Rangali Adventures: Back onboard!

Friday 1^st May

0.5km 1 lock

We are back onboard Rangali……Hurray!!!

Our plans to return to France to continue our travels were delayed somewhat due to Kev having to have an operation on his frozen shoulder at the end of March. Prior to his operation we popped over to see Rangali mid March to de-winterise her and spend a few relaxing, sunny days onboard at Simon Evans Boat yard at Migennes.

We had planned to paint the hull ourselves this spring but because of the shoulder problem we decided to get Simon Evans to prepare the hull and repaint the blacking for us. He did a fabulous job and Rangali was ready and waiting for us back in the water when we returned last Friday.

We spent the weekend cleaning the rest of the boat in lovely sunny weather, but we then had heavy downpours of rain and thunderstorms, so much so that the river Yonne went onto yellow flood alert. The water level rose about a foot, and large branches and debris were flowing down the river. We were moored just under the crane, which Simon needed to use so on Tuesday we moved Rangali just around the corner onto the Canal du Bourgogne in Migennes town, where we are moored now. Better for us to be on the canal rather than being stuck on a flooding river, unable to move.

We are undecided about our route this year, we are definitely going to retrace our steps back along the Canal du Bourgogne, but then we shall see how we feel and what the water levels are like across the canal system. The Canal du Centre is the one to watch out for, as even now the water reserves are a level 3, (4 is better). Last year we heard it was closed early due to low water reserves and we will want to take the Canal du Centre to get us to Roanne, our 2015 winter mooring. We are going to take things slower this year to give Kev’s shoulder chance to repair and regain its full mobility, and we have to pop back UK to see the shoulder consultant at the end of July.

Its lovely to be back in France, onboard Rangali, even if it is pouring down with rain today! We met up with our good friends Roger and Glynwen yesterday. They are moored at Vermonton, so we both drove by car to Auxerre and we had a lovely few hours catching up with them over a coffee. On our way back to Migennes we dropped our car back at Simon Evans secure yard, where we will leave our car for three months. So its either boat, foot, bike or public transport from now on for us!

It’s a national holiday today so all the locks are closed. We plan to move off tomorrow (Saturday), fingers crossed the rain stops.