To France in a mini-boat with a teenager
This spring I bought a small half-open motorboat from sometime in the 70s. Now I am sailing it to the Mediterranean on rivers and canals. But how is it going?
“Usually we charge € 1 per meter,” says the harbour master in the small harbour on the German part of the river Moselle. He scratches his chin a little before continuing. “But you come from far away, and it is not often that someone comes so far away from …”
The harbor master looks down at the pontoon, almost as if he thinks it is embarrassing to talk about money. “Nöh,” he continues in German. “You don’t have to pay this time.”
Then we invite him for a cup of coffee in “Mini Lisa”, and the next day he drives us to the train so we can be home for a few weeks before the trip continues. “Mini Lisa” is looked after in the small harbor below the mountains that rise green from the river water.
The hospitality has been enormous everywhere we have come with the small boat. Now we have almost reached France and it has actually gone incredibly unproblematically.
Long-distance cruising in an ordinary everyday life
We also have a sailboat, and we have sailed long trips with it, so it is not new for us to sail to the Mediterranean or the Caribbean. But this time, I can and will not sell everything and stop working to go on long voyages. The trip to the Mediterranean must fit with children, school, work and all other obligations that we have at home. I have therefore bought an old and cheap Terhi 520HT from sometime in the 70s. It has a 70 hp. outboard engine, and it is roughly the only equipment found in the boat.
The trip is taken in stages. The first stage was with my cousin, and went down through the northern German canals, and up the rivers Rhine and Moselle where the little 17 foot “Mini Lisa” has now been moored for a few weeks while I have been home.
Now the trip continues a few weeks down through Luxembourg and France with my 14-year-old son.
In France, the small boat is left in a port again, and after the summer holidays I sail the last stretch to the Mediterranean with a friend. Then we drive a car down with a boat trailer, and drive the “Mini Lisa” home again.
Then the little boat is ready for new adventures for next year.
Sailing in a fairytale landscape
Green mountains rise from the river which winds its way through a landscape that most looks like an ad for model trains. On the sunny side wine is grown, and on the opposite side there are wild forests. The chirping of birds is louder than the engine, and every day we hear the nightingale. Eagles hover over the river, perhaps to catch a fish. An otter on the river bank has already caught one, while a couple of turtles slowly let themselves slide into the water as we sail past.
The small towns along the shore, with their old half-timbered houses with small spiers on the roofs, look as if they are a backdrop in a Disney adventure. As we walk around the small cobbled streets, we expect after every turn that Snow White and the seven dwarfs will come out and start singing for us.
It’s wonderful views we have from “Mini Lisa” and in my opinion the German part of the river Moselle is one of the most beautiful stretches on the European rivers and canals.
Statistics
Here are some statistics for the trip from northern Germany to the southern part of Moselle:
Harbour fees: € 46
Petrol: 378 l / € 594
Corona tests: 2 pcs
I can conclude that although the “Mini Lisa” is not large, it is more expensive to sail with a small motorboat than a sailboat. With our sailboat “Anna Lisa” we used 516 liters of diesel all the way from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean.
But having said that, it’s not a lot of money to get so many experiences!
Soon in France
Now the trip continues down the winding Moselle river, in through Luxembourg and through the French Canal des Vosges. Here, 97 locks must lift my little 17 foot expedition boat up over the mountains and then down to the river Saône and on through Provence before we can put our feet down in the salty Mediterranean waters.
If you want to see if my little orange boat can handle it all the way down to the Mediterranean, you can follow on Instagram here. Here there will be daily updates.
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