13 May St-Jean-de-Losne to Longecourt-en-Plaine

Time to catch you up on today. Belinda will finish off the issues we had in St Jean de Losne but this post is about the travelling we did today.

This is the high-level view I get for todays travel. You can see that it is pretty much a straight line for today leaving St Jean de Losne and we're now about halfway to Dijon.

As we're going along, this is the view that I get. It also shows things like the speed, and particularly battery voltages and current draw. Important for when we're running on electric.

This next picture shows a bunch of stuff. Sorry, it'll come out big but I needed the resolution.

The yellow is our start and finish for the day.

The red circle is the bridge clearance. So long as it's more that 3.30m we're good. If it's less than that we need to fold the mast down. One day I'll show that.

The 2,705 in blue type (in the green circle) shows the distance in meters between the two locks. In this case it's 2.7kms.

Circled in purple is a PK number. This is a km marker in the canal. Sometimes they count up, sometimes they count down.

Circled in blue is 72, La Bietre (2,47)

This means that it is Lock (Ecluse) 72 at La Bietre and the height difference is 2.47m. The green dot means that it is manually operated.

 

Link to a video of Martin helping to open the lock

Saint Jean de Losne - 3rd May 2024 to 13th May 2024

Friday 3rd May 2024 - We arrived at the marina before lunch to find the Sun Chi already in the water. Now the work begins, checking engines, unpacking and finding a place for all the new stuff we just had to bring and cleaning 7 months worth of dust and grime.

Sunday 5th May 2024 - Moved the boat to the marina berth going through our first lock (Ecluse 76 S de Saint-Jean-de-Losne)

First Lock of the season.

Monday 6th May, we returned the hire car, we then caught the train back to Saint Jean de Losne and walked the 1.2 kilometers back to the boat in the rain, let the fun begin.

Tuesday 5th May, Time for the engine maintenance.

Replaced

 Prop Shaft Boot is our first job to be done next winter.

Wednesday 8th May 2024 - today is a public holiday, Victory in Europe Day. It makes the official end of World War II in Europe in the Eastern Front.

Link to Video of VE Day in Saint Jean de Losne - Hope the video works

Saturday 11th May 2024 - we had plans to head to Dijon, but, yes there is a but, as we were leaving our mooring, we heard a tapping noise coming from the drive shaft or propeller area. We made the decision to head to the marina lift out area, this meant going through the lock. Normally this isn't a problem. Today there were two guys manning the lock. We entered, they closed the gate behind us, we got one line on and in the process of getting the second line on when Martin heard water. The guys had started to fill the lock without asking if we were ready, which we weren't. Martin went back to the helm to use the engine to help control the boat and I stayed at the line at the bow. Not the best experience in a lock, but not the worst.

David, the marina owner came to have a listen and agreed with us. We will be lifted out Monday morning to check what is causing the noise, we are hoping it has something to do with the new weed/rope cutter David has installed for us or something simple. Fingers Crossed

Sunday 12th May 2024 - Mother's Day in Australia, not much happening here. I did some work.

Monday 13th May 2024 - Eary start as we were not sure when we were going to be hauled out. We were the first out at 8:30am so just as well we didn't do our normal slow start, with a cuppa in bed. David didn't even take us off the bridles, once Sun Chi was out of the water, we saw the weed and once they started to remove it, they found a fishing lure. We place Sun Chi back into the water, started the engine, good news there is no sound.

Boys removing the weed.

Fishing Lure in the shape of a frog.

Once back in the water, we did a quick trip to the Supermarket and left as soon as we were back at the boat.

Dijon here we come.

 

Overnight on the QEII, Dubai

Landed in Dubai at 1330 local time and took an uber to the boat where we stayed the night. Checked in and then had a couple of hours to rest before we started the 1 hour tour of the boat.

Here's a couple of photos of the cabin. They upgraded us to a deluxe room with a sea view.

View from one of our portholes.

Time for a cuppa.

Welcome chocolates and fruit

1 hour tour of the boat started with a quick run through and then we entered near one of the two rotating car lifts.

Our tour guide, Greg.

Original room 

The rest of the original room

Thickness of the door to the car storage entry.

Car on the rotating lift to take down to the lower deck.

Then wound our way up to the bridge. There's some pretty old technology up there.

2024 plan

So, this is the plan for 2024.

Left Brisbane this morning and arrived in Singapore a few hours ago. We're staying overnight about 15 minutes from the airport.

Back to the airport tomorrow morning for a 0940 takeoff landing in Dubai at 1300 local time.

Tomorrow night we're staying on the QE2 which is now permanently docked in Dubai.

Early start the next day leaving Dubai at 0800 and landing at Gatwick at 1230 local time. Then a local train up to St Pancras and the Eurostar across to Paris.

Another night in a hotel in Paris on Thursday before taking a train on Friday morning down to Dijon and then a car hire for a few days which will allow us to provision the boat more easily.

The only bit that we have planned for the remainder of the trip will be less than 90 days in France before getting into Belgium where we will be taking advantage of the bilateral agreement between Australia and Belgium which allows us to stay for up to another 2 months.

We'll find somewhere to winter the boat and then fly direct from Brussels to the UK on our way home in September. 

2023 Summary - Winningen (DE) to St-Jean-de-Losne (FR)

I have lots more technical detail to add later but this is roughly what we did.

Flew into Frankfurt, took the train to Koblenz and then a taxi to Winningen.

Left Winningen right at the beginning of May and ended up in St-Jean-de-Losne in mid August.

Not sure how many electric motor hours but we've done we've done 78.7 engine hours on the diesel consuming 208.2 litres of diesel for an average of 2.65 l/hr.

It was only in Strasbourg that I got the solar panels working properly and we've definitely done more electric and less diesel since then.

Marina fees in Germany and Luxembourg were more expensive than France. For the 18 nights in Germany and Luxembourg we averaged EUR19.17 per night including water, electricity and showers.

The remainder of May (from the French border to Nancy) we averaged exactly EUR 12 per night.

In June from Nancy to Strasbourg we averaged EUR 13.53 per night

In July from Strasbourg to Deluz (2/3rds of the way from Mulhouse to St-Jean-de-Losne) we averaged EUR 13.77 per night.

And in August from Deluz to St-Jean-de-Losne we have averaged EUR 12.48 per night.

Typically in France the showers in the marinas have been expensive (any up to EUR3.50 for a shower!) and as the water for the boat has been included we have showered on the boat. Showers in Germany were either included or ~ EUR1.00.

Electricity in Germany was more likely to be metered where you put coins in at the dock whereas France it is more likely to be unmetered but you pay a set amount for the night. 

The Citadel at Besancon

More photos of the Citadel.