MOORING AND COMMERCE

Coming into any mooring you need firstly to attach to the quayside then ensure you are and will remain quite static. Sometimes we are attached but too loosely as the evening later proves and we start to move about as the ropes stretch.

Come on Geoff, pull harder, don't leave Margaret to do all the ropes. 

Liking all the bare foot routine and the 6 pack! We don't always tie up as hard as the commercials, as they drive against the rope to tension it prior to fixing the stern rope. Or is it the ropes we have that stretch too much? The jury is out. It all works fine but as we are heading for Compiègne I will be going into possibly the best chandlery in France to discuss rope stretching and perhaps some new ropes.

In the 'have to' visit 'Musée de la Batellerie et des voies Navigables' (good title), the barge and navigation museum, we came across lots of things but a simple exhibit we thought very interesting. In very organised bottles were samples of all the cargoes that a single barge had transported in the lifetime of a commercial bargee.

Lots of stuff! Zoom in it's fascinating.