Day 37: 19/07/17 Will we ever escape Paris?????

We woke earlyish ready to make a start down the Marne. Patrick started to get things ready on deck while I sorted stuff below. I went to do the usual engine checks and noticed that Patrick had turned the seacocks off. We should do this every time we stop for a while but we don't always remember. I leant down to open them but when I grabbed the smaller on which lubricates the stern gland the whole thing moved! This was NOT good!

I yelled for Patrick and told him the bad news. Luckily it isn't leaking but we weren't going anywhere today. I took a walk up to the Captainaire and found out that the crane here is probably to small to lift us and the nearest crane is about a days motoring away. The guy gave us the phone number of a "technician" who spoke good English. Unfortunately the technician was on a boat delivery and not due back for a couple of days. He said he had a friend who only spoke French but could come that day.

Meanwhile we got in touch with the Cruising Association Honorary Local Representative for the area and he told us of places to get supplies and also another yard about 10 days away that was really well set up for lifting yachts.

As it became clear that the French technician may not arrive we decided to call our good friend Paul back at Burnham for a second opinion. He had some ideas but will talk with colleagues tomorrow and get back to us.

It was a bit of a boring day for the kids as we were essentially waiting in for the technician and it really needed both adults as Patrick is better with GRP and I speak the better French. We decided to use some of our precious data to download Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets... (the copy we got from a friend was corrupt) and so we had a pleasant movie afternoon followed by an evening at the park before a late curry dinner.