Finally on the water again.
Weather looking promising as we head up through Trier and up to Luxembourg, where you can buy diesel for 25% less. So as we bought over 500litres that is a big saving.
Past Wasserbillig that now looks nice and calm 5 weeks after the floods.
We are a little concerned at the amount of green on the vines from the rain, and the tiny size of the grapes!!!
Still getting good sunsets.
Still some bloody big boats around even now we have come back down the Moselle again from Luxembourg and swung up the Saar river towards France.
Passed through Mettlach where we managed to sneak into the Villaroy and Boch China factory shop and come out empty handed.
This is also the place (only 40 mins by car from Schweich), that after 3 days of leaving, and paying the bill, we have to call and send Christoph videos so he can come back to look at the diesel slick and smoke the engine is still making. We have to admit, he and the diesel specialist turned up the next morning and told us to try running for 50 hrs. Obviously a pie in the sky hope , so we continued up towards Sarreguemines to celebrate Bastille Day on French soil.
At 22.45pm boats starting coming up river, covered in lights, bleating horns sounding like cockerals, and weaving all over the place… couldnt swear any of them were sober!! then the fire works. As usual the French towns do it so well with fun fairs, music and food stalls.
Of course it absolutetly bucketed down during the evening and the next morning this was the inside and outside temp. My lady is fully clothed!!!
Then the next morning we hear about the City of Nice… From what we heard most celebrations planned for the weekend were cancelled in respect for the people who suffered.. When will this senseless behaviour end???
On our way we past over a Km of cyclists, all in similar coloured lycra ?? going where??
So now we head back to Schweich to find out the plan for Kiwi rose… of course Max and I speculated madly about it, (and we know some much about diesel engines!!)
Yehh Right !!
Off back down the Saar , and at least its down stream now. Stopped again in Mettach and decided to buy a Christmas souvinir and visit the Villaroy and Boch Museum.
All the setting set out so nicely, but the shop was bloody expensive,,, oh if we had the money!!! But wouldn’t it have been great to travel with luggage like this in the 20-30’s .
As we leave we spot this turtle, sunning itself, and a paddle-boarder trying to use our wake to go faster!!
SO, SO SO, A Long story short about the engine…. We initially got water into the engine through the exhaust.( another long story) Buggered up the pistons, 5 & 6,. So engine was taken out of the boat last winter, and taken away and reconditioned. It was put back in in March and trialled and worked beautifully.
Unfortunately the water issue wasn’t dealt with until after a few trail runs out on the water, so in the meantime water has re-entered the engine and buggered the pistons again.
After taking the engine apart in the boat and the blind hope that we might NOT have to take the engine out, its still got to come out again.
Rather than sit around on a useless boat, in a place we haven’t chosen to be, and have already been in for 12 weeks, we have decided to head back to UK. Time frame is around 3 weeks, and as we have leased our flat out till September we are scrounging beds of friends etc .
I would have liked to have seen the engine coming out of the boat, ( a forklift through the window, etc etc) but Max is glad to be going.
So we head off this morning to the Eurotunnel to home. We should be able to still get Kiwi Rose up to Maastricht for the winter as planned, just our time on the boat will run later into the year.
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