The Journey -
Still Alive on Rosy

It's been a few weeks since the last wittering, and in that time life has had its ups and downs.  On several occasions I was feeling extremely low, fearing that the length of time that it is taking to get a new engine installed could jeopardise the big PLAN of getting to Poland next year.  (Incidentally, in the Oct '03 issue of Waterways World there are some piccies of the boat lift that I want to go up (and down) with Rosy).  Last minute-itis is a particular disease prevalent in these parts that is really getting under my skin.

The Canal de Centre is currently closed, but rumours abound that it is to open.  Everyone who visits the marina here comes armed with a date when the canal will open - the first week of October, October 15 for a week etc etc.  In particular there is a garrulous Irishman who hoves into view a bit too frequently for my fancy, since a chance "Ow do" to him can lead to a 45 minute ear-bashing.  Not that he is not interesting.  He has a boat and three vehicles here in France, but he's the sort of chap who finds that the complications of having three sets of vehicle number plates a touch tricky to deal with, so he gets by with just the one set, which he has to detach from the current motor and attach to the motor that he next wants to move.  Montchanin seems to be a depot for one of the cars, so he appears here when he wants to use it.  Anyway, he announces a different date each time he puts in appearance, and is wholly unfazed that his last date was 100% untrue, false and, hence, misleading.

However, a message from the waterway manager himself confirms that the canal will open, in a southerly direction only, on 22, 23 and 24 October.  It's a two-day voyage from here to the end of the canal at Chalon on the River Soanne, so I aim to leave here (Montchanin) on the morning of the 22nd - I arrived here in early June for an engine change.

I'm a bit concerned about having to travel some 80 kms up the River Soane on a new engine that is not particularly well tried and tested, but if I don't do it, and get to the Canal de Marne à Soane and hence to the N of France, then getting to Poland next year will be nearly impossible.

Furthermore, Rosy has still not had her bottom exposed to air for a good scrubbing, blacking, inspection and probably addition of more anodes and the drilling of a below-the-waterline hole for the secondary, raw water cooling system.  However, my Polish partners are booked into a dry dock early in 2004, and the dock is large enough for the two of us.  Meanwhile, the raw water will be drawn in through some rigid plastic piping rigged over the side out through the engine room side doors - not pretty but, hopefully, effective.  Indeed, this system is still not completely built!!  I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow (Monday) and to give it a test on Tuesday, and then to go on Wednesday.  I had hoped to have all this done WEEKS ago, and to have had the first, 25-hour engine service completed - instead I'll be leaving here with no more that five hours on the engine - which all adds to the stress levels!!!

The one-hour maiden voyage with the new engine (and skin tank only cooling system) took place two weeks ago, up and down the 4 km long summit pound.  The engine performed very well, and seems (as I had calculated/hoped) to be a good match for the propeller.  Unfortunately, the test run was at the start of a cold spell - and we (or rather, I) ran out of fuel!!!  The reason is that the Kabola Old Dutch diesel stove had been lit, and it is using three times as much fuel as it should.  WHY!!!!!!  The Kabola information to customers treats us all as total fuckwits, and is of the type "If the flame burns too high, turn the regulator down." Well.  My oh!  my!!  Who would have guessed that!!

Reflex, who sell a similar stove, give exploded diagrams of the regulator, and suggest taking the top of it off and blasting it with an air hose every couple of years.  They also tell you about the filter in the regulator which they say should be taken out and cleaned every few months - Kabola don't even tell you that there IS a filter!!!!!  Aaaarrgghhh!!!  So I've cleaned the filter, and, mysteriously, the flame seems to be a little lower.  But I believe that there is a mysterious pin somewhere in the system that needs a clean now and again - but Lord knows where it is!!

I've mentioned Owatrol before.  When I first got interested in boating, I read that older Dutch barges often have the hull in remarkably good condition due to the use, by the Dutch, of some magic 'hull oil'.  I now believe this oil to be Owatrol, which is, I think, of Danish or Scandinavian origin.  It is an oily looking fluid.  Loose rust should be brushed away, and oil applied.  Remarkably it seems to soak into iron and steel, leaving an amazingly tough (but very thin) skin on the surface.  I put some onto a steel plate which then needed welding.  I thoroughly ground down the surface, but the weld was still tricky to apply.  Owatrol can also be mixed into other paints as an 'extender' and metal preservative.  I've also, now, seen it used on wood.  Again, it soaks in, and forms an extremely tough surface skin.  It gives what looks like a varnish finish, but is infinitely tougher, and it could be over-painted.  It's not cheap, 17 Euros a litre here, 17 pounds a litre in UK.

Although Owatrol is tough, it isn't as pretty on wood as Deks Olije (I think that's how it is spelt).  Deks Olije is much more similar to a varnish, except that, unlike varnish, it doesn't need continual rubbing down and recoating - it just needs recoating!!!  The more coats you put on, the shinier it becomes.  And next year ...  just add a couple of more coats.  With just one or two coats, one gets the preservative effect, but a natural, matt finish.  Of course, you don't achieve such a brilliant, deep shine as one would if one applied 13 coats of varnish and rubbed it off and started again each year - but do you want to go boating, or stay in port and do some more varnishing?

Nature is still hard at work.  Misty, frosty mornings and shorter days.  The walnut season is over, and there are about 2 or 3 kgs on Rosy to see us through the winter.  I picked some sloes and made half a litre of sloe gin at the beginning of September, but the sloes were hardly ripe.  So this morning I picked some more and made another half litre.  I don't add much sugar to the brew - a mere teaspoonful - and use a couple of drops of the resultant cheek-sucking brew in dry martinis and G&Ts.

And that, as they say, is that!!

Toodle pip!!

Bill