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April May June
15 March Arrived at Aberdeen Airport to find that Easyjet had secretly canceled the flight to Luton so I arranged to fly the next day.
16 March Aberdeen to Luton then Luton to Grenoble (flight 1 hour late) Pierre and Willy were there to pick me up and I stayed with Pierre till Monday 20th when Gilbert took me to Valence. We went to Geant Casino and Lidl to buy the heavier provisions. Gilbert went home after a meal and I started to tidy Sufiana.
21 March I paid for 1 month 125€. I filled the starboard tank with water - and as I was writing this looked at the level – it had just reached the top. I added Campden tablets to clean it out. Dammit only two tablets left so I pushed aside the stuffed otter and put in denture cleaning tablets – bought for the same purpose. Now for the port tank. Sun is now shining brightly and it is getting warm.
23 March When I tried to start the motor I found its battery flat. I replaced it with a service battery and the motor started at the first turn of the starter. I tested out the free digital camera I got at Luton and found that it worked well as a web cam.
31 March The Rhone is rather full and the current is strong. Perhaps I should stay a little bit longer. I phoned VNF and ordered their vignette for a year. This allows Sufiana to travel through all the canals of France throughout the year for 206€ if paid before April first. Compare this with a single passage (8 days £135) through the Caledonian Canal!
4 April. The vignette arrived with two maps of the canal system and a VNF flag 1m x 50 cm. I stuck the vignette in the pocket on the starboard side as indicated in the blurb.
I spent Easter with Pierre and Françoise and then went back to Sufiana at Valence till 22 April Jean-Pierre and Babette came for an evening meal then Babette went back to Sarras to pick up the twins. Jean-Pierre and I tasted various single malts.
23 April at 0810 set off up the Rhone towards Sarras with Jean-Pierre as crew and the idea of spending the night at Tournon. We were going so well that we passed Tournon at 1115 and pressed on for Sarras steering with the autopilot. We set the stern anchor and moored the bow to the shore all by 1420 when we had a little beer.
26 April Pierre, Françoise, Anais, Adrien, Willy and I headed for Andance at 0930 and arrived there at 1100 - 5.5 km in 90 minutes = 3.7 km/hr. We had lunch, fished a bit and returned in 20 min.= 16.5 km/hr suggesting an average current of 6.4 km/hr.
1 May had a great meal with Loulou and Dede, Babette, Jean Pierre, Anne Marie, Jean Paul. Also met Camille who had been on Sufiana for a round Corsica trip in 1994.
7 May A picnic with at least 20 ex crew of Sufiana held at Gilbert’s house as it had been raining in the morning making the grass too wet for an outside picnic.
14 May Andance again arriving at 1300 for lunch. Then returned to a concrete mooring south of Saint Vallier where we fished with little success till 1945. There followed a time of little activity but much eating out and partying.
1 June Pierre and I picked Fiona up at the airport as she had found two flights for 28 pence from Stansted to Grenoble and back.
4 June Françoise, Pierre, Augusta, Michelle, Michel, Gilbert and Fiona were the crew for a trip to Les Roches de Condrieu. We set off at 0735 arriving at 1230. Here we found that the diesel return from the motor to the tank had fractured. It took an hour to repair this. We then had a fine lunch on the new table then filled with fuel. 1.30 € per litre. The return trip took 50 min less as we were with the current.
9 June was the day of Martine’s birthday party at Saint Uze. A great affair starting with sangria then rose wine with salad, Crozes Hermitage with wild boar. A sweet with Clairette and finishing with a 20 year old Mortlach which was very good - had to be diluted as it started at 53%
10 June Anita, Cristianne, Coryne, Henriette and Michel were the crew for a wee trip up river as far as the barrage at Serrieres. We returned to Andance where we met a reporter who told us that the Canadair aircraft were coming to pick up water to fight a fire to the west in Ardeche. I took many photographs and a video. We had our evening meal here and then returned to Sarras.
I messed about in Sufiana for a month visiting friends and meeting people and was able to watch France beating Brazil, Spain and Portugal in the soccer world cup.
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