Cruising 2025 – Plans

We are three-ish weeks away from heading back to Europe for another summer of cruising the rivers and canals of France. We live by lists this time of year. Here is a (partial) list of our annual preparations (these are all done):

• Long stay (6 month) Visa (Appointment Mar 11!) 
• VNF (Cruising) License for 2025
• Travel medical Insurance
• Forward mail (USPS) 
• Order Wifi appliance (Hippocket)
• SNCF carte d’avantage
• Sail Plan for the summer (visitors!)
• Renew Boat insurance
• ANPEI Membership 2025
• Make B&B Res in St Jean (Les Charmilles, Beatrice)
• File/Pay 2024 federal income taxes 
• Set up sprinkler systems
• Pause/Cancel car insurance
• Verify keys to friends

Sail Plan

We have big plans this year but, as always, the weather, water and canal conditions can have a big impact. Last year we had flood conditions part of the year that has some canals closed and the year before just the opposite problem.

We plan to venture further north than we have gone before, even entering the Rhine for a few days, and then heading west to Paris. Passing through Paris on the Seine has always been a goal of ours.

Dates	Destination	Comment
May 18 – May 24	St Jean de Losne	Provisioning/Checkout
May 25 – May 30	Chalon-sur-Saone	South on Saone/ Shakedown cruise
Jun 2 – Jun 15	Mulhouse	Canal de Rhone au Rhine, Rhine
Jun 16 – Jun 30	Strasbourg	Alsace-Lorraine
Jul 1 – Jul 17	Nancy	Canal de la Marne au Rhine
Jul 12 – Jul 28	Vitry-le-Francois	Canal Lateral de la Marne
Jul 29 – Aug 12	Paris	Marne to the Seine
Aug 13 – Aug 26	Briare	Seine to Canal de Briare
Aug 25 – Sep 8	Digoin	Canal du Centre
Sep 9 – Sep 15	St Jean de Losne	Saone back to home port

And we have just (April 29) learned that our new gearbox has been delayed. And our old gearbox is in pieces in a repair shop somewhere in the south of France. So…. maybe not Paris this year?

Visitors

This may be a record year for visitors. We have five confirmed sets of visitors and two maybes.

Visitor(s)	Dates	Embark/Disembark
Francis/Emilie	May 23 – May 30	St Jean de Losne
Anna K	?	?
Jackie/David/Emory	Jun 30 – Jul 4	Strasbourg/Saverne
John/Christin	Jul 4 – Jul 17	Saverne/Toule
Emerson/Linda	Aug 10-Aug 16	Neuilly-Marne/Melun
Cynthia	Sep ?
Phil/friend	Oct ?

Money Talks

Thought I would pass along some info on costs to anyone thinking of following in our wake. These costs exclude maintenance/repair of our 20+ old penichette.

Fortunately we paid for most of these items before Trump’s shenanigans tanked the value of the dollar ( 0.97 €/$ when Biden left office and 0.88 last time I looked).

Item	Amt (€)	Comment
Boat Insurance	€ 688	Boat value of €70K
Medical Insurance	€ 357	Required visa (Europ Assist)
Visa Application	$ 300	6 month extended stay visa
ANPEI Dues	€ 60	Nonprofit boat association
VNF Vignette	$ 588	Annual boating permit
Mooring Fees	€ 215/mo	Plus a small utility fee (H2O)
Wifi Appliance	$620	Unlimited cellular data (Hippocket)
Mail Service	$25/mo	Mail service (Travelling Mailbox)