{"id":13817,"date":"2024-09-15T10:03:05","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T14:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/?p=13817"},"modified":"2024-09-15T10:33:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T14:33:33","slug":"saturday-september-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/?p=13817","title":{"rendered":"Saturday, September 14"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chateauneuf-sur-Charente Mooring Wall
\/\/\/intervention.arched.observes
45\u00b036’6.0264″N, 0\u00b03’5.1768″W

to

Mosnac-Saint-Simeux Mooring Wall
\/\/\/debility.unzip.gilding
45\u00b037’17.5332″N, 0\u00b01’34.9824″W<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distance travelled: 4 kilometers plus 2 locks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another chilly morning greeted us. I was up at 5:00 am trying to figure out how the gas heater works so I could heat up the main cabin for the crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On board the boat Catherine & I have essentially reversed our morning wake-up times. At home she is normally up around 5:30 – 6:30 am to practice yoga & to work on her writing projects. That’s at least 1 – 2 hours before I get up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here on the boat I’m usually the first to get up around 5:00 – 5:30 am to boil some water for coffee & tea for the crew & to also try to generate some heat in the main cabin. After those tasks are completed I have a bit of time to work on the blog before the rest of the crew wakes up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boat has a propane gas heater but it requires shore power for the hot air fan to work.  There have only been a few mooring spots where shore power was available so I have resorted to boiling a large pot of water on the galley’s propane stove to help warm up the room. It’s crude but it works!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess if I had the right skills I could be baking baguettes & croissants in the oven. That would warm up the galley, make the boat smell amazing & give us some tasty treats for the day. Sadly, my culinary talents are pretty much limited to boiling water so I will stick to that routine & we will have to rely on the local bakers for our treats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – I was especially motivated to get up early this morning because we were having choclatines for breakfast that the crew bought yesterday afternoon from a bakery in the village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We only have 5 locks left to go through before we arrive back at the Nicols  charter boat base in Sireuil. We planned to go through 2 locks today & spend the night on the mooring wall at Mosnac-Saint-Simeux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – looking back at our mooring spot at Chateauneuf-sur-Charante as we depart for Mosnac-Saint-Simeux. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above –  a home beside the river on the edge of the village. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – a little bit of someone’s paradise located just a few hundred meters before we reached our first lock of the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – entering our first lock. Thankfully the sun was getting strong enough to warm us up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ByPhoto above – Valerie taking in some sun while the boat is rising in the lock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – The place where we have docked for the day is also directly in front of Pub Gabariers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We arrived at Mosnac-Saint-Simeux around 11:30 am, so this was a very short travel time for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This village is very pretty but doesn’t have any amenities other than the pub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Valerie and Catherine went for a walk through the village to see the church on the hilltop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – morning glories and cat along the way<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – kitten crossing sign – go slowly!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – the interior of the church <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – amazing light pattern through the stained glass window onto the stone floor inside the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the women were out walking, I noticed a really nice sports car in the parking lot & walked over to take a closer look at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michel, the owner of the car & his friend Gilles came over to talk with David & I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – this is a 1971 Renault Alpine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michel has owned this car for 44 years. He didn’t speak much English but his friend was quite fluent so we had a great conversation about classic cars & all the work that Michel had done to the car over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They told us that there was a big classic sports rally & races in Angouleme this weekend. And, lucky for us, many of the rally cars were touring the area & would be driving on the road past where we were staying for the night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had lunch in the pub & it was very tasty. David & I had hamburgers & Valerie & Catherine had chicken burgers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a unique snack “vending machine” close to where we were sitting. You could buy little cans of peanuts, jelly beans, olives & other snacks from it. The cafe owner told us it was very old but still worked & was restocked frequently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – David getting some snacks from the vending machine. You find what you want to buy & then manually turn the entire top until the column of  snacks you want is lined up with a little door. Then you put in a 1 Euro coin to unlock the door!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After lunch we all had a brief rest. About 4:00 pm some sports cars started arriving in the pub’s parking lot & some of the drivers told us that there would be a few dozen classic cars coming down the adjacent road very shortly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – David told me he used to own a car just like this. A 1972 MGB GT from 1974 to 1976.  His was aqua colour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – Citroen CV – very classic French. I’d love a car like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – Porsche Speedster – Catherine wants one of these. However, this particular model of car is worth as much as a very nice boat that I would love to have. So, I guess we will have to decide.  Quite honestly, I think the value of the car would increase over time whereas the boat is likely to depreciate, so the car is a better choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – this would be a fun car to tour France in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – or how about this one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – this one is very sporty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – another!  Sadly, I have so little time & even less money to pursue these gems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we were watching about two dozen classic cars drove by. We were able to get a good look at each of them as they passed because they were coming up to a 90 degree corner & had to slow right down to navigate the turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catherine & I walked a little further down the road to view a little basin off the main river channel that had been restored a number of years ago. Part of the infrastructure in the basin was originally designed to trap eels that the fishers would sell to locals & eat themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – a view of the restored basin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late in the afternoon we began to think about our evening meal & also about what provisions we would need to finish off our cruise on the Charente. We have to return the boat by 9:00 am on Monday morning so there isn’t much point to buying more groceries. We decided to make the best with what we have on hand & then look for a cafe if we need more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – we started with a late afternoon chaqueterie board. If you take a close look at the photo you will see that it is a pretty meagure offering. We all had a pretty good chuckle over that & then poured ourselves another glass of wine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catherine & Valerie once again worked their “galley magic” & came up with additional snacks that were more than sufficient to satisfy our cravings. No one has gone hungry on this cruise!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the sun set our minds turned once again to euchre & we played several rounds until bedtime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo above – The moon was now rising & was about 3\/4 of the way to being full. We had a nice view of it from our stern & enjoyed it’s reflection in the water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am still learning how to get the most out of the camera that comes with my new phone. Hopefully I can get some nice moon shots over the next week or two.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow is our last day on the boat. We just have 3 locks & a few kilometers to go to arrive at the boat charter base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chateauneuf-sur-Charente Mooring Wall\/\/\/intervention.arched.observes45\u00b036’6.0264″N, 0\u00b03’5.1768″W to Mosnac-Saint-Simeux Mooring Wall \/\/\/debility.unzip.gilding45\u00b037’17.5332″N, 0\u00b01’34.9824″W Distance travelled: 4 kilometers plus 2 locks Another chilly morning greeted us. I was up at 5:00 am trying to figure out how the gas heater works so I could heat up the main cabin for the crew. On board the boat Catherine & I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-france"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ppZJ-3AR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13817"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13840,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13817\/revisions\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knotsnplots.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}