Saturday 9th April 2011 Maxilly – Champagne-sur-Vingeanne. 16kms 6 locks

Mike scavenging for a suitable piece of wood.
Lock 40 Cheuge. 

Sunny and warm, but still a breezy north wind keeping it cooler. Set off at 9.20 a.m. after Mike had wiped the condensation off the solar panels. 3.3kms to the first lock. Passed a very pleasant, chatty fisherman by the first bridge. Lock 41 St Sauveur (2.90m) had a temporary high mesh fence around it and a portaloo on the lockside, sure signs there had been work done on it during the stoppages and there was new concrete around the lock and wood shavings in the grass. The house was inhabited. The only life we saw was a lone cyclist off down the cycle/towpath. I lifted the blue bar and the lock worked perfectly. 1.9kms to lock 40 Cheuge (3,10m). When we got there Mike zapped and the gates opened, when we were in the chamber he decided to try the “bassinée” button on the remote control and it worked! The lock gates closed behind us and the lock filled. 

A "headlamp" radar detector
nr Cheuge liftbridge.

Whoopee! No need to leave your helmsman’s seat! (Except most boats put ropes out). 2.97kms to the next. An old lady was walking the towpath with a big bunch of keys clenched in her left hand, she turned and walked back towards the village of Cheuge when she saw us approaching. In Cheuge there was an old Llangollen-type liftbridge which had been made automatic. We passed a radar “headlamp” and hoped it would work while looking to see if there were more modern sensors – there weren’t. However, it worked perfectly. It had new metal guides to stop boats crashing into the old stonework, new and newly painted bright cornflower blue (could smell the paint still) - like all the rest of the new “safety” fences and passerelles (walkways). The bridge keeper’s house, with blue VNF plates like the lock houses, looked lived in. We arrived at lock 39 Renève (3,40m) to find the lock lights were all off. Below the lock on the left was a set of new steps to access the water tap by a VNF house, so I got off (with the phone and two-way radio) to use the lockside intercom to call VNF to get the lock working. There was a new lock cabin but it hadn’t been finished yet and had no intercom. 

Automatic liftbridge at Cheuge

I phoned the top lock. Today a lady answered. She was very pleasant and, when I told her the lock lights were off, she said she would try to get the lock started from where she was but if not she would send someone. I got back on the boat and Mike tied the bows to the end of the steps and we waited. It was gone eleven a.m. After sitting on the steps for half an hour Mike went to investigate. There were two men with VNF badges by the house at the top of the steps so he asked them if they could get the lock working. Yes, no problem. (Where were they when I went up to the lock?) Shortly afterwards the lock lights came on and turned to green. I tried lifting the blue bar but nothing happened, then an older VNF man with a very dirty van came and worked the lock from a portacabin on the left of the lock opposite the house. 

Steps to access water tap at VNF yard
by lock 39 Reneve

The lock had lots of concrete patches in the walls and new passerelles. The guy was chatty and pleasant and wished us a bon weekend as we left. It was just midday so I made lunch as we went along the 3.9kms pound to lock 38 Oisilly (2.30m). Past a grand Château, only the left hand end looked lived in with shutters open, and into Oisilly village. The lock worked OK, zapped and it closed the gates and filled. The lockhouse had a sign on it that said Atelier des Artistes de Oisilly (Artists of Oisilly workshop). On to a 1.9kms pound. Under a long concrete railway viaduct, the meadows on our left were full of dandelions and ladysmock and three brown and white ponies were grazing. Zapped lock 37 Rochette (3,10m), gates opened and lights went to green, we went into chamber and zapped, nothing. I lifted blue rod, nothing. Mike backed out and sat between the sensors then came back in, zapped, nothing. 

Barn at Cheuges

I tried lifting the blue rod again, nothing! I phoned the top lock again. A young man answered and asked if I’d done all the usual things, yes, but the gates still won’t shut. He said he would send someone. Sat in the lock and waited. I made a cuppa. A young man in the same dirty van arrived and tried the blue pole, nothing. He went in the lock cabin and set it going from there. I asked what the problem was – a “cellule renverser” a photo-electric cell turned round. Hmm, we didn’t see one, they looked OK to us. OK. He carried on cleaning out the tree debris from the lock mouth as we went up the short pound to lock 36 Blagny (2,90m). Same thing happened again. Zapped, gates open, green light, went in, zapped, nothing. Lifted blue rod, nothing. I phoned again and told him his colleague was still down at lock 37.

Lock 39 Reneve

He arrived a few minutes later in his dirty van and went straight into the cabin to reset the lock. He was looking at a computer screen in the control panel on the back wall of the cabin as we left. I thought the lockhouse at 36 was empty – it had that look – but as we left an Espace drew up and a young woman got out, another joined her from the house and they started to unload bags of compost out of the car! It was after two and Mike had decided to get the car, so we gave up the attempt to reach St Seine and moored before the bridge between Beaumont and Champagne (both sur-Vingeanne as that is the name of the river valley we’re following). We were reversing to a section of piled bank when the young man in the dirty van arrived, driving along the towpath. Stopping? Yes, if we can get close to the bank (just) and we’ll stay until Monday morning. He drove away smiling. It was 2.45 p.m. Mike clipped the vegetation along the bank to keep ants off the boat and stood the solar panel up to face the sun, then I gave him a hand to get the moped off the roof down a plank and he went off to collect the car from St Jean-de-Losne.