DELUSIONS?

When is a barge not a barge? When it's 'Majesty of the Seas'. This bizarre barge is about the same size as Soraya but a 'scale' model of an ocean going cruise liner. With life boats hundreds of fake port holes, engine exhaust etc.

Majesty of the Seas.

Not sure where you steer from? I think you have to squint through the tiny row of windows on the apparent bridge. The scale is deceiving as those windows are only about a foot, 30cm, square.

Another delusion on the Canal de la Sarre was this timber boat. It was listing severely. On discussion with the owner, a German, he informed me that 'it had sprung a board and was about to turn into a submarine!' I asked was the boat old? 'No I have just built it'. Bit of a conversation stopper as it looked derelict, totally unseaworthy, listing badly and don't even consider the aesthetics! The list he informed me was self inflicted as he had weighed down one side of the boat with oil drums filled with water in order to 'lift' the sprung plank above water level. The bilge pump was working flat out. I can understand what he was trying to do but the quality of the whole boat was......there was no quality at all. The conversation continued and he had built the boat to get away from life. He wanted to be totally independent away from modern life, politics, multinationals etc. and be at sea away from it all. I did think he will achieve his goal by being away from it all at the bottom of a canal in France!

'I built it myself.'