Friday 1st April 2010 Cheilly-les-Maranges to Fontaines. 13kms 11 locks

Basin at Chagny - no boats - circus/fairground caravans!
Canal de Centre

Grey low clouds first thing, sun breaking through mid-morning. Warmer. Untied at 9.15 a.m. and ran down the last of the long (11kms) pound. The sun was out by the time we reached Remilly where the canal was halfway up the side of the hill so we could look down on the rooftops. Noted that a few had sprouted solar panels. Life was stirring at the Snaily hire base, boats were being cleaned ready for this year’s season. Across the aqueduct over the railway and into Chagny. There were circus or fairground vehicles parked on the old infilled basin before the road bridge. We were extremely surprised to find no boats at all in the basin, which was surrounded by more caravans and lorries. We tied to the quay then Mike went off on foot to get some bread as we were completely out. I sat out on the stern to keep an eye on the gear (camera, binos, GPS, etc) rather than put it all away. Two men were doing something to an articulated lorry’s engine with its cab tilted forward. A young man was sat outside a small old caravan fishing in the basin while two old German Shepherd dogs were wandering around. Further on towards the road there was a line of newer caravans, the sort with extending side pods, where two women were nattering. Along the wall of the brick works there were old photos of the canal, but most were either ripped by vandals or weather worn. On his return with the bread, Mike called into the VNF office right next to the boat and asked the man in the office to inform the lock keeper that we were going down the locks towards Chalon. He said OK he would do that. It was 11.00 a.m. as we set off again. Mike had been all the way down the hill to a little Casino superette as there was no longer a boulangerie by the port. In the narrows leading away from the basin there was still a row of moored houseboats, DBs Shanti and Cornelia ((very narrow), then an old dead yacht and a converted péniche called Epatant. A little further on a once smart pénichette, called Le Saphir with blue kiwis on it, was moored. We locked through the deep lock on to the Saône with them in 2009, looked like it had been left untouched at Chagny since then. I made a cuppa before we arrived at lock 24 (5.20m). 

Narrow section leaving Chagny basin. Canal de Centre

The lock was switched off! I went to use the intercom on the lockside. No reply. Back on the boat I phoned the roving keeper’s number. He said he’d sort it. A couple of minutes later the lock light went to red then the bottom end gates closed and it filled. Magic! Opposite the boat was an old former lock house and in its garden there were dog pens. When the dogs heard us talking they all started barking. A few minutes later a man drove up in a car, parked by the lock, then went to the dogs shouting at them, throwing stones at them and waving a large stick! He’d gone again by the time the lock was ready and the dogs were silent. Looking back from the lock we could see they were beagle-type hunting dogs, looking very bored and subdued after the shouting and probable beating. Our black kite was back, following us down the canal. Same one, or are there lots of them? We seem to see one every day and I liked to think it was the same one, following us in the hope of us stirring up an easy dead fishy meal for him. 

Lockhouse 31, originally lock 42.
Canal de Centre 

The water from the deep lock ran up and down the short pound like a miniature tsunami - in marinier’s terms - “rebondissiments”! Down lock 25 (5.20m). For lunch I put some paté on some of the new crusty bread as we ran down to lock 26 (2.56m). At 26 there was a lockhouse with 35 on its old plate above the door. A VNF man came out to ask Mike the usual questions, so he booked our journey for tomorrow too. We ate lunch on the move. Nothing moored at Rully. A quiet spot except for the cycle path. Into lock 27 (5.20m), still eating lunch. A short pound lead to lock 28 (5.20m), below which there was half an old lock chamber and the ruins of a lockhouse. Into lock 29 (2.39m) surrounded by fields of colza which was just starting to come into bloom. Round the corner into lock 30 (2.64m) and it didn’t work! Mike was just backing out to try again when the VNF man from Rully came past in his VNF car. He stopped and re-started the lock from the cabin and re-checked where we were going. Mike asked him about the radio antennas on each lock cabin, where was the transmitter? Up on the hills, he said, at Chatel-Moron and added that it doesn’t always work especially if it’s raining! He left us to it and drove off down the towpath/cycle piste. Round a few more bends and into lock 31 (2.50m), which still had an intact, but uninhabited, lockhouse. Below the modern plate saying “31” was the plate that said it was originally lock 42. The noisy N6 was getting closer beyond a belt of trees and we could see the hotel restaurant below the lock was doing a good lunchtime trade as there were lots of people dining al fresco on their patio in the warm sunshine. On to the long pound, 2.4kms! We stopped by the road bridge to Fontaines in the first layby. The boat was catching on the sloping quay wall, so we went through the bridge and tied next to the (very busy) towpath/cycle path. It was 1.45 p.m. Stood the solar panel up for it to get maximum charge then unloaded the moped off the roof using a long plank and keeping a lookout for fast cycles and roller-bladers. Mike went to move the car from St Julien to Fragnes.