

The Tour de France comes to Chalon on July 12.

The Place de l'Hotel de Ville is decorated for the Tour with
bicycles adorning the metal light poles

Chalon streetscape. The town has many
 several-hundred-year-old buildings.

Lon at the birthplace of inventor
Nicephor Niepce. Niepce also invented a sort of
internal combustion engine called a
pyreolophore.

Napoleon was here! On the U.S. east coast it's George
Washington, on the Mississippi River it's Mark Twain. In France
a visit from Napoleon was apparently one way
 to make your house notable.

Exterior of Cathedrale Saint Vincent. A contemporary
of the Abbey in Tournus, with construction starting
in 1080 and continuing into the 16th C. Like many churches,
it was damaged during the French Revolution (facade destroyed),
but was repaired in 1827.

We attended a Saturday evening concert inside the cathedral.
The program was Mozart's Requiem (k. 626), performed
by the choral group Opus 71 and the orchestra of the
Communaute Urbaine Le Creusot-Montceau les Mines

Happy to be sitting for lunch after a morning
of walking.

French priorities: the wine section in the Carrefor market in
Chalon-sur-Saone

It's a small world: We invited Ron and Jacqueline from Holland
to "raft up" to our boat when they couldn't get a slip in the
adjacent marina (they had stopped by C.A.R.I.B. III because
 we fly the Dutch flag--it's where the boat is registered). It turns out
that Ron's niece is in a walking club with Carla DeJong

Deja vu all over again: CARIB III moored in the same
location as in photos from August 2018.

The Saint-Laurent Bridge by night. The Romans built a
bridge here in 30 B.C. In the 14th century it was crowded with
houses and shops. These were removed in the 18th C. and replaced
with obelisks. The Germans destroyed the bridge in 1944 as they
retreated, and it was completely rebuilt after the war.

The sun finally broke through again on June 16 and we were able to continue our northward trek.

Light winds--lots of sun--couldn't be better.

We had hoped to stop for the evening at the village of Suerre, after about 5 1/2 hours cruising time from Chalon. Unfortunately, the marina would not take reservations for one-night stays and when we arrived there was no space for us on the only dock able to accommodate boats of our size.  We had to make a quick "Plan B" and decided to continue on to St. Jean de Losne. Yet another lesson: Always have a Plan B.

Two hours later we arrived in town with a boating festival going on. Time for Plan C. With no available marinas or quays, and with much trepidation regarding water depth, we nosed into the bank of the Saone just south of town behind two very large barges that appeared to have been in place for quite some time. A man was renovating one of the barges, and between my minimal French and his extreme helpfulness, we had a successful landing and spent a peaceful evening.

Safely tucked against a sloping quay on the Saone.

The reward for a long cruising day: waterfront refreshment
while watching a "boat parade", followed by dinner.

Lon walking through the "Mariner's Fete" in St. Jean de Losne

Ebe and Carla left us this morning, so we are on our own again. After 8 hours of cruising yesterday we decided to stay in St. Jean today to rest up and complete some necessary tasks like grocery shopping. The weather looks good for tomorrow and we are hoping to enter the Canal du Rhone au Rhin a few kilometers north of here.