26th July 2009 - Paris
The plan was to try and jump on a river cruise first thing and see some more of the sights that Paris has to offer. Tara and I met Ray and Celia at the top of the marina just in time to jump on a cruise boat which was scheduled to leave at 0945hrs. In our rush to purchase tickets and board the boat we had assumed that we would be proceeding back out onto the river but as it happened this cruise was going the other way, up through the locks of Canal St Martin. The journey starts by leaving to the North of the marina through a tunnel underneath Place de la Bastille, a video is projected from forward and aft of the cruise boat for the duration of the tunnel - very clever! Out of the tunnel and then many locks followed, a lot of them double locks, two swing bridges and one lifting bridge. Very scenic and the weather was lovely and sunny again as we admired all the activity on the canal banks. I do feel for the skipper as every hundred yards we travelled he was having to squeeze into and rope off in locks, still a very enjoyable cruise which took us up to the North of the City where we hopped off and then I had my first experience of the Paris Metro as we headed back to Place de la Bastille for a spot of lunch.

Long Tunnel!	One of the many locks



Tara's flight back to Birmingham was at 1630hrs so we had a quick cuppa on the boat before saying our goodbyes to Ray and Celia then flagging another taxi to take us to Charles De Gaulle airport. The traffic in Paris is not good on a normal day but being the final day of the Tour de France this journey took an age. Terminal 1 in Charles De Gaulle is a circular building and you could quite easily spend all day walking past the same check in desk over and over again! Departures was not too bad, Tara checked in and we said our goodbyes :-( but then finding arrivals to get a taxi back proved a challenge....I did end up walking all the way round, the realisation and confusion was frustrating as I did actually pass the same check in desk that I had past previously! After an enquiry using my limited French I made my way up to the second level where to my relief I found signs for Taxis. The journey back from the Airport was much better, just half an hour and I was safely back at the marina.
Time to work again now, our Trim Tabs have been playing up since the Ramsgate to Le Havre crossing so further analysis and investigation was required by means of me, designated diver, half in the water and half in the RIB at the stern of the boat. Didn't take long to see the problem, the trim tab had detached itself from the arm and was now hanging vertical below the stern of the boat - not good, this explains the list we had while cruising up the Seine! The trim arm had snapped so there was no way to fix this, the only option was a DIY shackle and rope to secure the tab in a horizontal position to match the Port tab. Working underwater is interesting, Eric had attached a float to my screwdriver even though I was adamant I wouldn't drop it but unfortunately he hadn't attached a float to a spanner which I knocked off the bathing platform when reaching for the screwdriver ;-) Luckily he later recovered this using our magic magnet! We don't have much luck with our Trim Tabs, we have had them stuck down, lost one completely and now they are both stuck up - that's bows up cruising from now on then! Tabs now sorted time for Andy and I to head into Paris for something to eat and a few drinks. At the first pub we realised this was going to be expensive, 15 Euros for two drinks is a little excessive!! Food, drink and karaoke, a good but expensive evening.

Turns out that ladder is useful!