Cergy, Maucourt, Andresy FR 11-20 April 2023 After arriving in Cergy on Tuesday 11 April, we had a few things we had to do to get ready for cruising. Of course, the very first thing was to turn on the water and the pumps and then set up our bed. Then we had to unpack – both the clothes we had packed away in case of damp and our luggage from our trip. Our first night we went out for dinner as we hadn’t been to the supermarket. Cergy Port We had lots of jobs to do to get set-up including:
Deb found a nearby swimming pool and managed to visit 3 times to swim while we were there. Howard was her chauffeur and a couple of times did the shopping while she was swimming. On Thursday we visited the local e-bike shop and to get an e-bike for Deb to make it easier for her to get around with her sore feet. The manager of the shop didn’t speak English so all the questions and discussions were in French. In the end we picked up Deb’s new bike on Tuesday. Hopefully she will be a bit more mobile now. Our mechanic and now harbour master, Claude, dropped by on Thursday night to see what worked needed doing and what parts would be needed. On Claude’s suggestion we spoke to our neighbour Jimmy the next day about where to get fuel (he used to work in the industry). He and his wife were interested in seeing our boat and we were interested in seeing theirs so on Friday night we had a tour of their boat and then gave them a tour of ours. We then offered them a drink and we had quite a nice chat. She is pregnant so we gave them the porta-cot and high chair that we had purchased for Lily’s visit last year. Since they didn’t speak English, conversation had to be in French and we acquitted ourselves quite well again. Claude, came on Saturday to service the engine and replace the shower box (the old one sometimes overflowed). That all went well, and Howard and Claude visited the local chandlery to get oil, order filters and drop off life jackets for inspection. Deb was blogging our travels and started working on the wedding photos she had taken in California. Of course Howard also bought bait and fishing supplies and purchased a fishing license and had a cold and fairly unsuccessful fish in the port (but not a blank !) Claude arranged for someone to check our fire extinguishers on Tuesday so that was another good job to get done. Howard was keen to get more diesel on board before we started cruising. Luckily our neighbour Jimmy used to work on a fuel bunker boat and knew the ropes. In the end he arranged to us to meet a tanker truck in Maucourt about 60-90 minutes cruise away. We thought we needed about 1200 litres. But he also has a smaller boat which he is trying to sell which needs about 300l. Ordinarily they wouldn’t send a tanker for 300l, but since they are coming for us already he can get fuel too. We arranged to meet the truck on Wednesday, so, in order to have people around when we exited the harbour we arranged to leave on Tuesday afternoon. It was a little tricky exit as we had to reverse out of our mooring on an angle to allow us to cruise out of the harbour. Then we had to turn right into the river and do a U-turn in order to moor facing upstream on the outside pontoon for the night. Jimmy, his friend Antoine, and Claude, were on hand in case we needed help, but everything went very smoothly, and Claude said he would have to change his mind about lady skippers (Ha). We had forgotten to load our bikes back onto the boat before we cruised so Howard had to fetch them from the other side of the port. We had an old fold top desk in the lounge which the previous owners had left for us. We have decided to move Deb’s desk there so we needed to get rid of the old desk which wasn't big enough for Deb's big screen. Luckily Claude liked the desk and thought it would go well in his boat, so he and Howard moved it out to the Port office which was much closer to our new mooring. We were finally moored close to the restaurants of the harbour, so we went up for a nice meal. Wednesday morning was clear and light winds but still cold. Even so, Howard was in his usual shorts. We cruised down to Maucourt and were there before 11am. Jimmy and his friend Antoine turned up at about 11:20 in Jimmy's boat, L'Instant, and we waited for the fuel truck. At about 11:40 Jimmy got a call to say they were running late and would be there at about 2pm. So we had over 2 hours to wait. Cups of coffee and tea all around. We wanted to see Jimmy’s small boat, and Antoine wanted to look around our boat. So we did the tours. It was a lovely day so we hosted Jimmy and Antoine for lunch on the back deck, which was nice. The fuel truck arrived just after 2pm, but we were only able to put in less than 900 l, which was a surprise. We will have to work out why that is, as we were expecting to be able to put in at least 1200l. Jimmy’s boat took 400l, but at one point a fountain of diesel came and splashed everywhere. Quite dramatic. Antoine and Jimmy with a beer after we had finished. After the clean up and paying the bills we set off to Andresy just around the corner. We were surprised to get a call from Antoine. He and Jimmy had followed us to Andresy and said they would move the small boat in front of where we planned to moor to give us more room. This was very nice of them but also unnecessary as we had about 30m of space anyway. On the Andresy mooring was another barge Pania, with a WOB’s flag so we went down to say hello. They invited us in for a drink – me tea, Howard a beer. Caroline and Simon were very nice and were heading the same way as us. They warned us that the main marina in Paris (Arsenal) had no space for them and that they were going to moor in Villette which meant taking the Saint Denis canal. They even gave us the phone number for the Villette mooring. Thursday morning was another fine day and Howard went for a fish and caught a good catch of roach. Deb had a leisurely morning. After calling the port Arsenal, we also changed our plans to go to La Villette, but was unable to raise them on the phone number we had. hIn the afternoon Howard set off on his bike to pick up our life jackets, which have been checked, and the engine filters, which had arrived. Then he went to Cergy to pick up the rental car and drove it to the airport to return it. He then caught a bus back to Cergy, which was late and then very slow. Then he had a 20 minute walk back to Cergy where he met up with Claude who gave him and his bike a lift back to Andresy. Claude stayed for dinner and also looked up upgrading the firmware of the victron electricity controller. However the connectivity was different to what he expected and so was unable to upgrade it, so we have left it for the time being. As he said "If it isn't broken don't fix it". Claude That was the last of our preparation jobs so we can now go off cruising.
2 Comments
Robyn Coates
22/4/2023 11:49:17 pm
I enjoy reading of your travels and love seeing the photos although I don’t usually comment. Safe travels.
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Caesar Paul
24/4/2023 04:57:01 am
The fun has begun, particularly for Howard with his impressive catch of fish. Fish fry or fish broth?
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