My downward spiral thanks to an offer made to me by Amandine Campion of H2O to get Fidutia on their books.

Her offer was witnessed by two other people besides me but H2O wont accept the fact that she made the specific offer that the mooring fees would come off the sale. How can a new mum have this lie on her conscience?

For years after finding out you could go from the North Sea to the Mediterranean sea by canal and river I dreamed of doing this adventure. A chance to do it came if I did it on a tight budget so I grabbed it. No staying at marinas, but just mooring on the side of a canal and that is why Fidutia was made self sufficient. At 70 years of age, my able time left in would have beaten me to do it properly with cash to spare.

I bought Fidutia in Holland in 2010 and had spent seven splendid years cruising through Holland Belgium and France. In September 2017 my TRIWV certificate for barges over 20 metres was due and I headed to Atelier Fluvial dry dock in St Jean de Losne on the Soane river.

The surveyor came from Holland (as I am Dutch registered) and after passing the survey and a shiny new bottom Fidutia was set for another seven years cruising.

My plan was after the survey to head to the Canal du Midi via the Soane and Rhone rivers accompanied by two close barging friends. Stocked up with fuel and food for the over 800km trip we set off on another adventure.

Well not for long as eleven km down the river the gear box cried of grinding. Atelier Fluvial sent an engineer to where we had tied up to a rocky bank and removed the gear box and showed me the problem. The connecting shaft from the gear box to the engine had sheared the spline where it went into the engine. Later we were towed back to the quay outside Atelier Fluvial while I waited nearly a month for the replacement parts to come from the USA.  As I had to borrow the money for the repairs I had to consider selling.

My downhill spiral started while tied next to the quay. Two ladies approached me and asked if they could sell my barge. They were from H2O and one of them asked to look through Fidutia. While she was viewing my two friend returned to Fidutia and it was then reviled that one of the ladies was known to them and was the daughter of the principal of H2O. This made me think I could trust them.

They said they were sure they could sell Fidutia in three to six months and gave an indication of the price range they thought I could expect to get. When advised of their mooring fees I told them that I could not possibly afford €200 a month plus electricity. I was going to tie up as I had done  for the last seven years on the side of the canal as Fidutia is practically self sufficient and this new expense would not be possible on the Australian pension.

 My friend knowing my financial position ( he had lent me the money for the repairs ) put it to the ladies that if I signed a contract with them that the mooring fees could come off the sale price. Knowing I would not sign a contract if I had to pay I guess being over optimistic they agreed ( which they had no authority to do but just wanted to deceive me to get me to sign ) and so a couple of days later after mentioning and confirming the arrangement we had made, the owners daughter  emailed me on 11th October to ask when she could come for me to sign the contract.  Little did I know then that their deception was going to lead my down a financial downward spiral. Later when confronted in front of Max the CEO and my friend who suggested the plan, the young sales lady denied she had made that offer. When a company as big as H2O keeps staff that will tell lies to get a customer to me THAT SUCKS.

H2O have a main sales pontoon 'A' where most of the vessles for sale are moored. I was positioned at the end of 'A' pontoon and thinking all was in order I retured to Australia in anticipation of a cheque within the six months it was suggested it would take them to sell Fidutia. My trip to Australia would never have been considered if I thought I had to pay rent there and to H2O. On the 2nd February 2018 while back in Australia H2O send me a bill for mooring and electricity for €708 and a note "and payment within a fortnight".

I wrote to H2O the same day and got a receipt for the email Hi Ladies, XXXX said to contact you to explain to your accounts people the arrangements we made when discussing you selling Fidutia. The first 3 months were to be free and other mooring fees to come out of the sale. There was no return email from H2O disputing my claim and I assumed things were going ahead as planned.

That was until I received an email from a gentleman from H2o telling me he indicated We repositioned Fidutia closer to the quay so that people can see the boat better but the connection for electricity is not as close and your cable to the 220V is too short. I told them where there was a longer cable Before I left for Australia I bought the paint to redo the deck but due to the weather I didn't manage to do it so it was my first job to do on my return. With the email from them saying I was now closer to the quay I thought I might not be able grind the deck so close to other boats.

My alternative was to buy a VNF vignette while it was still possible to get a discount before end of March (down to €560)and go up the canal to do the work. I asked them what I could or not do but they never replied so to be on the safe side I bought the vignette. I was still worried about the chance of power supply and wrote to them to check if the battery charge was working. They sent me a photo of the volt meter and said it was working OK. It was reading 24 volts and not the 26 plus it should have been. I told the person who had checked it and seemed he did not to know what he was talking about and that it was not working. At the time he should have realised something was wrong. They replied that the CB had tripped when they plugged it in and now it was OK.

 When I returned to France Fidutia was not where they said it was, but on another mooring sandwiched between other barges and an old hulk and could not be seen properly from the quay. The hulk was so ugly that on their sales weekends they towed it away but it was Ok to leave me next to it the rest of the time. Most other marinas reduce your rent if you are two or thee boats out but not H2O.

 I then kept getting demands for the mooring fees but they would not discuss our arrangements so I was forced to pay. Just before I left the marina the manager wrote to me advising they had not received a €1000 payment I had made. I sent the bank details and eventually was told it was their mistake. When discussing this with other boaters they the same thing had happened to them. I call that 'double dipping.'

I have escaped their clutches and am now moored on the other side of the port. All in all it is not an experience I would wish on anyone. The main point is that the sales people of H2O knowing my financial position should not have offered me a deal that was not in their power to offer and knew that after I had signed the contract I would be made aware of what I think was fraud.

Just after arriving at my new mooring position I was visited by the police. They had been sent by the Max the CEO of H2O to have me remove my sign www.h2o-metoo.com and also the emails from H2O. They said if I put the emails in my words that would be OK. H2O  wrote the emails and perhaps they realised their failures. Still it would be better for you to read the originals than take my version. When the police asked me to take my sign down they said H2O belonged to H2O France. I asked them if they knew what H2o was and they didn't. I had to show them on the net that anyone can use H2O. It is WATER. They then said I could leave the sign up.

An issue that concerned me being for sale at this marina was they had two unusual policies.

One was that buyers did not want the owner on board and I was asked to vacate when they had their sales weekends. I did not like that idea as it seemed their policy was to just give out a few keys (I have seen people walking past with up to 6) and let people (with unruly kids) look on these boats without any supervision. They briefed them not to touch any switches but kid will be kids. Also a few adults were testing lights and bow thrusters. They also gave the clients a small carrier bag to keep their brochure in but to me it looked like it was a doggy bag to take souvenirs. There were no checks done.

I found that when I had visitors they were happy to go through on their own but when asked if they would like to see the services operating they welcomed my offer. Just by a quick look around they didn't realise the importance of the wind turbine, tilting and rotating solar panels, water filters and of course the video cameras for use when going into a lock. All very important if you want to live off the grid

Brokers such as https://bourgogne.boatshed.com/  say they escort all viewer to the boats they have on offer, not just hand out keys.

You don't just give out keys and a doggy bag for people to view your house so why your boat?