Our first meetings with Bill and Rosy

On August 26^th 2002 we saw narrowboat Rosy for the first time. At that time our boat was moored at Gannay and we had been out in our car when we spotted Rosy moored by the Tourist information office in Decize. As we were on our way to the Préfecture in Nevers we didn't have time to stop and say hello. When we moored in Decize a couple of days later the boat had gone. As the weather was good I started work on smartening up our interior woodwork with a lick of varnish. Moved the boat to the end of the quay, then ran the engine and Markon to do some washing and power the sanders. Not long afterwards Rosy came up the automatic lock off the Loire and came to moor on the quay. Mike went out to chat with Bill, a tall chap with glasses, Bretonne cap and blonde beard, he was en route to collect his post from Roy and Audrey’s and then off to Briare for the winter. Mike invited him in for a cuppa and we sat among the piled up gear, covered in dust from sanding, on bare bunk seats and had a natter. Next day Mike helped Bill bow-haul Rosy down the quay (other boats had left and made a space) so that we were moored bows to bows. Mike took some of our photos of the Elblag lifts and went to have a coffee with Bill. I did another coat of varnish and went to join them. We got on well with Bill, he hadn’t had any experience of “exotic” cruising, like the Rhône or the Rhine, and said he would have to change his engine if he did envisage a trip to Poland as his old Kelvin would only shove his boat along at canal speed. But he showed a strong interest in going. Next day Bill left, calling to get his post from Roy and Audrey's - they owned the other narrowboat called Rosie (different spelling) and also had a house at Garnat called “The Lighthouse”- before continuing to Briare for the Winter.

The following year at the beginning of January 2003, we had surprise ‘phone call from Bill. He said he was getting his engine changed and Geoff at Monchanin would be doing it for him later in the year and said he was definitely interested in going to Poland in 2004 if we were still interested in going. We said we’d go and visit him in Briare and take some maps and photos. The phone call cheered us up and gave us something to look forward to as our friends Ray and Yvonne had also phoned and said they'd like to come with us on the Yonne and Nivernais that summer (2003) and the following summer (2004) was now planned too – Poland with Bill.

A couple of weeks later peniche Floan went past our mooring – Helen and George shouted hello and we said we'd come and find them after they'd tied up. Working boats never stop until they have to, and Floan had moored below Juvigny lock when it was closed for the night. As always we had an amazing catch up session – the towpath telegraph lives, even in France! They said that they had met Bill when they were tied up in Gent and agreed with us that he was a thoroughly nice chap. We said goodnight to them at midnight. Driving back we found there were owls out hunting, two great big ones, which struck up from along the road side as we went back into Juvigny.

In March 2003 we went by car to visit Bill in Briare. Rosy had got a bankside mooring, after a major boat mooring reshuffle. Bill had made us some lunch and Fanny was being good, she was growing up, Bill’s training seemed to be starting to take effect. Mike helped him set up his satellite system. He was lucky, the dish had to be 90° to the boat and there was a very convenient gap between the buildings through which the satellite was accessible. Mike had a look at his engine, an ancient Kelvin. Bill said a friend of his in Britain was going to bring over his new engine, (a three cylinder Perkins was what he was hoping to get), and help strip out the old Kelvin (he wasn't sure whether to sell the latter or store it).

In April a visiting Aussie introduced us to the Internet. We took him shopping in Chalons and he had wanted to call in a cyber cafe. With Leigh's help we started doing online banking and had our first look at Bill's Witterings.

On 28^th July 2003 we had a day off while moored at Pont d'Ouche on the canal de Bourgogne and drove over the beautiful Côte d'Or to Montchanin to visit Bill. Bill’s boat Rosy was in the arm, with narrowboats Falcon alongside and Presqu’ La behind. Braunston-built Belle Etoile was moored on the other side by a large Dutch cruiser, whose skipper had gone back to Britain. A large Luxe and two small yachts made up the moorers in the basin, plus Jeff’’s péniche. We had a cup of coffee on board Rosy. Fanny was getting jealous of visitors and playing up, not doing as she was told. Bill told us there were twenty six boats due to overwinter in the basin. He was thinking of having extra cooling tanks welded in before his new three cylinder Perkins was installed in the big empty space where the old Kelvin used to be. Jeff didn’t like the idea of welding the hull while the boat was in the water, so Rosy would have to be dragged out up the slipway. We went to have a look at the “new” engine, stored in Jeff’s big shed. It had been painted royal blue, much to Bill’s disgust, so he was painting the bits to add to it, such as the manifold, with black paint to tone it down a bit. Had another coffee with Bill before setting off home at 5.30 p.m

We were at our Winter mooring in Condé-sur-Marne early on the 17th October, a few days later Bill ‘phoned to say that his new engine was now installed, but not all the jobs had been completed, the boat hadn’t been out of the water and his new extra cooling tanks hadn’t been fitted. His plan was to leave Montchanin when they opened the cut for five days, which should be any time he said and then follow us across the canal de la Marne à la Saône.  We moored for the Winter at Conde-sur-Marne and when we left  for the UK by car on the 30^th October there was no sign of Rosy. But Bill was there when we returned on 11^th December. We spent the Winter doing maintenance and refitting. Rosy's wiring needed some work and Mike made a new cratch out of steel to replace our wooden one which was starting to rot. He also replaced some woodwork on our front doors where a wood wasp had decided to bore holes and lay eggs. 

On the pontoon at Conde - Rosy in background
 Bill's photo of our local friendly fisherman Serge's huge fish 

In January 2004 Mike started welding extra cooling tanks in Rosy. Our good friend Hans-Dieter, who lives in Eisenhüttenstadt on the Polish border with Germany, 'phoned to tell us he'd been speaking to a Polish man who could get some maps of Polish waterways for us. They arrived the following month, February 2004, in the form of a booklet written in Polish and German with the best maps we'd come across yet. Bill hired a car and went back to the UK for a couple of weeks. On his return Mike finished making the extra cooling tanks on Rosy. On the 29^th we took both boats down the canal Latèral à la Marne as far as the first lock at Tours to check Rosy's new tanks. Gérard loaned Mike his digital thermometer to check the temperature of Bill’s tanks on the test run. Everything seemed to work OK.

We set off from Condé on 1^st March 2004 to begin our voyages together with Bill and Rosy.

Readers please note - it is a very, very long way by narrowboat from Champagne to the borders of Poland in East Germany.  Here begins the tale...............