2022 October: Back Without A Scratch…Maybe?

The last four weeks of our trip were wonderful and filled with a peaceful drive along the beautiful forest-lined Saar River that led to the Saar Canal. Here is a map of our travels this year. Follow the pink marker to read along. The yellow on the left means we have been on this canal previously.

We dodged all the predicted rain, which was a fantastic feat. But all was not without accidents! More to come on this subject! I left you last month in Schweich, where our dear friends Dagmar and Peter were stranded in a flooded boat. Thankful for their Daughter and her husband that came to their rescue to help pack the Black Pearl and take them home to Kehl. More about Peter’s saga later!

We were pretty nervous about the next portion of our trip. The forecast predicted rain for the next few days and even thunderstorms. The bridges on the Saar Canal were very low. This forecast meant we would have to lower our bimini and drive in the open rain with the top down in our raincoats. So each day, we had to determine how far we went and where to land if the rain and thunder started. As you can see, the sides of the Saar are not convenient for sports boats like ours to land! They are originally designed for shallow canal freighters.

We left Schweich and started toward Saarburg with fingers crossed. No rain yet! Our good friends Erich and Gaby Franz joined us for two days.

We love this little town. It has a waterfall in the center and pours into the Saar. It was a great visit with Gaby and Erich. I love chatting with them about life, love, and what keeps us going.

Once again we enjoyed a fireworks display on their last evening! It seems we are always at the right place at the right time. In the background, you can see the town castle.

After our farewell the following day, we headed back on the Saar towards our next stop. We had previously been on this canal in our travels, which is prolonged but beautiful. We average 8 to 9K per hour and lots of locks. During our entire seven weeks, we went through one-hundred locks. You’ve got to love boating and have a lot of patience!

Sarreguemines was our next stop. A few years back, it was in this harbor that our exhaust broke (flooding the belly of Virus). Even though it reminded us of our previous troubles, I still love this town. It is so quaint, and the harbor is lovely. Great views and the most wonderful old house! Check out the tiles on the second floor.

Since the rain was so unpredictable, we decided to head out after a day and see how far we got. The drive was spectacular, and driving over back roads was crazy!

The canal is pretty narrow compared to the Mossel and the Rhein. We met up with a gorgeous old shipper heading in the same direction who was slower than us and allowed us to pass. These boats are now home to many who have converted them into lovely passenger ships.

After four hours of driving, we had just landed in a small harbor, and the rain came pouring down. But it left us with a beautiful rainbow! We were so lucky with the rain, once again.

The weather was on our side! We took off the next morning and made it to Mittersheim in time. The rain was relentless, so we battened down the hatches for two days. There is nothing in this town. A small store offers local fruits, veggies, fresh meat, and a couple of rows of canned goods. On Friday, the mobile butcher with cheeses, meats, eggs, and local cuisine shows up and rings his bell. It’s the most action this small part of the world gets, so off I went in search of something delicious for the grill if the rain stopped! I love being here on Fridays. Once again, a beautiful double rainbow greeted us the morning we left!

Each lock along the Saar canal has an original numbered canal home. The lockkeepers occupied these up to the 1880s. Most of these quaint homes are abandoned, but their new owners often treasure them and restore them. You can see we were at lock 12! There are ten more to go, each about a mile apart.

I love this pirate scarecrow! 

By this time, I felt like we had been on the boat for months when we had traveled through several locks and under so many bridges, but we’d only been on it for a week down the Saar. Hope was insight and our home as well when the Saar takes a left turn toward Strasbourg, and to the right is the Mosel that heads toward Nancy, France.

The path looked clear, yet we had several more days to travel through this portion of the canal. It was slow going, and we “literally” drove over more roads as we traveled!

We arrived in Niderviller after twenty-some-odd locks. It was in this same harbor, a few years back, that the mechanic magically rebuilt our boat’s exhaust. We thought we should celebrate by having dinner out on the town. Once again, it is a small spot on the map but one of the best French restaurants we have found. Of course, we had to have the snails…

And these spicy garlicky tomato frog legs hit the spot!

We spent the next day preparing for the enormous elevator that carries the boats in a giant bathtub down and up. This huge boat elevator carries four to five boats simultaneously up and down! What originally was a 15-lock process, one right after the other for the small transport boats in the mid-1800s, is now an engineering masterpiece.

It is a specular mechanical creation that is quite impressive. Looking back up to where we came from seems impossible.

On the way down, I am totally wrapped up in my mental stress planning the best escape if it breaks.

The next event on our trip was around the corner. We were to go through two tunnels. One about 2K and the other 4K!

We’d been through them before a couple of years ago, and I was the winner of buoy popping. So this time I relinquished my responsibility of driving and was the photographer! 

You go, Lutz!

Continuing on, we ventured through several more locks, and I must say the Saar is not without some breathtaking views of castles! 

Our next stop was Lutzelbourg. Small and filled with lots of boat rentals and visitors. They are our nightly entertainment as tourists come out of the locks and ram the boats into the wall or each other. We quietly watch and shake our heads. Our boat had a great view.

This little town also dedicated a large area as a park and the coolest exercise machines. So we finally got off our bottoms and did a workout!

We were on the home stretch. The weather report indicated rain, but it never came, so we thought, “Let’s do a ten-hour drive and get to our harbor.” Mind you; a car would be there in fifteen minutes! Just as we entered one of the last locks on our journey, the doors opened to a long line of boaters waiting for the horizontal drawbridge to open. A very kind boater helped us land on the side and announced they had been there over an hour, and the bridge was still broken.

So naturally, Lutz took it upon himself to advise the lock keeper to close the lock we had just entered since there were no more landing spots, and he also made sure all the stranded boaters above the lock were told! It was still broken by night, and we gave in along with the other boaters, prepared dinner, and looked forward to a good night’s sleep.

By morning the bridge was open, and we all headed out to our respective destinations. Ours was the harbor in Kehl, and we made a B-line for it with no more stops. Even though the weather report predicted thunderstorms, we were on a mission to reach our harbor in Kehl. As soon as we landed and tied up, thunder and lightning, along with torrential rain, came pouring down. Click on the movie IMG_2924 to get the feel!

We made it home without a scratch, but…driving under the bridges was sometimes stressful. The piling supports extended into the canal under each bridge, narrowing the pass-through. So far, I have done a marvelous job and never scratched the boat once while going through these tight sections. However…I turned the wheel over to Lutz so I could use the WC, and arriving back, he was a little tense and miss judged his approach. Needless to say, he rammed the boat into the concert pilling! Woo, the song “it wasn’t me!” came quickly to mind. Sorry, Lutz, but this one’s going to need some help (by the way, Lutz spent three days fixing it, and it looks like new!). 

We are home safe and sound. That is all that matters. As for Dagmar and Peter, they had purchased a beautiful boat in the meantime, it fell-though and Peter is dead set on finding one (or repairing the Old Black Pearl), and Dagmar is dead set on not cleaning another boat and unpacking to pack and clean again. I’m sure all will work out since we’re planning our trip for next year! We’re all going to Berlin together. 

I hope you stay tuned for November’s post. Hopefully, we will be on our way to a new location to explore! Until then, check out one of our favorite recipes and the super resource below!

Fave Recipe: Air-Fried Fish Bowl 

So easy and quick. We use Cod, but any fish will do. This combo of Coconut Cauliflower Rice and Lime Cabbage Slaw makes such a yummy combo. Plus, the Avocado Lime Sauce makes it a ten! Click here to view the recipe.

Fave Resource: Why do some people keep avoiding Covid?

Have you had covid yet? This article explores some new research suggesting why Lutz and I (and possibly you) are one of the few (so far) that have avoided Covid. Read here to learn more!