Thursday 11th March 2004
Bassin Rond
We decided to have the day off
and go and visit Majorie by car to see what was going on at the chantier (boat
yard). Bill had a few jobs to do so he said he would stay at home. It had been
1.2° C overnight, there were sunny spells and a cold wind blowing all day with
occasional showers of snow grains – a good day to not go boating. North up the
A2 and onto the A323 around Valenciennes, off at St Amand-des-Eaux and into
Belgium. Picked up diesel at 72c a litre (cheaper than France where the cheapest
we’d seen had been 75c at automatic pumps). Called in to the boatyard of
Roelens-Maes at Peronnes-les-Antoing. Found Majorie working on a boat at the
far side of the yard. She said she thought we were coming on the 15th April, oh
dear, a passenger boat would be on the large trolley for two weeks starting
on Monday. Nothing we can do but wait. (Perhaps the weather will improve a bit
by then) We went into the office to check the calendar. Mike asked if she had
any Morse cable clips, she had, she said she would add it to Bill’s bill! He
needed one to make his emergency engine stop. Back to the boat via Neptunia’s
chandlery barge, where I went on board to ask the price of red diesel after I’d
elbowed my way through a gang of mariniers stuffing their faces with sandwiches
and cups of coffee. 322 Euros per tonne (actually 1,000 litres not a tonne)
making that 32.2c a litre. OK, we'd see them in a few days’ time. Mike called in the
bakery in Peronnes for a loaf and the woman short changed him by three Euros -
he went back for it and she was most apologetic. Back to the boat for lunch.
Took Bill with us to get groceries from the Auchan hypermarket north of Cambrai at
Escadoeuvres. (More Amateur radio stuff, sorry) Peter sent an SMS to ask about
French Amateur radio repeaters. He said he thought he could conference link one
with his local repeater. When we got home we sent an SMS to ask what that meant
and found there was a way of doing it via the Internet. Mike put our 2m VHF
radio set on and found we’d got a Belgian repeater just up the road in Tournai!
ON0HT on R1! Mike put the Honda generator on to power the TV, etc, as we were
staying put for the next few days. Watched the last episode in the series of
“Water World” with trad narrowboats doing the Jam ‘ole run.
Friday 12th March 2004 Bassin Rond.
Just above freezing overnight. Cold windy and heavy rain
in the afternoon. Ran the engine and Markon generator to do some washing. Mike
took Bill to find a tractor place which might have an exhaust manifold as a
replacement for his Polar heat-exchanger, the bloke wasn’t interested to order just one, this was after they'd found one which suited, but he gave them the address of the main dealers. After
lunch they went out in the car and found the main dealers. All went OK until it came to
the price - 220 Eu! Ouch! No ta! Mike turned his thoughts to alternatives,
turning the thermostat housing round to use the Polar dry or maybe making a new
manifold.
Saturday 13th March 2004 Bassin Rond
A milder 5.6° C minimum overnight. Cloudy mostly, but a few
sunny spells. Did chores in the morning. Mike went by car to get bread from the
village. When he returned he rewired our car immobiliser. After lunch he spoke
to Bill about making a new manifold to replace the Polar. He said OK. He told
Mike he was having trouble with battery charging, but he thought he could fix
it. He emptied out the coolant while Mike and I went to Castorama (big DIY
shop) at Petit Fôret for some iron pipe fittings, purge taps and brass reducers
for Bill and a spare purge tap for us, plus some hand cleaner. On our return at
4 p.m. Mike went on Rosy to make a start. I relit the coal fire - we’d
left it closed up without adding any boulets so it had gone out.
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