This post was originally to be titled “Rhône Rangers” about our nice, uneventful cruise from Lyon to Avignon and back. We were going to include photos illustrating how the river is a mix of lovely towns and vineyards along with impressive industry. We were worried about our little boat on such a big river, but all went quite well.
Then, as we entered the first lock on our familiar Saône, we heard a loud, metallic clunk. Good thing we were all ready to secure the boat, because suddenly a panicked Jason reported we had no propulsion.
It didn’t take long for him to discover that our propeller had fallen off. Oops! We had no clue there was a problem before this happened.
At that point, the only thing to be done was to finish locking. Jason called the lock keeper, and he, quite perplexted about how we were able to drive in, but not out, helped us manually pull the boat to a dock just outside the lock. He came back not too long after to tell us we had to move because it was unsafe to spend the night there.
Lucky for us, another pleasure boat was not too far behind. We hailed them and they gave us a tow – even though they had no reverse and were looking for a mechanic as well.
After several stops, we pulled up to a shipyard that could handle boats our size. A mechanic had Arc en Ciel on its way within minutes.
We called H2O, our home shipyard, and they promised to have a mechanic deliver and install a new prop the next morning.
Exactly 24 hours after we left our propeller in the bottom of a lock, we were back on the river putting the loaner prop through its paces.
We were quite fortunate in many respects. We were secure in a lock rather than in a river, our good Samaritans came by within an hour and we were able to find a shipyard close by. It could have happened in the middle of the Rhône with a commercial barge or cruise ship bearing down on us.
Oh yeah, here’s some photos from the Rhône ….
