More interesting boats (part 3)

And here are the last of these interesting boats we have seen – this time mostly the rather deadbeat and derelict ones in France!

Saw this one somewhere in the Netherlands. Would love to know what inspired this colour scheme!

This is the first of quite a few of these poor unloved boats we noticed in this area.

It was interesting to remember that when we were in Montceau-le-Mines in 2017 the marina was pretty run down and full of this sort of boat. On the return in 2018, there was a brand new marina with new floating jetties and no derelict boats. So now we know where they have moved to …..

And a couple more on the Canal de Roanne a Digoin. This canal is a bit of a dead end, so ideal for parking of these boats.

It is such a pity that these boats get to this state, as they are now pretty well unsellable. This was one of the reasons we sold Shangri La, our Dutch Steel Motor Cruiser, while she was still in good condition. If we had let her deteriorate, we probably would never been able to sell her.

The above pic was taken on probably one of the most stressful days I ever had! We had decided to take the “scenic” route from Amsterdam to Marken via the Trekvaart. The maps indicated it was deep enough but a lot of the way I had 0 metres on the echo sounder, and at one point we came across this dredging operation. One man operation. Digger on a barge. He moved the barge and the sand barge around with the digger arm. We waited about 20 mins while he worked away, Then he manoeuvred everything to the bank so we could slide through. Still zero on the echo sounder!

It was all soft mud so all was well, but I was relieved to get back into deeper water.

So there we are – Shangri La well and truly wedged in at Sixhaven at Amsterdam. We arrived mid afternoon. The harbour master asked how long we would stay – about 3 days we said. So he berthed us right inside in front of the Capitainerie. Wonderful we thought. And then the boats started coming and coming and soon the place was packed. No chance for us to leave had we wanted to. This seemed to be the pattern. The marina would empty during the morning and fill up in the afternoon. The day before we planned to leave we arranged with the harbour master to move to a berth right near the entrance so we could depart when we needed. That’s what we loved about the Netherlands. Things just worked!

Quite surprising to find deadbeat boats in and near St Jean de Losne –

Bit disappointing – but from my experiences of H2O they are all about making as much money as possible!

Quite an exciting end to our time at H2O st Jean de Losne. That day we had taken Shangri La from the marina and across to the yard for the buyers survey. While the surveyor was busy we heard this explosion and saw palls of smoke. It transpired that apparently this boat owner had been doing work on his petrol tank and had caused an explosion and fire. End result was he was hospitalised, his boat was a wreck and about 3 other boats were severely damaged. All other boats berthed within about a 100 metre radius were covered in soot and debris. We were saved as we had moved to the other side.

And finally one more sad boat we saw on the Saone –

But happy boating anyway. Gosh do we miss our boat!!!