December 2012 - Happy Christmas!

Only two weeks till Christmas and we have got our Christmas tree up...

Our wood-burning stove keeps us lovely and warm...

We've put some lights up in the wheelhouse...

There are 3 or 4 boats with the owners wintering in the port this winter and they have organised a weekly 'movie night'.  Everyone takes it in turn to choose and provide a movie so its pot luck what you get to see.  But a great idea and a good way of getting people together.

October - November 2012

Its autumn in the UK at the moment and the gardens of our flat are looking lovely - we don't mind the leaves - some people complain but we think that they look really pretty. Often the deer come down from the forest to graze.  We have seen a stag, a doe and two young fawns. I'll try and find a picture of them.

We also took the opportunity of spending a sunny day up in London, where we met up with our barging neighbour Dorothe who was visiting London for the first time. We had a wonderful day doing all the sightseeing things you never get round to!

                                                                                                          London looking wonderful in the sunshine

The London Eye

The houses of Parliament                                           

                   

  Big Ben

Sir Winston Churchill

                     

   The lions guarding Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

The Millenium Bridge leading to St Paul's Cathedral

August 2012

At last we are now ready to cruise...

We will only do a short cruise this year due to our late start and will go down the Yonne River. 

 Click here to see our video "Summer 2012".

July 2012

Because of the bad weather - so much rain - we have struggled to get our painting maintenance done, but inbetween showers, we have managed to get most of it done and are pleased with the final job..

May 2012

Back on Izula to prepare for the summer cruising season.

The weather is dreadful so no painting can be done yet.  We had a storm with 100kph gusts which bent our parasol!  We were up at 3am hanging onto the struts so that  it wasn't blown away.  With the help of our neighbour, we managed to straighten it out again.

We have started planting our terrace garden

- should look good  once it has all grown up

April 2012

Back in the UK spring has arrived and everything looks particularly gorgeous this year...

    

                                                                     

                           

February 2012

Cold, cold, cold....Auxerre is having a really cold month, with temperatures down to -10 in some places.

The canals are frozen over...

.....with the rivers providing some lovely photo opportunities.....

....frozen icicles hanging from the branches

                              ... it's hard to remember those sultry days of summer!

November 2011

We have been at home for a while after bedding Izula down for the winter - catching up with friends and family and despite the weather being fairly lousy we are having a great time.

August - September 2011

After a long stay in the shipyard, we are very happy to get cruising againand set off down the Marne River which is one of our favourite trips.

                                                        

July 2011

We had to be taken out of the water at a shipyard very close to Paris for our 7 yearly survey which is required by our insurance and to check that the hull was in good condition.

We look tiny compared to the huge Bateau Mouche alongside us which carries tourists up and down the Seine in Paris.










It was quite hairy as we had to use and almost vertical ladder to get on and off the ship and at first it seemed so high!  We soon got used to it though.

You can see where the new steel has been added.










Our surveyor recommended that some of the steel plates on the bottom would need replacing in a couple of year's time so we decided to do it whilst we were out of the water this time in order to save another visit to the shipyard....                                                                                                

,,,this is a new plate being put in place...

Now we are all perfect again and ready for cruising....

Click here  and scroll down to the viedo "Shipyard Visit..." to see more on our time in the shipyard

June 2011

This is a very busy time for us as we are preparing to cruise up to the chantier (shipyard) and as we didn,t cruise last year, there's a ton of stuff to sort out.  We will be lifted out of the water - all 90 tons of us - so that the bottom  can be pressure-washed and repainted.  Before the painting can be done, our surveyor  will inspect the hull for thickness of the steel plates underneath.  There is a minimum requirement of 4mm thickness and any plates below that will have to be replaced. He will also compile a report on the barge for our insurance company.

All our barge poles were looking very tatty so I have been sanding and re-painting them today. Yesterday we hauled the dinghy out of the water - great strength required! and had to scrub down the underneath - full of algae and yucky stuff!  

But,  the view from our mooring is great....