Propulseur is the French word for thruster. A thruster is a propeller that is placed at right-angles in the hull and – when moving slowly – allows the boat to be moved sideways. We have one at the bow and one at the stern. Since they are underwater and suck water through a tube in the hull, they also suck in anything else that happens to be in the water. We try to never use them if there are weeds or other debris nearby. Since they are underwater, we sometimes don’t see what is lying beneath the surface.
Which means, on occasion, detritus (or using the technical term, crap) can clog the tube or wrap around the propeller. (See Chapters 20 and 21.) There are only two ways to fix it. Hire a diver to go under and have a look – or go to a shipyard and have the boat taken out of the water. The former is expensive – the latter, very expensive.
Today, we lucked out. We found a third way – courtesy of French taxpayers.
On the Seine and facing the entrance to Arsenal is a police station – just for the police that patrol the Seine. At the moment, nine of their high-speed boats are tied up. Others are probably out on the river.
Two are in the Arsenal marina.
One of them was accompanying police divers. They weren’t actually diving. They were just swimming – without tanks or gear.
What better practice for them than to dive down and check our thrusters? So, I asked.
They came straight over and suited up.
I watched as they disappeared under Aleau.
And came up to say the thruster tubes were clear – on port and starboard, bow and stern.
We will leave for the Netherlands (although we’re still not sure when) knowing our thruster tubes are clear and our ‘propulseurs’ will work should we need them – and grateful to the Police Nationale divers who took time out from their training to help us.