Cruising Stats 2024

Although our time in Europe won't finish until October 1, the cruising portion of our season has wrapped up. The "bare bones" statistics of our cruise were as follows:

Start: May 21, 2024, from Auxerre, France

End: August 13, 2024, in Auxonne, France

Cruising Days: 47

Engine Hours: 172.1

Distance: 745 km (447 miles)

210 Locks

4 mobile bridges

The profile view of our route that follows shows the "ups and downs" along the way. It may look like we climbed a mountain or two--we did not. The graphic merely attempts to give an impression of the general nature of our climbs and descents, from the relatively gradual altitude changes on the rivers and the Canal lateral a la Loire to the steeper passages of the Canal de Briare and Canal du Centre.

From left: down the Yonne; up-and-down a short stretch of the Burgundy Canal; continue down
the Yonne; up-and-down the Petite Seine; up the Canal du Loing and the Canal de Briare to the
Briare summit (the peak mid-graphic), then down the Briare; a lock-free stretch as the Briare Canal
flows into the Loire Lateral Canal; a gradual ascent up the Loire Lateral and the Canal du Centre
 to the summit of the Centre (the highest peak); finally, a relatively steep descent on the Canal du
 Centre (those 11-lock cruising days!) to the Soane River and its slight rise. 

The pre-season possibility of including a cruise down the Saone River to Macon and then Lyon fell victim to our "no rush" pace along the canals, and that's OK. We were really pleased with the waterways that we did complete: beautiful scenery and interesting places to explore, so many towns that thoughtfully provided mooring sites, friendly and helpful vnf employees, and water of sufficient depth with little of the weed that infests so many French canals these days. In the end, those are the "stats" that really matter. There were a few maintenance glitches along the way, but nothing catastrophic, and to be expected when one has a BOAT (Break Out Another Thousand.)

We would be remiss if we didn't include a "shout out" to Ian and Lisette on the barge Catharina Elisabeth. We got to know them a bit last year as we made our way to the DBA barge rally in Auxerre, and met up again this May. The Bourbonnais Route was in both of our travel itineraries this year, and we managed to leap-frog each other throughout the cruising season. When we were in front, we provided scouting reports on moorings to them; when they were in front, they returned the favor. And when we were moored in the same place at the same time--which was fairly often--we talked about all manner of things over aperitifs. Most of our social encounters with other boaters this year were one-off events and were certainly enjoyable, but the opportunity to come to know Ian and Lisette in a less superficial way was the "icing" on our 2024 cruising "cake."

L to R: Lon, Pat, Ian, Lisette at Chateau de Couches