 Claudia reckons she could lasso a butterfly at ten metres, if Michael would just hold the boat steady! She's surely able to deal with any half-reasonable landfall, and has been known to gallop straight up a twelve metre ladder in a lock with the mooring line in her teeth. Mind you, she's no novice at steering either. Doesn't bother her at all if the boat starts rolling heavily, she says it's an adventure. Add in the culinary delights that appear out of nowhere - even when there are no guests in sight - well, Michael says she's indispensable as well as being the light of his eyes.  | We were quite fortunate some years ago, when people told us that we were too old to do useful work anymore, and that we should just go home, retire, and be quiet. But we didn't think we were really ready to give up the ghost and do nothing.. Somehow, we managed to buy Calando, and we now spend up to five months a year quietly travelling on European inland waterways. So far that's meant mostly the French waterways, some of them several times because they are so delightful. We've also ventured across parts of Belgium, and there's so much more yet even to think about. Just looking at the map of possibilities across Europe makes our heads spin. Go back to work for someone else? Couldn't care less!!  Michael reckons he can pretty much turn the boat on a dime, and that without a bowthruster - so long as there's not too much current. He has been known, on the other hand, to run aground in the middle of a river ..... says the signs were wrong! He's getting to be a fairly dab hand now at most maintenance jobs on board - at least, he can paint, and saw, and hammer, though he still can't figure out why there are about 500 electrical wires at the console, and only about 40 electrical points around the boat. Claudia says his best point is that he brings her a coffee in bed most mornings!  |