Down French canals:- le Have to the Med, starting April

Thank you to all who have commented,
our plan remains to start at LaHavre in April,
stop in Paris for a couple of weeks, before heading towards the Med!

But form Paris there's half a dozen routes? Which one should we take?
we're not in a rush to reach the Med, maybe we will take 3 or 4 months

Which route will give us the best:-
varied / interesting landscapes & opportunities for wife to indulge vine yards & wine tasting.

What is the best date to aim for arriving in the Med,
We're thinking just after the crowds of French finish their hols & return to work.
What ever week that is? We're assuming the last week of August?
Comments please!

As the weather in the Med is better than the English Channel.
With a 33 foot Aquastar motor boat,
How long can we reasonably expect, reasonable weather & conditions, enjoyably suitable to use the boat around the French end of the Med, before winter sets in?
Comments please!

Regards
Paul
 
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Unless you have a particular reason to get to the Med in a hurry I would suggest you take 3 or 4 years as opposed to months.
 
capsco said:
Unless you have a particular reason to get to the Med in a hurry I would suggest you take 3 or 4 years as opposed to months.
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Semi retired due to redundancy,
don't expect redundancy & savings to last more than 18 months.
As well as the trip down and back up our dream includes a little time boating in the Med
(No doubt our 370hp motor will be looking to stretch it legs after being cramped up a 5 kts on a canal for 3-4 months)
I don't want to start thinking about it yet, but in 18 months we will need to start looking for another grind stone to put our noses to.
 
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Hi
We did the same trip as you in October 2011. It was a wonderful experience and we stopped at some lovely places. I wrote an article about our trip, published in Sailing Today Dec? 2012. We wintered in Beaucaire, lovely canal town. We lived on board there for five months. A big liveaboard community, we highly recommend it.
 
changeman said:
Suggest you join the DBA (Dutch Barge Association).
This will give you access to their website and the Waterways Guide, with virtually every mooring in France, Belgium etc shown on Google Maps and downloadable as a pdf listing.
Each entry gives details of rating, cost, facilities, local services etc.
Takes all the guesswork out of travelling and avoids spending the night in a really grotty location, just to find a real jewel of a place 5 mins away around the next bend.
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Or you could just google grehan's site see his signature. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the French waterways. He will not push himself but is always more than happy to help.
 
Hi Paul,
Well, all the routes are wonderful (at least, the ones we have done and we can comment on, we thought were so.) Anyway, if I were in your position now, I think I would probably had along the Seine to St Mammes (about 110km from Paris.) From there (in fact, right on that junction) head right onto the Loing. This leads on to the Briare, the Canal Lateral a la Loire and on to the Canal du Centre. This is a lovely route that will bring you out at Chalon sur Saone. After that (that is as far south as we have been) you could head north to Port Royal at Auxonne and over-winter there, or head on south in the later part of the summer.

Sometimes the Canal du Centre can get a bit shallow later on in the summer, so it depends on when you start..

The other route, from Paris, on to the Marne, the Canal Lateral a la Loire to Vitry le Francois, and then on to the Canal Entre Champagne et Bourgogne. This brings you to the Saone about 34 km north of Auxonne.

Hope this helps.
 
Could I just point out that Port Saint Louis itself has only an in water Marina. It has no hard standing facilities.
In the area there are two further Marinas, absolutely nothing to do with Port Saint Louis the Marinas are all separately owned.

There is 'Navy Service' (It is a name and nothing to do with the Navy!!). This is a huge out of the water facility. There are no in water berths at all. Although one can lie alongside for a couple of days whilst waiting for a lift out.

'Port Napoleon' is the other choice, this has 250 berths in the water, 1000 out of the water with a further 100 places under cover in the hanger.

Mosquitoes are a problem. There are also arabie or noseeums/midges, these are a major problem late spring/early summer & onwards. They are about in the day time so there is no respite unfortunately.
 
Grehan said:
My page on the subject - (friendly ;) ) comments and corrections welcome!
http://www.french-waterways.com/waterways/port-st-louis.html

And on the respective Bourbonnais (Loire/Centre) and Champagne (Marne) routes -
http://www.french-waterways.com/medroutes.html
Both have their undoubted attractions; we like the Marne-Saone and there's a modicum of commercial traffic to maintain depths.
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I was not commenting on your amazing site Grehan. Rather people frequently seemingly confusing Port Saint Louis as being the 'one' and not realizing that there are 3 separate facilities. If they had read your excellent site there would be no confusion. :D
 
Thanks to everyone who has posted to the thread.
Now only 2 months to go! And the list of jobs to do if finally getting smaller.

We have joined the DBA

Currently fitting solar panels. 4 x 100w semi flexible Chinese ones and a 40a tracer MPPT controller.
Anyone got any ideas on the most efficient way to wire up the panels?
Should the 4 panels be linked red to black, red to black, red to black, red to black to the controller (series)
Or should all the reds be linked together and all the blacks together, to the controller? (Parallel)

Roll on the end of April
Paul
 
blampied said:
Thanks to everyone who has posted to the thread.
Now only 2 months to go! And the list of jobs to do if finally getting smaller.

We have joined the DBA

Currently fitting solar panels. 4 x 100w semi flexible Chinese ones and a 40a tracer MPPT controller.
Anyone got any ideas on the most efficient way to wire up the panels?
Should the 4 panels be linked red to black, red to black, red to black, red to black to the controller (series)
Or should all the reds be linked together and all the blacks together, to the controller? (Parallel)

Roll on the end of April
Paul
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Hi, Coming from the background of a submarine electronics engineer (who has never dealt with solar panels, I hasten to add) I would say that your panels should
be connected in Parallel, i.e. all the reds together and to the red contact on the controller, and all the blacks together and to the black.

If you go the other way and add all the 12 volt units together it will confuse the controller. Of course if all else fails you can always read the instructions :-)
Hope this is useful.
Steve
 
WightMistress said:
Hi, Coming from the background of a submarine electronics engineer (who has never dealt with solar panels, I hasten to add) I would say that your panels should
be connected in Parallel, i.e. all the reds together and to the red contact on the controller, and all the blacks together and to the black.

If you go the other way and add all the 12 volt units together it will confuse the controller. Of course if all else fails you can always read the instructions :-)
Hope this is useful.
Steve
Click to expand...

Hi Steve
Thank you for that, it's the simplest and easiest way, it's the way I was first thinking of doing it.

However the Tracer MPPT controller states it can cope with up to 100v input and
supply 12 or 24v batteries.
I'm assuming that means it converts any voltage between 15 and 100v to charge a 12v battery, (My boat is 12v)

The 4 x100w panels are a nominal 21.5v (I think if I'm remembering right, there now glued down and the label is on the back) so 4x21.5 is a maximum of 86v if linked in series.

Apparently solar panel voltage drops of dramatically with even the slightest hint of shadow on the panel. (Of the 4 panels I can't see that at least one of the 4 will be in shadow at any one time so no doubt the controller would never see more than 3x21.5 or 64.6v)

My thinking is early in the day and late in the evening the panels would stay working longer (as long as the combined panels were between them producing at least 15v).

I'm just not sure if the possible extra time receiving a charge would out way the more complicated wiring. (It can get confusing ensuring all are connected correctly, connecting black to red) rather than a simple all red and all black together.

Or am I wrong?

Regards
Paul
 
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