Our Views From The Wheelhouse

*“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do – so throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the winds in your sails, explore dreams, discover”
- Mark Twain -*

The idea to buy a converted barge and see Europe through the extensive canal and river systems began while watching a National Geographic Special some 20 years ago. Patti and I were avid sailors in California, having moved there in 1979 from Texas. Our problem was that we liked Old boats. Our sailboat was a 45 ft. wooden Atkins Ingrid double-ended ketch named FREYA built in 1941. It took us and half of the Ventura, California boating community almost 5 years to restore her just the way we wanted her. We sailed the coast of California at any opportunity away from our work. It was during our second year there that the television special was aired one Sunday afternoon. The hour long special was about an Englishman who took a barge across the channel and then proceeded to explore the canals of France. We were facinated, and the idea stuck in our water-logged brains. This is what we wanted to do when we retired. Our friends would look at us in disbelief…”You’re going to do WHAT ? Most had never heard of such a thing.

We took a trip to France 5 years ago and rented a small boat on the Midi Canal in the South for three weeks to see if we really wanted to do this or if we were just insane. The trip sealed the deal…..we loved the life style. The peace, tranquility, and the 5 mile per hour speed limit appealed to us. Being able to see and experience the “real” France of villages, towns, and small cities was especially eye-opening. So, our mind was made up.

The retirement finally came in 2003, and after all these years of reading, discovering, and dreaming of the barge life we finally retired, sold the house, and began our search for our “perfect” barge in Holland. We knew exactly what we wanted, but the budget got in the way. We had to make some compromises and find the one that we could improve over the next few years while still using it. Our month long search began in Holland, went to the North Sea, back to Amsterdam, to Belgium and finally ended in Central France after a very frustrating search. We had about given up when a bartender in a small hotel in a smaller little French village drew a map on the back of a bar napkin that directed us to a single lane country road in the boonies to a spot in the middle of nowhere, and there, beside a 15th century water mill we found CAPRI, hiding behind several others but trying to get our attention. An old boat, of course, built in 1916. The barge was in excellent condition, but was good only for week-ends or short vacations, however the possibilities were there. There was work to be done. We began in April of 2004.

See the photos in”Looking For Mr. Goodbarge”and visit our journals as we wander over France.