July 4 – Orconte to Saint-Dizier
Our journey today was not as simple as yesterday – we had our own “fireworks”. Coming into the lock at Saint-Dizier, a nice size city where we planned to do some errands and spend the night, we lost the propeller function at the entrance to the lock. We thought we had actually lost the prop! We had to tie up to the sign that lets you know if the lock is ready to enter, in the middle of a weed field. The lock-keeper who was traveling from lock to lock with us came over to see what the problem was. He is a darling young man, Benoit (pronounced “Burr-nwa”), nickname Ben. He is an engineering student in Reims, 18 years old and this is his summer job – fortunately he speaks some English – that with the help of a dictionary worked towards a resolution. He took Dave with him to find the firemen who would dive under the boat and in the canal to see if they could locate the prop and nut that holds it on the propeller shaft. The firemen came right away and dove under the boat where they found the prop but the nut that held it on was at the bottom of the canal – we will stay here until Friday to have the repair completed. It will give us a chance to explore and do some shopping; it’s always a welcome break to get some work done on the boat and relax in one place. I can do my stenciling and perhaps find some fabric to make curtains with my new sewing machine.
Suffice it to say that Dave did not see this as an opportunity for anything productive, but another fault of British workmanship. When we called the manufacturer of the prop to have another nut expressed to us – they said this had never happened before! Hopefully the nut will arrive on Thursday and the firemen will come back to install it (underwater). When Dave had to accompany Ben to the firehouse – he of course wanted me to go with him to negotiate but I told him he should go instead (after all – it is his boat). A bit piqued, he threw his paratrooper bicycle onto shore (the one that is supposed to be able to be thrown from an airplane onto the ground) and punctured a tire. Anyway, I guess the good news was that we didn’t lose the propeller – it would have been sitting in the canal in a foot of mud and probably wouldn’t have been found.
After some sort of calm was restored, we walked into town (about 2 km) and had dinner. When we came back to the boat we heard the most outrageous noise I have ever heard – something that sounded like a cat in distress – it was a frog on a lily pad in the canal!
It was not your usual Fourth of July in St.-Dizier for us!