Reading and Music

Barge Date:  08-17-2019

Summer Reading, Summer Listening

One of the pleasures of being in Europe, in France, and on the boat is the time for reading and listening to music.  Never thought a telephone would be my source for music, and it also fills in as a way to read books when away from the boat and from the iPad.

I have done my usual reading of popular books this summer, many of them from iBooks.  It is a convenient way to get books in a foreign country. And I have taught myself to use the sample option before buying as I have a way of forgetting what I have have read of particularly writers like Grisham and Connelly. They have written so much and I think I have read them all but then there is a title and little description and for sure I think I have not read it; but I have.  Don't need to buy twice.  So sample first.

But I have been sidetracked into reading 2 biographies.  Both by Ron Chernow, both long.  Alexander Hamilton and Grant.  What I did not know.  Blame me or better blame the US educational system.  Why did I have to spend a year doing Ohio history?  Why couldn't we do US history and get a little further than just the Civil War?  Was Hamilton ever more than just a footnote?  I thought of Grant as a fat drunk. These 2 books cover almost all you need to know about the first 100 years of the country. The focus is obviously Hamilton and Grant but then these two men had remarkable impact on how the country came about and how it was held together.

You are talking about 3500 pages, but it all reads so well.  I bought both on iBooks for $1.95 each. Living in the south, it helps to know your history. Grant was more instrumental in the Civil War and the war that followed for the black man in the South than Lincoln. There needs to be a big monument in Washington for him.  As it is, he only has that tomb in NYC.

Last summer, a German I met on the Meuse River pointed me to the music of Mark Knopfler, the front man for Dire Straits and a great guitar man, composer, lyricist and producer. Still listen to him and will complain that iTunes took away the Alchemy Tour music saying it is not available to US customers. Just listen to Sultans of Swing from this album - 10.5 minutes - and you will hear the best rock and roll song of all time.  But I am now into blues harmonica music, and I am taking lessons from a guy I found online.

Kind of an interesting intersection with him because I first read about him 20 years ago. Back then I read the Princeton University daily paper online and remember reading about a Princeton student that had stopped his education (BA from Princeton, MA from Columbia and was admitted to a PhD program at Princeton).  The guy's name is Adam Gussow.  While at Columbia and hearing blues played on the streets of Harlem, he fancied himself as a harmonica player. He took up with a blue guitarist by the name of Sterling Magee and the goal was to see if this Ivy League white boy could make good music with this Harlem black boy. Both were men at the time but boys of the street. Sterling was already a legend.  Adam wanted some of that.  Ended up calling themselves Satan and Adam.

And the rest is history.  They did 12 years together.  Might have done more but for the Princeton PhD thing and other life issues.  But they made great music of a type I really like.  It starts at your toes, then your ankles, then knees, then your hips get going and your body is shaking and your head is bobbing and you are  captured.  Three albums and they are available on iTunes.  And also out this year is a documentary on their collaboration.  Available through iTunes, Netflix and other outlets.

Read about it.

Hear a good one   I Want You

If I could ever play like Adam.

Lionel on dry land

Barge Date:  08--2019

Lionel on Dry Land

This is a first for us.  The boat must come out of the water so a survey can be made on the hull.  Would you want to insure a 100 year old metal boat without knowing if she will float?

We drove Lionel down the Soane from Auxonne to Saint Jean de Losne (SJdL) early in the morning and made the turn for the Burgundy Canal and the entry lock.  Our luck: two boats waiting to go through also and both too large to join them.  Then our luck continued; the second boat was for haul out as well so we got a preview of what would happen.

Lionel weighs something like 30 tons.  If there was a crane big enough to handle this weight we could be lifted out with straps.  Not here in SJdL. There is a dry dock but it was not available.  So we go to the people that have a hydraulic trailer.  You pull your boat up to a ramp, and the trailer is rolled underneath to support the boat.  Much maneuvering to get everything located just right, then with the big tractor they pull you out and hope it does not fall off.

This was the surprise: our little shell friends from Belgium years, I think.
No wonder my depth sounder did not work.

When I saw the shells I wondered how they would clean off.  Would they?  The staff used a very strong power washer, and it had no problems peeling the little things from the hull. Lots of them. After the boat was moved away, you walked in them and they gave way underfoot. Snap, Crackle and Pop.  We were on hand for a few more days, and the smell of them under the sun was something.  I suspect there is still something in the air.

Here is a video of the haul out. Below are pictures of the barge as it rested on supports and the trailer removed.

Even with some thumps on the prop by the captain and underwater hard stuff, the prop was in good shape. The prop is about 84cm in diameter; big and robust.

This is a anode, one of about 12 on the boat. These are magnesium and used as sacrificial metal to lessen metal deterioration.

Underwater thru holes on boat used as drains.

The following day, the surveyor arrived and quickly did his work.  He marked out the boat and began testing with a hammer.  He was listening for sounds that to his ears might be a problem.  He did some grinding to determine depth of some pitting and then used an ultrasound to measure hull thickness.  While he made some suggestions, there were no significant problems.  He and I measured the displacement of the prop and rudder and did not find problems.  He will create a written report for the insurance company and a bill for me.

The boatyard people made some offers as to how to proceed.  They will further clean the hull and apply a coating that protects the metal and maybe fights off organic growth.  The shell animals should not be a problem where we are now operating. The coating plus some new electronics we installed last spring will work well to prevent loss of hull metal.

They will replace the anodes on the boat, cut some metal that is too close to the prop (as suggested by the surveyor and they agreed), make the screen over the water intake for the engine removable and will place additional ballast on the fore-deck for me to place in the forward hold to help adjust for the extra weight of the batteries added last year at the stern. They will also do a further inspection of thru-hull holes as this is the number one reason boats tend to sink; not holes in the hull.

We are off on a land tour and I look forward to seeing Lionel with all the work complete.

American Pig in France

Barge Date:  08-13-2019

American Pig

Traveling Down the River Saone

Barge Date:  08--2019

Traveling Down the River Saone

Going further south on the Saone to Port-sur-Saone.  Passed by the construction site of a new highway that will run from Paris to Switzerland.  At one point it must pass over the Saone and we could see a great project underway to build the bridge. Where we tied up along the canal there were 30-40 large scale pictures of the various construction works in progress including bridges, both large and small, ramps, highways and so on.

The town of Port-sur-Saone has been the point of crossing the river and 24 hours a day there is heavy traffic and a lot of it is truck traffic.  This will all be diverted when the highway is completed in 2021.  It will be a relief for the town.  During the day as many as 250 trucks can pass through town an hour. Constant.  The lady at a restaurant we used said everyone will be happy to have the traffic go elsewhere.

All this traffic goes over this very well-flowered but very narrow bridge. Continuous flowers from one side to the other. This is the first like it we have seen.  A city worker was watering the flowers as we passed and he said he does this every other day.  As it has been hot the water is important.  It was in the evening when we saw him doing the job.  Both sides I would guess would take him 4-5 hours.

The town of Gray is next on our ports of call.  Gray.  This is not a color in the French language.  It means nothing. When I engaged the lady at the tourist office she could not offer a good reason for why the town has this name.

The town had a nice long wall to tie up to and we stayed for several days.  A food store and Brico were just minutes away.  Had two nice meals on shore and we thought to take in a  concert at the church. Not to speak badly of little kids singing, I never liked the performances at school either, but I went.  For this performance I was able to leave early. See the FB page for Marianne's favorite song of the night.

Walked the town and took in some sights.

The tie-up at Lamarche-sur-Saone worked out well.  Being this is now a river, we are finding good tie-ups can be a problem.  Getting late in the day we made for a location that had mixed reviews.  But we came in slowly and I was able to throw a line over a bollard some distance away - 2 tries.  Drove in a stake and we were set.  Even had old concrete steps up to the top.

After finding not much in town, we continued walking north to what we hoped was a restaurant and finally found it.  I ate small fish caught from the Saone; about 3 inches long an deep fried. Not bad.

The next day we made our way back to Auxonne, our winter port. From here I made final arrangements to have the barge taken out of the water for cleaning, inspection and painting. This will take place in Saint Jean de Losne (SJdL) in several days.  Was able to do some varnish work while we waited.

Boat Projects for this year.

Barge Date:  08-06-2019

Winter Project home on the boat

Every year I have departed the boat I took ideas home that I could work on over the winter.  If I had a workshop in France, it would be better, but I must make do with off season projects. They must be works that will fit in a suitcase. Since we leave a good amount of clothing on the boat we have bags that are mostly empty.

For this year there were a number of woodworking jobs to do, some selection of hardware to use on the boat.  I am trying to make the barge more practical and also look better. Boats should look good but you don't want to obsess.

Here are some pictures of this year's work projects and some comments as needed.

We have nice seats at the helm, but for the height I like my feet not to reach the floor, and the small footrest on the seat is not comfortable.  First contemplated a small wooded bench, but then a brass bar rail popped up as a better idea.  And it is a better idea. Had to cut the pipe at home before my first flight over thinking I would need to get a final measurement and take it back home to cut. As luck would have it, it was perfect first time.

After 2 years we finally had boat cards made so we can give to people we meet.  On the back is information for the phone, emails, blog, and Facebook pages.

Hart Massey wrote 2 books about our barge.  The boat name then was simply Lionel.  So I took the 2 covers, had them enlarged and then framed them.  The book is in a holder to the side of the frame. We still need artwork for the boat.  Have been looking for canal and barge pictures with no luck.

When the cabin was re-done a few years back the brass screws and brass washers were painted over (the wood had been a dark stain). So I took a gamble and replaced the screws and washers with new ones. At first it kind of jumped at you - the look.  But it is growing on me, and I think as the brass gets some age and less luster it will look good.

What good is a window if bugs can come in. Last year I made a template of the window opening and planned how to build a frame for screen and how to attach it to the boat. This is what it looks like. Not totally happy with the fit at all windows; either my frames vary in size (not likely) or the windows do. I am mostly happy but will take back the best fitting frames and re-do the job this winter.  But as is,  these worked great although the fit could be better.  I use rare earth magnets to secure to metal side.

 Last year I put away all these fenders and rely solely on a different, less obvious fender. These blue things hanging from the boat gave off a bad look.  But there are times at mooring when they are needed, and I did not want to go into the forepeake to bring some up.  I did not want to have them just laying around on deck either, so this little wood project organizes 4 fenders in a good way.  I have about 10 more below which I should never need.

These are the brass lamps I purchased at the brocante held at one of the moorings we were at.  Will make a wood bracket this winter and they will hang in the wheelhouse.

We have these windows in the ceiling below and the previous hardware was not brass and did not work well.  So I was able to source the main support from Australia at a great price and good shipping. The other brass part is a simple hook lock. Still work to do on the windows that I have not yet been able to do this summer. The glass needs to be reset as it leaks (poor design), and the wood sanded and varnished.  Hope to still do this.

The single berth needed some place to hang some clothes.  I had previously put in some other brass hooks, but I think these will add more comfort for those that need more than under the bed.

 

A holder for the hand-held radio.

 A shelf for the shower room.  Made a second one for the forward sink but does not fit well so it goes back for a refit.

The 2 quick access panels for the anti-siphon valves.