Sunday, August 27, 2006
Addy (my sister) and husband Willem invited us for a mystery adventure somewhere in France. It turned out to be a one week cruise on a mega$$ boat and after some quick lessons we were let loose on 66 locks and about 100 bridges, which are still undamaged, I believe.... Chica, their boxer was part of the adventure and we are happy to say that she jumped overboard only once, which resulted in Willem getting a mudbath to rescue her!
I never knew that driving a boat was so different from a car, the steering is about 5 seconds slow to react and in reverse there is no steering at all, no handbrake, airbags or seatbelts, even the anker was not to be used and the horn was ..... disconnected......
We could steer inside or outside but when it started to rain we had a choice of getting soaked or driving the boat from inside with no view and no demister. So Addy and Tanneke giggled for two hours while getting soaked to the socks. Even funnier was the lock we had just entered and the automatic system stopped because of lightning strike somewhere else. The doors of the lock were half open and so we were very much stuck, not being able to go forward or backwards. A mechanic came to our rescue after half an hour. All locks are self operated, either manually or with a special card. Look at the LH bottom picture and you can just sense the peace. At RH bottom Addy is crossing the aquaduct at Agen, built some 200 years ago. The other pictures show the tight fit in some of the locks and Chica getting her lifevest (with handle); unfortunately she was not wearing it when she jumped overboard....
I never knew that driving a boat was so different from a car, the steering is about 5 seconds slow to react and in reverse there is no steering at all, no handbrake, airbags or seatbelts, even the anker was not to be used and the horn was ..... disconnected......We could steer inside or outside but when it started to rain we had a choice of getting soaked or driving the boat from inside with no view and no demister. So Addy and Tanneke giggled for two hours while getting soaked to the socks. Even funnier was the lock we had just entered and the automatic system stopped because of lightning strike somewhere else. The doors of the lock were half open and so we were very much stuck, not being able to go forward or backwards. A mechanic came to our rescue after half an hour. All locks are self operated, either manually or with a special card. Look at the LH bottom picture and you can just sense the peace. At RH bottom Addy is crossing the aquaduct at Agen, built some 200 years ago. The other pictures show the tight fit in some of the locks and Chica getting her lifevest (with handle); unfortunately she was not wearing it when she jumped overboard....
