Completing Season 2022 ( 04/09/22 – 25/09/22)

Reuil – Migennes

Again, just an overview, of what we did during the balance of the season 2022. At some point in the future, we will cover what we did in detail.

From Reuil we continued cruising down the River Marne through the vendage that was taking place in Champagne. Glorious weather, pleasant cruising and some very nice moorings. We stopped at a number of the places that we had skipped on the way up including Dormans (with an impressive war memorial),

Nogent l’Artaud (beautiful quiet mooring),

Mary-sur-Marne (outside of a highly recommended restaurant at which we dined with friends)

and onwards to Meaux. While staying there, we hopped into Paris on the train to do some shopping. Lisette for books for the grandchildren,

and me for ice cream.

We sped on down the Marne and exited back onto the Seine where we had arranged to catch up with Sofie and Lionel who had invited us to moor alongside their home on their peniche Dahra with their spectacular recreational boat Erbus Imperial moored alongside.

We had a delightful catch-up but had to leave the next day as early as possible as it was a long haul to our next stopping place. However, thick fog delayed our start but did provide an opportunity for friends Alan and Susan on Dea Latis, who were moored in a nearby marina, to take a photo just before we left.

However, we made great time and eight cruising days after leaving Reuil we made it to our favourite mooring spot in Joigny.

Here we started our winterising work but took the opportunity to treat ourselves to another meal at ‘La Rive Gauche’. The meal was memorable and delicious – a fitting gustatory end to the season.

It was a misty morning when we took off for Migennes but after some cautious cruising we made it to Simon’s yard and moored, five boats out from the quay. While we were there,  we finally managed to catch up with Jonathan and Jeannie on Aleau in cruising mode when they joined us for lunch one day as they passed by on their way to Joigny.

At this point, we continued with the winterising which included packing all our flower-filled plant pots and herbs off to decorate the garden outside Simon’s office.

Very much tired of stripping and painting wood and refreshing paint on the wheelhouse after each winter, we had bought two more tarps to cover it and protect against the elements.

So five days after arriving at Migennes we were ready to leave. The season had been about sixteen weeks. We had spent ten of them working on Catharina. Fulfilling though we find that work, it really was a lot this year. Still, the six weeks we had spent cruising were as good or better than any we had enjoyed in the past. Catharina had covered 863 km, through 120 locks, most of that in the six recreational weeks. The smoky old DAF had run for 150 hours and we had used about 425 L of fuel for an average consumption of 2.8 L/h and 49 L/100 km.

It was a bit sobering to think that next season was going to start off with an enormous amount of work in order to get Catharina’s hull sorted out – but that was a ways away.

We left in the morning, to an airport hotel that Lisette had booked and approved. It was clean and comfortable and the environs were free from rats.

After the long flight home, we arrived on a cool Autumn day in Sunbury but our house was warm, well-provisioned, with a meal prepared and the garden in tip-top condition thanks to the care that Laura and Silvia, with encouragement from Amelia, had taken of Wattle Drive. Mike looked ‘well covered’ and dropped into her normal routine. Overall, another memorable season.