I is hard to believe but it's been almost 2 years since I last talked with my sailing acquaintance Jules Dusek. So in this  episode I catch up on him and his travels through the French canals. In 2013 he and his wife he did the Canal De Bourgogne. This is a slightly-used canal in France which requires a boat with the shallower draft. Fortunately his boat has a drop keel which allowed him to go through this delightful canal.

Jules is a member of the cruising Association and he suggests that American sailors heading over to the Mediterranean would benefit greatly by joining this

organization. The link to this organization is: http://www.theca.org.uk/home

Jules has kindly given me for free distributions to whoever might be of interest to his notes from sailing the Canal du Bourgogne. You can find it at the website but here is a quick link: French Canal De Bourgogne on SY Pluto

I got an e-mail from Dan Culpepper he is about to head out into the Mediterranean for a transatlantic voyage and has set up a webpage if you would like to follow Dan's voyage in his posts here part of what he wrote me and a link to their new website:

"...We are 2 weeks away from the first leg of our adventure and things are starting to finally come together. The electrical system from batteries to a new Charger/ inverter and a couple of solar panel (strongly attached to the aft davits) have been beefed up. We now have 980 amps in the house bank, 105 amps for the starter, 398 amps for the cockpit winches and 210 amps forward for the bow thruster and windlass. They can now be charged by either shore power, 75 hp. Yanmar main engine, 8 kW generator and/or 200 watts of solar panels. I especially like the solar panels and will be adding more in the future. 3 new air conditioners have been installed and on a recent 72 degree day I was able to recreate out lousy, rotten, freezing winter by cranking the units up and chilling below decks. Hope it will be the same in Morocco...

New Sails by Doyle, new running rigging, spare parts, review of all safety gear from Go Bag to Vests, tethers, Padeyes and MOB pole setup. The crew has been set for awhile now. We will be 4 to Bermuda, 4 to the Azores and 5 to Gibraltar. The best part is that my father will be joining us in Bermuda for the rest of the crossing (he did the Newport- Bermuda Race with me in 2008). Also my sister (experienced sailor) will join in the Azores. We will have a Website (kids continue to drag me into the 21st century) called:

sailingheldeleine.com

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