Welcome home to Corre, France....or is it welcome boat to Fluvial-Loisirs, Haute Soane.

Here we finally are and have been for 6 days...well, 5-3/4 to be exact or 4-1/2 work days to be exacter.

Naturally, the boat is still out of the water, we are still climbing the 7 foot ladder whenever we want to use the head, etc., etc.; still hauling poor Yogi-dog up and down by snapping him into his life jacket then attaching his life jacket to a long rope and no, he doesn't like it.

Getting Snapped In

Ready for the Big Drop

On His Way Down

Surprises on our return?  Of course. Like dopes, last September we failed to drain the water heater's tank which of course froze, which ruined a gasket, which resulted in 52 gallons of water pouring into the bilge instead of into the fresh water tank when we tried to fill up. Emptying that was good fun, especially since we had to empty it more than once. Basic boating lesson number one; look in the bilge before trying to refill the water tank.

Other than that, everything is pretty much as we left it, give or take a few minor leaks. We haven't tried to start the engine yet so keep your fingers and ears crossed for us.

The trip was long but relatively uneventful. I must brag about our sweet little dog now, so if you are not a dog person, skip this part.

Yogi was unbelievable. In the awful mess that was the Las Vegas airport baggage claim, Dwight decided to go off alone to capture our luggage. After forever, when he didn't return to our meeting place and wouldn't answer his phone, I had to go looking for him. I figured that no one would steal our brown carry-on bag with a small black dog attached to it, so after tying Yogi and the brown bag together and putting Yogi into a down/stay in a relatively quiet place, I elbowed my way through the pandemonium. After circling a nearly empty luggage carousel, without any sign of Dwight or our luggage, I returned to a somewhat worried-looking little dog who had been nervously staring at a sea of ankles and shoe tops. But, by golly, he was where I'd put him, he hadn't moved an inch. Great dog.......and he was that way during the whole trip, despite being hungry, nervous, scared, bored and desperate for a potty break.

On many airline flights, the flight attendants are nice, polite but relatively faceless. Not this time. On our JFK to Zurich leg, I noticed one flight attendant shuffling up and down the aisles instead of striding with purpose, as most do. I poked Dwight in the ribs and pointed to the shuffler because I thought that Dwight, who had just celebrated his 79th birthday, could do with a little elderly company. During our 7 hour flight, we spoke many times to nice Stephen, discovering that he and Dwight had been born in the same year, 1933, so we knew immediately how many birthdays he'd had. Stephen was born in Vienna but he and his family escaped to Australia in 1938; an excellent move in that particular year. Working for the airlines for 23 years with no plans for retirement, he's become one of our heroes. Flight attendants have a hard job so we figure if he can do his job, we can do ours. Thanks, Stephen and happy flying.

We've done part of our job, our boat's bottom has a new paint job. Now it's time for the hull to get a nice new coat of white. That's for next week, if we are not rained out. And if we are, it will give our very sore muscles time to heal. Need to lose weight....buy a boat!

Last night I broke our camera so there will be no pictures until our new 14 megapixel model is delivered. Hurry, hurry delivery service, it's spring with flowers, birds, new growth and calm waters posing all around us, demanding to have their pictures taken.