Port St. Louis & Port Napoleon

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May 24, 2010: OUR LAST MOMENTS ON THE RIVER RHONE! Finally, Port St. Louis and our shipyard destination, Port Napoleon…Grateful Red’s becoming a sailing yacht once again!


Eddie and Ken relaxing while waiting for the lock to process.

Port St. Louis was nice and we got a slip right away. Backed into a slip with shore crew waiting to take our stern line, and within moments became a curiosity for the “neighboring” boats. Our first visitor was English and he gave us some “low-downs” of the area. After checking in, we opened some cold white wine and sat in the Cockpit. People are funny and will just stop and stare at you. Rare sight to see a big beautiful red sailboat from America!!! Eddie was a hit as usual and with our big American flag off the stern of the boat, we were “ogled” by the people that would walk the promenade back and forth.

Early the next morning we paid for our mooring and prepared to leave. We had made prior arrangements with Port Napoleon to bring our boat over Monday morning and they would start work on Tuesday after taking the boat out of the water. This left us with Monday to clear, clean and prepare for the boats being taken out. We motored through the well-marked shallow canal leading into Port Napoleon. Arriving, we were greeted by the M-Marine manager who directed me to a slip close to the haul-out. Ken said I did a perfect job docking and must have impressed the Frenchmen standing around watching. Glad to show that a woman is not just a pretty deck hand, but can also maneuver a big boat.

Checking into the Captaineres office, we made arrangements for a bungalow to stay in (setup for transients and temporary housing for boat owners) and also found we could rent a container to store our boat equipment that we would take off during the repair and mast re-stepping. We knew the boat would get dirty during this next 2 weeks so we took all cushions, clothes, fenders, bimini, sails, etc off and hauled them to our container. Tuesday the boat was promptly taken out of the water and put in a location near the marine shop. Estimates and work lists discussed and promises made.

May 22nd & 23rd, Last days on Rhone River

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Saturday morning in Valence, Mark and Mark left around 6:30 for their train, and Ken and I took off around 8am heading for the first lock. Approaching the lock, we watched as a HUGE blue barge inched its way into the lock. The tightest fit I have ever seen in the locks. We had a place to tie-up while we waited for the barge to complete his maneuver into the lock, hoping all the time, another barge would not approach in which case took precedence over cruising vessels. Leaving the lock was the same; we stayed tied up until we saw daylight on the top of his pilot house on the boat. No point in releasing earlier as we would have to “hover” in the lock for his exit. Our total time for this lock was 1-1/2 hours. We followed this barge ( Mari Lune) the entire day to Avignon through the six locks of the day and 120 kms. Mari Lune did much better in the remaining locks for the day.

 

Today we experienced one of the deepest locks on the Rhone River. Lock Bollene is 26 meters deep or approximately 104 ft deep and is very intimidating when you are ready to leave and look up. You feel very small when in it, especially along side the large barges and container ships.


Donzere gorge

We arrived in Avignon late in the afternoon after passing Donzere Gorge and other beautiful scenes on the Rhone. Avignon is known as the walled city of the grand Papal palace, and has the remains of the famous Balad Bridge that was bombed by the Germans.

Arriving this late made it difficult to find mooring space along the city quay, so we “rafted” along side what appeared to be an abandoned fuel barge. Worked well as we could walk across it to the quay and Eddie could have an easy time without me having to carry him. We walked into the walled city and found a very nice French bistro where we enjoyed some white wine and a light snack. The waiter was not pleased that Ken “rearranged” the table and chairs so we both could have a nice view of the street activities. After finishing and putting the table and chairs back in “order”, Ken went to do a bit of exploration and I went back to the boat to attend to Eddie and prepare for our last day on the River. After our long hot day, we were happy to make it an early evening. Ken and I were anxious for our last day on the River to reach Port St. Louis, and thus begin the new chapter of our trip. Summer on the Mediterranean Sea and St-Tropez.

Sunday, May 23rd, left Avignon around 10am after steak and eggs breakfast. Needed our energy today. We had 80 kms to go and one big final river lock and the flood lock in Port St. Louis. We knew we had to hurry toward the end of the day because the flood lock only opened one time per hour and closed for the day at 5pm. We made the last opening at 4:15 with minutes to spare. Not sure what we would have done for the night in the River, but we were glad we did not have to make that decision. The flood lock includes a lift bridge for cars so it was a slow hot process. Eddie was decked out in his fancy harness and barking at anyone and everything he thought necessary. He seemed to “feel” our excitement of the journeys end.

Mark and Mark’s great 2-day adventure on the Rhone River

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Thursday, may 20th, Leaving Lyon to Valence

Thursday morning before we left Lyon, Ken and Mark walked to the Gare station to get a return schedule from several locations situated along the Rhone. Mark and Mark’s two days with us would be factored around where we could be Saturday morning in time for them to catch this return train to Paris.

This first picture is where the Saone and Rhone Rivers meet.

Armed with this information our informal plans were to stop in Les Roches de Condrieu, a nice little marina across from the town of Condrieu. (a fine wine community). We would stay Thursday night and then Valence Friday night. They would then take a taxi to the local Valence GARE station for their trip to Paris. This part of the journey was wide Rhone Rivers and very deep locks. We only hit 2 locks on Thursday, one being Pierre-Benite.

We motored about 40 kms this day and arrived in Les Roches de Condrieu with a 3-4 knot current at our back. The “men” went to explore across the river some local wine shops and returned with a small assortment of Rhone wines, stating that the shop keeper would deliver any wine we would purchase the next morning right to our boat. (we already are deeper in the water due to our earlier wine and champagne purchases so I was not as excited as they were). Dinner at the nearby Hotel Bellvue, and then preparation for Fridays departure.




The “boys” handling the lines – Eddie is managing them!

Friday, we pulled over to the diesel dock, fueled up and decided to for-go the “wine shopping” trip. We had 72 kms to go and 3 BIG locks to maneuver. Being in the Rhone river meant we sometimes had to give-way to the large container ships when they approached a lock. Most of the time we could still squeeze in, but it could be a potential delay of 1-2 hours. The day went well, we had fun in the locks and we arrived in Valence around 5:30. Valence is an old ancient town featuring a 17th century cathedral. Our quay was downriver of the bridge so we did not experience the city. The marina was small and I think we found the only space that would accommodate a boat of our size. After checking in to the Capitianare, getting the shower combo and making the taxi arrangements, I made salmon cakes and large greek salad for dinner. We ate in the cockpit and this was the very first time we could the entire trip due to weather conditions. Especially fine time for me!