What a week it has been full of surprises and difficulties. We left St Jean and immediately knew there was something wrong when the bowthruster didn’t work. We tied up for fuel at the fuel berth and Wendy noticed smoke down below. There was no flames but lots of smoke. We tracked it down to the bowthruster and every time it went on sparks and smoke appeared from one of the terminals. Well we don’t really need a bowthruster but decided to take a different and more direct way back to Holland and get the bowthruster fixed there.We were heading up the River Saone and then across the Vosges Mountains and down into the Moselle valley. (or so we though). We motored up River to Auxonne where Napoleon had been a Lieutenant in the Artillery around 1780. It has a lovely fort where Napoleon worked and lots of signs around the town saying Napoleon did this or that here.
It was a nice mooring with a friendly person to help us tie up and all for nothing. In the evening we wandered around the town and admired the statue of guess who.
We also decided that night to see if a small boatyard we had heard of half way between Auxonne and St Jean could fix the bowthruster. So next day we headed back to St Symphorien and found Peter the Harbour Master at the port. Being English we could at last converse reasonably easy with him and he explained that they had a mechanic but he wasn’t terribly good with electrics but by chance he was having dinner that night with Steve a Marine Electrician who was on holiday on his Dutch Barge which he kept at St Symphorien. He might be able to help. Sure enough Steve turned up the next morning and had a look and saw that the problem was a loose connection that was sparking. Let’s tighten it we all thought. Too easy!! The sparking and huge currents involved (500 amps) had welded the nut to the bolt. The bolt sheared and we were looking at a bowthruster needing a new special type of bolt which Steve reckoned wouldn’t be available and we might need a new motor at 1500 euros or so. Ouch! However after a bit of persuasion Steve thought he might be able to crimp a connector to the sheared bolt and get things working. So he drove back to St Jean to get some parts and by 2.30 we had a working bowthruster. We were back in business. We cast loose and headed back up River to Auxonne and then the next day to Mantoche where we stopped along a lovely grassy bank with a chateau along the bank.
Then next day up to Gray a low depth stopped us mooring, until a barge offered to let us tie up along side. Turned out that they were NZers. Then the next day we continued up the beautiful River Saone. As we cruised along we heard on the bush telegraph (via email) that the Canal des Vosges which connects the Rivers Saone and Moselle was to be closed in 48 hours time for 2 weeks because of a damaged lock gate. We couldn’t get there in time so we decided to stop in Savoyeux past a tunnel and consult the Internet.
We had met a Swiss couple on their boat at Verdun sur Doubs and they were about to return to their home port of Savoyeux. They phoned the Waterways authorities who confirmed there was a stoppage for two weeks. Oh dear. So after some discussion we decided to head back the way we had come for the last three days and go back to St Symphorien which is the start of the Canal du Rhone au Rhin, the original way we were going to go. There was a party at the Port that night with a great Blues band and so it was a late night and an early morning start seeing us head at destroyer like speed down the Saone doing in one day what we had taken three to do on the way up.
We stopped overnight at Auxonne again (our third visit) and not long after we had tied up a hire boat arrived and banged into our rear causing some damage. Then an hour later a hire boat in front of us left banging into us as well and scratching the paintwork. We were fed up with hire boats by then.
The next day we turned up into the Canal du Rhone au Rhin and headed for Dole, birth place of Louis Pasteur and on the River Doubs along which the Canal weaved in and out off. It is a beautiful town and we had a great mooring in the heart of things.
We decided to find the pizzeria where I had dined in when last visiting Dole by another boat 27 years ago. It was still there and just as enjoyable as before. We stopped along one of the many small canals that go through Dole to admire the view.
Today we have been continuing up the River Doubs (the canal is really the river at this point until it is too small to take boats). It is very beautiful but requires very careful navigation as there are many rocks and shallow patches to avoid. We have to cross the Jura Mountains before we can descend into the Rhine Valley at the junction of Switzerland, France and Germany. The mountains are very high but we are following the Doubs River and in the next few days will pass through magnificent gorges as we climb slowly to the summit some 200 km away.
