Thursday 19th May 2011 Antoing.

WWII Memorial plaque on river bridge at Antoing

Grey overcast. A few sunny spells late in the afternoon. Had a call via the neighbour’s phone from the surveyor who said he would call round to see us for five minutes at 2.00 p.m. Moved the two boats back along the quay to fill in the gap after the Dutch cruiser that stayed overnight had left. No signs of our surveyor. Just the short distance down the basin and Mike found a free WiFi station on 54 Mps! We’re online again. He checked his emails and I checked mine. Had one from Helen. They’d arrived yesterday at Veghel having gone to via the tidal Schelde (and had a mishap with a mudbank) into Antwerp (where the policeboat wouldn’t let them tie on the ladders to wait for the lock) then north along the Schelde-Rijn kanaal through the Kreekraak sluise with loads of big DBs, Hollands Diep, Bergse Maas and into the Zuid-Willensvaart via Den Bosch. She liked Veghel and found Albert Hein for shopping and also looked in the church. Coming back via the Zuid-Willems to Bocholt and on to the Herentals canal and the Nete to miss Antwerp and back into Gent via the Boven Schelde (tidal). Wished them all the best with the trip.

Wednesday 18th May 2011 Antoing.

Grey day with a few sunny spells. Saw Musia off around 9.30 a.m. waved bye bye to Andy and Sue, then we went off in the car into France to phone our surveyor again. Still on voicemail so we went to see if there was anyone in at his house to leave a message. Mike called at the Post Office in the village to ask where his road was – they did him a printout of a map. Found the place easily enough and, surprisingly, it was a farmhouse. Rang the bell a couple of times and eventually a very pleasant lady opened the door. Mike told her we were looking for the surveyor and she said he was away in Lyons for a couple of days doing some surveys but would be back later tonight then in his office the following day. I’d written out a note in English (we’d been chatting in French) leaving the Snail’s Belgian phone number, which she said she would give him. That’s a relief, we thought he might have been off on his holidays again. Drove nearer to the village and set up the laptop on the Internet, checked the emails then found out where the nearest Carrefour was. It was in Flers near Douai so we set up Lucy GPS to find it. A big newish hyper, we found almost all the things we wanted. Mike had two new pairs of pumps at 10€ a pair and three containers of oil for the boat at 7,64€ (5 litres) cheaper than in Carrefour Tournai which was 12€ +. Spent almost 160€! Stocked up on chicken for the freezer and sausages for BBQing I, plus noodles and mayo, etc. It was after three when we got back, so we had a very late lunch. A Dutch cruiser called Jane arrived and moored between us and Johanna.

Tuesday 17th May 2011 Antoing.

Grey morning, sunny with lots of clouds in the afternoon. Did a few jobs in the morning, Mike replaced the wire on the 12V socket connections for running the laptop in the car. After lunch we chatted with Andy and Sue off cruiser Musia, they said they were heading for Strépy-Thieu next day. We went out in the car to have a look at Pommereoul. The resident péniche had gone and the two English DBs that had been at Antoing the day before were moored there. The crew of Harmony were off with bikes on the back of their car as we set up the laptop in the car. The phone worked OK on SFR so I rang our surveyor but got his answering service, so I left a message to say we would be on dock on the 30th and asked if he could do our survey on the 31st. Our Bouygues Internet worked OK too on 3G, so I looked at emails and sent one to Helen to give what info I could on the locks on the Zuid-Willemsvaart that she’d asked Mike for on Sunday. Checked Mike’s e-mails, he’d had one from Paul who was now in Luxembourg and had been using our big brown book on the Moselle/Rhine. Told him he could add notes for future reference. The e-mail Mike sent to our insurers had failed, so I sent it again. The crew off Harmony came back, they said the distance to station was walkable so they would leave the car where it was. Turned out we’d met before when we were at Le Bassin Rond and the skipper (who had been a big fan of Bill’s Witterings) came to invite Bill on his boat. (Harmony was up for sale now that the crew had done the five years here that they had originally set out to do) Packed up and drove back to the boat. 

Monday 16th May 2011 Antoing.

Tug crew moored in old weirstream to shop at Aldi

Cold and grey. Mike went to get some bread from the boulangerie. It was closed Mondays so he went to look in town and found no other bread shop. As a last resort he went in Aldi and bought a sliced loaf. The DB (Alberdina), which was moored on the far side of the canal, came over and moored behind Johanna. Heard later that its skipper was off back to the UK for a few days. Several more DBs arrived later and moored alongside Johanna and the new arrival (there is a rally of DBs in Namur later in the month). As we couldn’t find a new one to buy, I started sewing a new bread bag adding handles to a cotton tea towel then sewing round it. 

Sunday 15th May 2011 Antoing.

Grey and still damp after last night’s downpours. The Botters stayed until the afternoon but the cruisers left. A large DB moored on the far side of the canal by the commercials. We packed my laptop and went for a drive into France, just over the border beyond the village of Maulde and found a track next to the gated drive to a house, which couldn’t be seen from the road as there were lots of trees. Set up the laptop and the Internet just a few minutes late of my usual Sunday morning chat time with Yvonne in the UK. Two men with big dogs came up and Mike went out to speak to them. They were security guards from the house! They said we were on private land, but not so judging from the number of people using it, several joggers had also gone past as well as the cyclists. We’d be another half hour. We drove a bit further back towards the border and found another track. I’d had an email from Floan; Helen said they’d loaded in Chalons and were heading for Veghel in the Netherlands via Merelbeke and Antwerp and would give us a shout as they went past Peronne. I sent a reply to say we were at Antoing and there was a delay with the dry docking, then we packed up and went back to Antoing for a late lunch. As we got back Floan went past, Anne spotted them as she was outside chatting with Mike so he went down the engine room and put the VHF on to have a quick chat with Helen. Anne and Olly had been to the flower market in the town and had bought some potted plants for their front deck. 

Saturday 14th May 2011 Antoing.

Warm and sunny with a strong chilly breeze. After a much more peaceful night than at Tournai, Mike decided to walk the 5kms back to Tournai to collect the car and Anne volunteered to go with him taking their little terrier dog, Woody, for a good long walk. I got on with chores then put the laptop on to catch up on the log. I almost forgot to record Corrie and Mike hadn’t reminded me. When he returned I made some sandwiches for lunch. After lunch I started preparing for the BBQ we were having later, boiled some eggs and fried bacon bits and bread for croutons to make a bacon and egg salad, then boiled some spuds for a potato salad and put two bits of steak in a marinade. Gave Mike a hand to check the local WiFi and found four open ones, but couldn’t access them. Mike went for a lie down as his knee was aching after his long walk. We were surrounded with Dutch boats, three Botters – two in front and one in the gap behind us plus two cruisers. Olly lit their BBQ on the wall by Snail’s bows and Mike took our little hibachi out and did likewise. Andy had a fancy Cob BBQ (with lid) that uses very little fuel. Took out all the salad, etc and everyone cooked their own. Anne had made vegetable kebabs one for each of us. We’d just started to eat when the rain poured down. The Snails had got a couple of brollies so we put them up and Mike went for our big fisherman’s brolly so we were reasonably dry – but it turned very chilly so we didn’t sit out much after dark. Took all the gear back on board and left the washing up until the following day.

Friday 13th May 2011 Tournai - Antoing. 5.5kms no locks

Hiroshima loading at Vaulx

Warm and sunny, lots of white clouds. The DB Parelion left, they’d had enough of the wash of passing commercials swinging their boat about. Mike and Olly went to see Marjorie and quiz her about what was going on as we couldn’t use the slip until the 30th. Turned out the work on the tjalk wasn’t finished and that was how long it would take. The DB was due to come out on the Friday, 27th but she said she didn’t want us to go on for a few days after that just to make sure the work was OK and the barge had no leaks. Soon after they came back a commercial went past so fast it put water over our gunwales and back deck and slammed the cruiser Musia against the pontoon so hard that it bent one of their air intake pipes. That was when everyone decided they’d had enough and set off – except us as we had a few jobs to do. Part filled the water tank with 50c worth of water (350 litres), then connected the electricity and did some washing. I made lunch then did the ironing. The washing finished and the electricity ran out (0.8KwH) with three items left to iron – they’ll have to wait until after we’re on the dock. At 3.15 p.m. after Antalya had gone past heading upriver empty, we untied and winded just after two large replica DBs went steaming past, Ebenhäuser and Hilde, heading upriver in the same direction as us. We had a guess where they were going and hoped there would be enough room left for us, confirmed when we heard them talking on VHF. At Vaulx on our left, the river wharves were as busy as usual, Elan (a former Rhur boat with its previous name and port in raised lettering that couldn’t be removed) was unloading pre-fabricated concrete sections of what may have been a wind generator tower. Also on the quay were a pusher pair called Elodie and Alexis waiting to be loaded. On the right, péniche Isabelle was being loaded with grain from tipper lorries. Back on the Vaulx quay, pusher pair of péniches Es-Vie and Houari were being loaded with aggregate by a digger. An empty péniche called Pamy came downriver, winded and tied on the quay to wait for loading. At the end of the Vaulx quay under a loading ramp, 67m Hiroshima was being loaded with more aggregate from tipper lorries. 

Mooring in the old weirstream at Antoing

On the quays at Antoing an 80m+ boat called Zijpe was being loaded with stone. Further down the quay by the cement works, a loaded 80m+ boat called Shenandoah was either setting off or just arriving, reversing slowly down the quay. A lad on a bike arrived and started shouting and whistling; he dropped his bike on the quay and leapt on to the fore end of the barge – a drop of around ten feet on to hard metal, we were surprised he didn’t break his legs! As we went past the first of the moored péniches by Neptunia, two cruisers were fast catching up. Typical, we’d seen very few private traffic on the river (or canals) and as soon as we decide to move there were four more boats heading for the same place as us and three already there (DB Johanna was already moored in the arm with Musia and the Snail!) The largest, a Dutch boat called Cycloon overtook us in the middle of the river, right in the face of an oncoming empty 80m barge. It slipped around the bows of the empty boat while the one behind it had had the sense to hang back. As soon as the big barge had gone past the other Dutch cruiser, called Elan, also overtook just as we were about to swing into the arm on the left and moor next to the Snail. The two cruisers were in the way but we squeezed past and moored alongside Wandering Snail as the smaller cruiser moored on the end wall, where it was very shallow; then the larger cruiser attempted to go alongside it and grounded - so they both left. The two new DBs were moored side by side beyond Musia and Johanna. Anne and Olly came and sat on our very cluttered front deck and had a beer. 

Mooring in the old weirstream at Antoing

We’d had an invite to go on Musia later so we got on with the chores. Anne said there was film on BBC2 that they wanted to watch but would miss because we were going to visit Sue and Andy on Musia, so we volunteered to record it for her. Anne said Friday the 13th had struck all at once for them – she’d been to the boulangerie which was closed but it had a bread dispensing machine outside so she came back to get the right change, walked back only to find that it only had sugar bread. Next, when she took a lasagne out of the ‘fridge to cook it, even though it was nowhere near its use-by date, it had gone mouldy; undaunted she took one from the freezer but said now that would takes ages to defrost and cook. At 8.30 p.m. we all went on Musia for a drink and a chat. It was a very pleasant evening drinking wine and chatting; almost 1.00 a.m. when we returned to the boats.

Thursday 12th May 2011 Tournai.

8.9°C Lots of grey clouds with sunny spells. The cruiser that arrived the day before was still moored on the end of the pontoon when the DB we did a lock with last week, called Parelion (Swiss German couple), arrived and wanted to moor on the pontoon. We moved up a bit so he could get into the gap behind the cruiser. Michel, who had been watching proceedings like a hawk said he didn’t like it, the boat was too heavy for the pontoon and he pointed to their stern rope attached to an aluminium cleat and said it would break it. He’s probably right, but what can you say? There were no visible weight restriction notices on the pontoon. We chatted with a couple of Brits on bikes who were visiting Tournai (in a camping car), who had paused when they saw the boat and asked the usual questions, spoke to the couple off the cruiser who were off shopping in town, then we went by car to do some shopping at Carrefour on the road out of Tournai towards Courtrai (Kortijk). A very large store, better choice of fruit and veg; an excellent choice of breads, but the prices on the whole were more expensive than in France. I bought reduced price meat, a small leg of lamb at 7,99€/kg and pork filet at 9,99€ plus some excellent sausage. Spent a fortune 124€, the only reduction we had was 27c off the sausage and were very surprised to find that the French Carrefour fidelity card didn’t work in a Belgian Carrefour. Back around 1.30 p.m. Marjorie hadn’t phoned Anne, so Anne ‘phoned her. Bad news, the trolley won’t be free until 30th  May – but then we could have it for a month, if we liked. That is not going to please our insurers. Decided to go and pay her another visit next day to find out exactly what the problem was. I packed all the groceries away. Mike had a tin of his favourite pea and ham soup (and forgot they have concentrated soups here in Belgium, you have to add a tin full of water!) and I made myself a sandwich with some nice little soft brown buns. I gave Mike a hand to change the rubber gas pipe on the gas bottle. It proved to be more difficult than expected. He had to get inside the gas locker to operate two spanners at the same time  - so all the stuff had to come out so he could get in. Meanwhile Anne had made us coffee and cut up a tarte au fraises. It took a bit longer than expected to change the gas pipe. We got cleaned up and took our chairs to sit out on the end of the pontoon with Anne and Olly. They weren’t very happy with the delay at the chantier. Mike said he and Olly could go next day and have a chat with Marjorie. They said if we have to wait until the end of the month they might go on up river into Valenciennes as there is a music festival on all month in the town. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Put all the stuff back in the gas locker.

Wednesday 11th May 2011 Tournai.

Pontoon mooring at Tournai

Sunny and warm with a breeze that turned chilly later. Mike went off on the moped to retrieve the car from Valenciennes, meanwhile I went to ask Anne where the nearest bakery was, so she said she’d come with me. I bought a Belgian baguette (fatter and softer than its French counterpart) for 1€. Made some sandwiches for lunch when Mike returned and we chose a time between the wash from passing commercials to hoist the bike back on the roof. One had gone past very fast earlier, which had broken the cord on the big ball fender. First thing I knew was when the old guy, Michel, who lives next to the quay came knocking on the cabin bringing the ball fender back that he had rescued out of the river. I thanked him very much and put the green fender (full of expanded mousse) in its place but attached it to the cleat on the pontoon rather than attach it to the boat. 

Peacock at the boatyard in Peronnes
Photo by Anne and Olly

Mike took Anne and Olly with him (I stayed on board to keep an eye on the boats) in the car to visit Majorie and see about the docking. When they came back he said that there was a tjalk on the trolley who had booked to go on for ten days but had been on for two months as the boat had failed its survey and had had to have a load of metal replaced. Marjorie said she would find out how long he was going to be on the trolley and let us know the following day. Mike and I went to visit the cabinet maker’s workshop as Dom and his wife Katarine had invited us the day before. It was a very old building with high ceilings and full of wood (lovely smells) and tools, one wall was covered with stuff from junk shops – pieces of carved wood and old portraits. He made new fitted furniture, at present making a very long base section for a bookcase (the house must be huge to have one made that big) and she restored old stuff and showed us a table and a corner cupboard she was renovating for clients. He said that the place had been a cabinet makers for three generations as the guy he took over from had worked there all his life and so had the guy’s father. Dom said he didn’t think it would go on much longer as people wanted the cheaper mass-produced furniture rather than his bespoke quality creations. Sad.

Tuesday 10th May 2011 Valenciennes - Tournai. 27kms 3 locks

Sharing Fresnes lock with push-tow

Grey clouds, rain, then sunshine. Mike walked down the weirstream checking that there would be enough room to wind opposite the row of moored cruisers as the weirstream was running fast. Set off at 8.45 a.m. just as a “crocodile” of school kids went walking past with minders, winded by the cruisers and set off back up the weir stream. Mike called the keeper at Folien lock to say we were on our way as the lock was just around the corner from the end of the weir stream. The lights were on red, so Mike backed off in case there was something coming up in the lock. Nothing in the lock and we got a green light, in and down the 3.03m in no time. Well timed as two boats were coming up to the lock, Oxbow a loaded Belgian 55m and loaded pushtow péniches Melody and Lydia. 

Sevila/Avilla push-tow in Fresnes lock

It started to pour with rain. 2.8 kms to the next lock, La Folie (2.94m). It had stopped raining by the time we arrived and the lock was ready so we were in and down slowly this time. Loaded péniche Edouard from Landelies and loaded 447-tonne Njord went into the lock we’d just left. A little further downriver we passed a small Dutch cruiser called Indy II heading fast upriver to the lock. 73m 950-tonner Gwenci from Landelies was loading scrap at the quay below La Folie. Before we arrived at the lock we were overtaken by pushtow Avila and Sevilla and 1599 tonne Apache went past heading upriver. We followed the pushtow into Fresnes lock. Mike called the keeper on VHF to ask if he still had a used oil disposal place; yes, he had, so Mike told him he had a small container of engine oil – OK to deposit it when we arrived in the lock. The pusher went on the right and we went in on the left, same side as the lock cabin and the oil disposal place. 

Bows of push-tow

Mike hopped off and got rid of the old oil. When he got back on board he asked the woman on the pusher pair if she was going to leave their prop turning, yes, but we could move further down the chamber and go out first. I slipped the rope off and we went down the chamber as the water was going down. I said with any luck it would be empty before we get there and I won’t need to put the rope around a bollard! It wasn’t quite that fast, but the gates were opening within minutes of my dropping a rope on a bollard! It wasn’t long before the pushtow overtook us and sailed off into the distance. Cervantes went past heading upriver on the long straight near Hergnies. I’d already cooked some bread buns in the oven so I made sandwiches for lunch. At the junction with the Scarpe (closed) we passed a Dutch péniche called Gondel flying a very large Dutch flag. At 1.15 p.m. we crossed the border into Belgium and Mike changed our courtesy flag. Above the bridge at Belharies an empty pusher pair called Mistral and Avalanche went past heading upstream. 

Edwin loaded with containers

There was only one boat on the quay at Bleharies downstream of the road bridge, a loaded péniche called Bona-Fide. A 1500-tonner loaded with scrap went into the Blaton-Nimy-Peronne canal as we were getting near the junction. Loaded boat Tosca from Antwerp went past heading uphill at the bridge before the junction. Four lads in an inflatable boat named Belouga were zipping around at the junction. At the TGV railway bridge we passed Edwin a boat loaded with containers. An empty 80m boat called Romy went upstream just before we reached the road bridge at Antoing. Two empty barges, 70m Typhon and 67m St Benoit were moored on the quay opposite Neptunia’s fuel and chandlery barge. Its three bunker boats were moored below it. A big empty called Shenandoah was moored outside two péniches with more empty péniches moored downriver, Orca, Sanwen, Nova-Gura and Edison. 

Chateau turrets at Antoing

A bit further on Bounty, an 80m empty barge, was moored on the quay by the blast furnace. On the quay wall that extended from Antoing to Vaulx Antalya (105m x 9.5m 2175 tonnes) was being loaded from tipper wagons and one tipped just as we went past; it looked like coal but was more likely to be aggregates; then a row of boats waiting to be loaded, two push tow pairs and 50m Mercure. Next was Emma (105m x 9.5m 2,182 tonnes) its load of scrap metal was being unloaded by digger into tipper lorries, further along the quay, an empty péniche called Anex, a loaded one called Olsé and Nessie, an empty 65m barge. A catamaran looked well out of place, out of the water on the bank at the end of the quay. 80m empty called Pat-Vero went past heading upriver as we went into Tournai. 

At last we meet! Moored at Tournai with The Snail

As we rounded the bend we spied a narrow boat on a new pontoon mooring next to the high quays that are a feature of the river in Tournai. We landed right behind Wandering Snail before Anne spotted us (she was sitting out on the pontoon, reading) and Olly came out of his workshop to say hello. We chatted for a few minutes then we finished tying up, put all the stuff away and went to sit out and have a drink with our new neighbours.

Monday 9th May 2011 Iwuy - Valenciennes. 27kms 4 locks.

Former bakery and shop for sale at Le Bassin Rond

White and grey clouds to start, clearing later for a lovely warm sunny day with a light breeze. Mike went by car to get bread as he thought the boulangerie might be closed on Mondays (it wasn’t) and he might have to go to the Carrefour Contact (never been in one of those). No pain, or grosse baguette and he didn’t want a batard or a pointy-ended pain, so he ended up with a smaller sized loaf for 85c. Untied, winded and set off down to the lock at 9.10 a.m. Lock 5 Iwuy (2.70m) worked perfectly and we saw why the péniche took the left hand chamber on Saturday, the automatic lock on the right had a max depth of 2m to clear the cill. I pressed the intercom button and told Crevecoeur I was depositing the zapper in the box, did he want the number? He knew the boat name so that was OK and wished us bonne route. 

Repaired pontoon Le Bassin Rond

Off down the last bit of the péniche-sized canal. We passed Mondor, an empty running uphill, as we arrived at the entrance to the Bassin Rond. We went in to have a look to see if the pontoon was still there. New houses had been built on the right hand side and on the left the old boulangerie was for sale (it’s never been a bakery since we started going in and out of the basin back in 1996) A retired péniche was moored on the corner by the old canal and the basin was full of cruisers, the pontoon was still there in the cut off old canal and looked as if it had been refurbished with new deck and two new pasarrelles. Noted for future reference. A few more cruisers were moored further down the basin on the right and on the left there was a line of converted péniche houseboats. 

Liberty loading grain at Neuville

Turned around and went back on to the main canal. Past the old dry dock, long filled in with its guillotine gate slowly rusting away. A cruiser called Marie was moored in the arm that was the original canal, now blocked to through traffic, with the pontoon on the other side of the blockage. Paused just before the junction while Mike put the pins in to connect the Markon to generate electricity so I could do some washing as we ran down the long reaches of the Escaut. There were a few boats moored above Port Malin lock (4.32m) as usual, on the right a 660 tonne empty Dutch tanker called Druten, an empty barge called Strelitzia (85m x 9.05m 1,503 tonnes) and a loaded pushtow péniche pair called Calvi and Kelvi; and on the left one empty péniche called Guitti whose skipper was washing his covers down with canal water using a bucket and long line. A hireboat? called Fischreiher from Friesland Marine came up in the lock, a big chunky steel cruiser on the same lines as the ones Burgundy Cruisers build. 

Contain port at Prouvy

Sounds like it’s a long way from home! We went into the lock and stopped close to the keeper who was on the lockside with a clipboard. He took all the boat details and asked the usual questions, where from, to, etc. Tied to a floater and Mike held the string while I sorted the washing and loaded the washing machine. Mike said they’d made the mooring in Bouchain for “Professionals” only now. At Neuville-sur-Escaut a 600 tonner called Liberty was being loaded with grain from a large tipper lorry. A little Dutch tug called Argus from Katwijk went past heading upriver at KP6. The washer finished its final spin seconds before we had to stop above the next lock. An empty 50m boat called Nebraska had set off from the unloading quay above Denain lock (4.84m) and had just gone into the chamber. 

Empty Con Dios at Prouvy

The lock light was on red, so Mike called the keeper on VHF to ask if we could go in. The light changed to green and he replied yes. We went in behind the big boat, no floater available so we tied to a red bollard that had a notice on it that said max 10 tonnes. Mike held the rope again while I changed wash loads. As we left the lock a loaded péniche called El Gringo came past heading into the chamber. There were signs galore as we went round a bend with three bridges, the last one (a girder bridge) was being repainted and the right hand half was covered with sheeting and had a wooden floor fixed under the road deck for the men to work on and to catch all the debris from grinding off the old paint. Empty boat Betharram, a 1,100 tonner, 80m x 8.2m, was berthed at the container port in Prouvy. Was he waiting to load or had just unloaded? At the other end of the quay an empty péniche called Nemesis was waiting to load with his covers pulled back. We stopped before the next bridge while a large empty called Con Dios came through. 

Mooring in weirstream in Anzin (Valenciennes)

Just us for Trith-St-Leger lock (3.96m) and we dropped down attached to a single floater again. The lock lights changed to green for uphill traffic then we passed a loaded péniche called Paloclau heading uphill, followed a few minutes later by Manou, 80m x 9.5m  1,558 tonnes, loaded with containers. Plenty of room in the lock as the chambers on the Grand Gabarit are 144.6m long by 12m wide. Next we passed empty péniche Thalassa heading uphill and as we reached Valenciennes we passed péniche Babytonga whose load of grain was being unloaded by hydraulic bucket, which tipped it into a hopper for transfer into the silos. Past the University buildings (we moored by their grounds once, way back in 1996) past walls covered in graffiti and went into the weirstream alongside Folien lock. There were more converted péniches in the arm than last time we were there. Tied the stern to bollard and had to bang stakes in for the fore end as the bollard had been removed.  The water level was constantly changing, going down as the lock filled and then coming back up to normal level. The smell was bad, a pongy drain smell. 

Sunday 8th May 2011 Iwuy. Day off F1 GP Turkey.

Mooring  on the silo quay at Iuwy

Grey start, sun out later. Mike gave the cills on the ZX a coat of paint then had a morning of fixing things, the brass hinge stop off the Morse control, a new plug and wire on the diesel pump and changed the curly wire for a straight one on the Garmin GPS. At 10.45 a.m. the Belgian DB Bianca went down and used the right hand chamber. We thought the locks were closed Sunday as the lock lights had been off all morning. At 1.05 p.m. empty boat Ger-Jac came up the lock. After that there were no more boats moving. 

Saturday 7th May 2011 Masnières - Iwuy. 20kms 10 locks

Loaded peniche Ideal entering Bracheux lock

Hazy white cloud and chilly first thing, getting warmer as the day progressed, then a blustery wind sprang up in the afternoon. Mike was up at seven and changed the oil in the boat engine when he noticed the level was low and realised he was late changing it. He’d heard traffic on VHF so we hurried to get untied and wind. Too late. As we set off there was loaded péniche Ideal (from Antoing) right behind us so Mike asked him on VHF if he wanted to come past us, which he did. Stopped on the left in the wide section above lock 6 Bracheux (2.40m) so the péniche could carry on past straight into the lock. It wasn’t much of a delay because we zapped, the lock refilled quickly and we were in and down in no time. 

Empty peniche Patrick below Bracheux

A large digger with caterpillar tracks was parked on the lockside along with stacks of steel pile capping and below there was more heavy plant which had been doing piling repairs and backfilling with rocks. 1.6kms to the next lock. We met an empty boat called Patrick, with wheelhouse down, going flat out for the lock just a few hundred metres below it. We arrived at lock 5 Marcoing (2.50m) just as Ideal left it. We dropped down the lock and passed the next empty, Cap-Horn, heading for the lock we’d just left. He slowed right down for the road bridge below the tail of the lock as his bow was a close fit under it. 500m to lock 4 Talma (2.30m) and followed Ideal down it. I read some more of the book to Mike while we went along the 2.9kms pound which had become the haunt of dog walkers, joggers and cyclists. 

Empty peniche Cap Horn below Marcoing

It’s Saturday! Everybody to the towpath! We could see a boater having trouble in lock 3 Noyelles, a cruiser was going side to side in the lock and someone was having trouble getting a rope around a bollard. Mike let me off in the lock mouth of the disused lock chamber on the right and I went to help. A British white cruiser called Markita was in the lock, the man had just managed to get his bow rope on a bollard, but was having a problem with the blue rod (it was bent) so I lifted it for them. We chatted while the lock filled. They’d sold up in the UK at Christmas and were off to Spain, had enough of wet weather in the UK. Best of luck. They said they had eleven more locks to do today and would go through the tunnel in the morning. Mike got the boat off the bottom, the other lock approach was silting up badly and brought it into the lock after they left. 

Aqueduct over infant river Escaut above Noyelles lock

I lifted the blue rod and stepped back on board. 560m to lock 2 Cantigneul (2.40m) zapped and went down it with no problems. 1.6kms to lock 1 Proville (2.40m) the last lock on the canal de St Quentin, just before the next lock in Cambrai the navigation changes to the Escaut canalisée. 1.95kms to the first lock on the Escaut. An empty péniche called Horizon had just cleared lock 1 Cantimpré (1.80m) as we were passing the port de plaisance in an offline basin in Cambrai. Noted that there was another narrowboat in there (left for the winter) called The New Buffoonery from Winchester (which part of the canal system would that be on we wondered?) tucked in amongst all the DBs and cruisers. 

Lock house at Proville

Another empty (called Haro) was waiting below the lock so we went in and descended. Several retired boats were moored in the arm below the lock, To Like and Morgane among them. 760m to the next lock. Into lock 2 Selles (1.60m) and down. Mike noticed that the gates didn’t close straight away after we left like they had been doing all the way down the canal. The itinerant in a van drove across the bridge as we were leaving the lock. 2.65kms to the next so I made some lunch. I took it out just as we were passing a silo and were downwind of a farmyard, the smell was thick – lunch was delayed. Down lock 3 Erre (2.30m) after Ideal left. 4.28kms to the next so I read some more of the book. 

Entrance to Cambrai moorings in basin above Cantimpre lock

We could see the stern end of Ideal round the bend, having to wait for the next lock, 4 Thun-l’Eveque. Above the lock a Belgian DB called Bianca was moored facing uphill under the trees, its crew tucking into lunch. When we arrived at lock 4 Ideal was just leaving and the gates were closing. The lock lights went to double red then just red, two people came out of the lock cabin and got into a VNF van and drove away. Mike zapped, the orange light flashed then nothing happened. He tried again. Same thing. The farmer from the house on the right was moving bales of hay and driving his tractor and trailer slowly as there was a flock of geese in front. A gaggle of tiny yellow ducklings were swimming up and down. Mike left me off on the left where there was a silted up weir. 

Empty peniche Horizon leaving Cantimpre lock

I went to use the lock intercom and spoke to control at Crévecoeur. The guy said he would send someone to get the lock working. Back on the boat. The ducklings were under the catwalk by the weir and the farmer had come over with a big net to fish them out with. They didn’t want to go. Mike encouraged them with our mop. Safely in the net the farmer took them back to his farm while the geese swam around in the canal watching. Mike managed to back the boat off the mud just as the VNF van returned. The man leaned out of the window with a zapper, zapped and the stupid lock lights went red/green and the lock started to refill. He drove off without a word. Makes you want to spit! How stupid does that make us look? Unless he had a special zapper that resets the lock? 

Escaped ducklings above Thun l'Eveque 

Give up, we went in and down as usual. Another DB was moored below the lock – the name was partly covered but the big tjalk was called something like Tilly’s Tug. The couple on were very pleasant, and the skipper knew Temujin was Genghis Khan – not many people know that. He asked if we were fans of Michael Payne. Who? 2.09kms to the last lock. We were going to continue to Le Bassin Rond but not knowing if the pontoon was still there or not we decided to stop on the end of the silo quay at Iwuy just above the lock. The wind had picked up and was trying to blow the boat off the quay but Mike tied the stern round a small tree and knocked a pin in for the bows with a spring to another pin. The two bollards were péniche length apart. It was 2.00 p.m. Here until Monday as there is an F1 GP on tomorrow. Got the moped off the roof and Mike decided he needed to repair the pulley wheel and sprocket, which had recently been reluctant to disengage making it difficult to push the bike as it wouldn’t fully release the clutch and engine. Two kids aged about fourteen were further down the silo quay, a boy and a girl. They walked right past without saying hello or even looking in our direction! Unusual for French kids. A little later another very young couple arrived and parked their car a couple of metres from the boat while he got out and had a pee. 

Moored on the silo quay at Iwuy

Brilliant, yesterday we were parked in a dog toilet and today a people toilet! What next! A group of eight kids, in their early teens, walked past (Mike and I were still fixing the moped) including the two who had previously gone past, and only one of them said Bonjour. They all went up to the main silo quay and sat around for a while before the lads started swimming in the canal (I wouldn’t want to wash my hands in it, there’s still a malodour of sewage in the air since leaving Cambrai) Mike finished fixing the bike and went off to get the car. I went out to give Mike a hand to put the bike back on the roof at 5.30 p.m. just as loaded péniche Dymphna from Thuin came down to the lock, which didn’t work. VNF put them through the left hand chamber not the one on automatic. The kids were still swimming in the canal and a van driver pulled up on the quay so we left putting the bike on the roof until we had no audience. 

Friday 6th May 2011 Bellenglise - Masnières. 20kms 11 locks

Site of famous WWI photo
Riqueval bridge -see
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Riqueval1918-2.jpg

A damp and chilly start, warmer later and sunny with hazy clouds. Mike was up at five and got the boat ready to leave at 6.10 a.m. quietly past the two empty péniches. Half an hour later we arrived at the gare d’eau and attached to the quay behind Farida, a loaded péniche that had been moored there overnight. The VNF arrived at 7.20 a.m. and took all the boat details including owner’s name and address (for the bill). Mike gave the end of one of our long mooring ropes to the skipper of Farida and he attached it to a centre dolly on his stern deck. Then he changed his mind, as we couldn’t detach that if we needed to, and he found our long green rope and doubled that around the péniche’s centre dolly so we had the two loops around our fore end stud. 

Waiting for the tow. Riqueval tunnel

Set off behind the rumbling clanking antiquity of a tunnel tug dragging itself along by warping on a chain that comes up off the bottom of the canal and through the tug. Immediately we started scraping along the left hand wall before we even got into the tunnel. Mike told me to take the green rope off, which I did and coiled the wet rope on our front deck lid. By this time we were trundling along on tickover behind the péniche into the tunnel. A young VNF man, wearing all the safety gear, hard hat, ear defenders (round his neck) and a life vest, came back down the tunnel towpath and told us it was interdit (forbidden) to use engines in the tunnel and we must be towed using two lines fastened as cross straps. Mike told him we only had one stud at the front end so attaching two lines to that wouldn’t work. 

Chain drum on tunnel tug. Riqueval

Next thing he comes back from the péniche with one of their ropes, a long one, but this time attached to their starboard side bollard. OK we’ll try it, I dropped the loop over our front stud. It seemed to work much better, especially having a long line, Mike could keep it in the middle so he cut the engine - the péniche however kept his engine running all the way through the tunnel, nearly 6kms. About half an hour later the lad came back down the towpath (minus all the protective gear now) to check we were still complying with regulations. We were. He walked quite a distance on the towpath level with the wheelhouse of Farida, chatting with the skipper. I tried taking a few flash photos, but they didn’t work very well. 

Southern portal. Riqueval tunnel

Made a cup of soup as it was quiet chilly in the tunnel. Emerged into sunshine just over two hours later at 9.35 a.m. detached from Farida and he coiled his rope in as we were overtaking the tunnel tug which was preparing the “râme” for the return journey - one empty péniche, a hotel boat with bikes (half of which appeared to be off over the top of the tunnel) called Fleur and a little navy hulled cruiser. Farida cranked up the power, we followed, slowly, giving it chance to get into the first lock and down before we arrived. A péniche houseboat called Jarga was moored at Vendhuile. The loaded péniche was just entering the top lock 17 Bosquet (1.50m) so we slowed right down. Sensors activated the first lock then a sign informed everyone in three languages to ask for a remote controller. 

Temporary repairs! Bony tunnel

I got off and pressed the intercom button, the VNF man at Crévecoeur command centre told me to take the zapper which had just slid down a hatch in the lock cabin wall and asked me the number on it. 67. OK and he wished us bonne route. I lifted the blue pole and the gates closed, then nothing else happened. Mike said hang on it might be more sophisticated than we were giving it credit for and not emptying until the péniche in front was in the next lock. Oh no. A voice on the intercom called. I got off to answer. The man said press the green button. OK. The paddles lifted fast and I couldn’t get back on – I wasn’t prepared to jump. I said I’ll get back on down the ladder it’s only 1.5m deep. The rungs were thickly coated in slimy mud so Mike said get on below or have a walk to the next. It was only just around the bend 580m so I walked. Above lock 16 Moulin Lafosse (2.20m) someone had left a large Belgian cruiser called Marie Galante tied to some Armco. It was well covered with big black fenders, never seen so many on one boat. I crossed the left hand chamber as the boat went into the right hand one. I lifted the bar and got on while the gates were closing. 

Three boats for the return tow. Bony tunnel

The first three locks used to be chained automatics working one after the other, that’s no longer needed now we have zappers. 1.8kms to lock 15 Honnecourt (2.50m). Mike zapped, it filled, I lifted the blue rod and we went down in two minutes, the fastest locks yet! I refilled the ‘fridge and made some tea and toast on the 2.6kms pound. Lock 14 Banteux ((2.50m) had an old café alongside it, the sort that looks like a house. Many years ago we encountered a few pubs like that in the UK in remote rural areas like the Fens. 500m to lock 13 Bantouzelle (2.30m) Below the lock there was an old arm with a 2m high silo quay on the left hand side. Noted there were lots of sandpipers flying in front of the boat all along the canal again. 2.2kms to lock 12 Vaucelles (2.10m) 

Command post at Crevecoeur

Farida was waiting above it so we slowed down to wait. A Dutch cruiser with a lovely highly polished smart navy blue hull came up the lock, then the péniche went down and we took our turn after. Shame to take a lovely boat like that through the tunnel to bounce it off the sides, scraping its paint and drip limy water on it from the roof. It was 12.30 p.m. when we went into the lock. 2.4kms to lock 11 Tordoir (2.40m). Again the péniche was waiting above the lock and we could see the lights on the lock below it were green, so he must have caught up with something else going down in front. As we dropped down lock 12 I went in the cabin to make some lunch. 400m to lock 10 Vinchy (2.10m) then 940m to lock 9 Crévecoeur (2.30m). Decided to see if we could get some water. 

Filling the water tank at Crevecoeur

I hopped off with my camera and went in the command centre. Yes, no problem, we could have water – there was a tap on the wall and the Chef fetched out a hose reel. I asked if I could take a photo of the command post as it’s very impressive. Yes, he said, very proud of his equipment. I asked if Mike could take a look as he’d never been in the office, so the Chef showed him the computer screen with the layout of all the locks this side of the tunnel all the way down to Iwuy. He could click on each to see more details, all the paddles and gates had lights to show what was working and he had cameras at the top and bottom lock. Mike asked if anything went wrong could he work the lock from there, no not at present but he could send someone to sort it out. 

Moored at Masnieres. Glass works in background

Wonderful and it all seems to work very well. We chatted while the tank filled. The other chamber of the twinned locks was undergoing repair and a huge pump was about to be installed in the chamber to pump it out. He said that both locks would work soon. I said we’d noted how much extra traffic there seemed to be now, far more péniche traffic than when we were last here in 2004. Said au’voir and merci for the water. Lifted the blue rod and down we went and on to the 1.34kms pound to the next. 

WWI memorial at Masnieres  - see -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cambrai_(1917)

Below the lock we could see a DB called Johanna and the couple on it came out to say hello as we went past. Nice couple, she told us she used to have a narrowboat at Stoke Prior. Two empty péniches were also moored there, La Vesle and La Vezere and another DB called Plover, also with an SSR plate (an early one, five numbers like ours). Down to lock 8 St Vaast (2.20m) which had no lock houses at all now and immediately before the lock was an aqueduct over the tiny (at this point) river Escaut, whose valley we now follow all the way into Belgium. 1.28kms to lock 7 Masniéres (2.30m) which had lots of houses on both sides of the paired locks. The water must be cleaner down here as there was a thriving colony of fresh water mussels growing in the ladder and control rod recesses in the lock walls. A short distance from the lock we moored next to a stone and brick quay with rings with a nicely planted bit of parkland where there was a memorial to the Canadian war heroes of WW1. It was 3.00 p.m

Thursday 5th May 2011 Jussy - Bellenglise. 34kms 8 locks

Church at St Simon

Chilly, blue skies and sunny, warming up a bit later. Mike was up at seven, he went to the boulangerie and bought a loaf (1,02€) before we set off at 8.00 a.m. I did a few chores as we went along the last 5kms of the 10.6kms pound. Mike saw a great spotted woodpecker fly across the canal in front of the boat, being in the cabin I missed it. The canal banks were very wild and the towpath was blocked by a fallen willow tree, so no cycle piste here then. As we approached the village of St Simon there were lots of new houses stretching along the canal bank. DB tjalk Elizabeth J was moored on the island at Point Y. The left hand chamber was preparing itself as we arrived at lock 25 Pont-Tugny (2.3m) and there were two VNF men in the lock cabin so I got on the roof to throw a rope around a bollard and one of the men lifted the rod to activate the lock. Judging from the buckets and cleaning gear we guessed they were cleaning the cabin. I interrupted their conversation to ask the tunnel times, 3 p.m. this afternoon or in the morning at 7 a.m. We probably had time to catch the 3 p.m. tow, but then we wouldn’t be tying up until well after six so we decided the morning tow would be best even if we had to leave at six a.m. 

In the days when a lock keeper used these cabins
this long wooden box was a periscope so he could
see uphill vessels approaching under the road bridge

3.7kms to the next lock. I made a cuppa so I missed seeing a Dutch cruiser, Oenoe from Terneuzen, go past heading downhill. Shortly after an empty péniche called Lore from Nancy went past heading downhill. It seemed to take ages for the red/green lights to come on at lock 24 Séraucourt-le-Grand (2.0m) but the left had gates opened and we went into the lock. A VNF man was painting the ends of the blue passarelles with yellow paint. Water poured over the top end gates, a sure sign of more traffic. We passed empty péniche Santa Maria from Denain as we left the lock. 4.5kms to lock 23 Fontaines-lès-Clercs (1.9m). No one around so we were in and up in no time. 7.3kms through St Quentin. I read some more of Pillars of the Earth to Mike as we went along. To our astonishment a narrowboat pulled out of the arm at St Quentin and carried on up the canal in front of us. Wow! We thought we’d got company up the locks, then as we went past Levant its skipper said they were only out for an engine trial and not going through the next lock as their boat had only just been put back in the water after being out on the bank all winter and now they had leaks everywhere, even the sea toilet! Oh dear! Hope they get that fixed soon. 

Loaded peniche Lesseps above top lock 18 Lesdins

We had noticed there was another narrowboat, called Last Farthing, tucked in the corner of the basin where we once spent a month tied next to a DB many years ago. They had also built a new swimming pool next to the canal just upstream a bit of the port-de-plaisance. It was midday. Two VNF vans were parked on the towpath by the lake on the right hand side and the drivers were deep in conversation. Into the right hand chamber of lock 22 St Quentin (2.7m) The locks were fenced off from public access with more high green mesh security fencing. Two more vans were parked on the towpath above the lock. On the left we spotted four winos carrying loaves of bread, cubis (gallon plastic containers of very cheap wine) and plastic bags full of more booze. They came to an encampment where there were more of them. 

Southern portal of Lesdins tunnel

What a life! Begging in the town centre in a morning, buying booze with the money at lunchtime and drinking it on the banks of the canal in the afternoon. A grebe surfaced, unusual to see one in town centre. 2.0kms to lock 21 Moulin Brûlé (2.2m) As we went into the lock Mike told me to watch out as there were two youths sitting on the bridge parapet above the tail of the lock and they were shouting (probably abuse, but we couldn’t hear them well enough to make out what they were saying). The lockside was fenced off again so the two by the top end gates just stood watching as we locked through. On the right was another group of four sitting on the Armco by the towpath. I took photos, just in case we had any trouble, we didn’t and we haven’t yet – but times are changing here too. 2.0kms to lock 20 Omissy (2.3m) I made lunch as we went through the lock. No more fences and no youths either. 

Moored on the silo quay at Bellenglise

1.2kms to lock 19 Pascal. Into the left hand chamber as the itinerant in a van passed over the road bridge. We rose ropeless as usual. 360m to lock 18 Lesdins (2.10m) the top lock. I put a rope on a bollard as the itinerant had arrived just before us and was in the cabin. He came out and lifted the rod. Mike asked if there was a water tap (we could see there was a new VNF workshop a bit further on from the lock). At first he said he didn’t understand, then he said no, there was water at St Quentin. I said it’s a bit late for that, (we went through there this morning). It was 1.50 p.m. as we set off on the summit pound. Loaded péniche Lesseps from Dunkerque arrived to go down just as we left. A small cruiser was moored at Lesdins on the quay by a house with La Meuse written over its windows, maybe a bar? 

Chicken for dinner? Bellenglise

We passed two old men fishing, both smiled and said hello. Decided we were too late for today’s tow through Le Grand Souterain anyway. We had a green light for Lesdins tunnel, 1089m. The tunnel was single péniche width with a towpath on the right (access blocked for pedestrians) and lit all the way through by fluorescent tubes attached to the electric cables in the centre of the roof. My old Inland Waterways of France from the sixties says that there were two electrically powered tugs, which warped their way along a chain laid in the bottom of the canal over the whole length of the summit, nowadays there is only one which takes boats through the longer tunnel, called Le Grand Souterain, Bony or Riqueval, 5,670m, taking a very noisy two hours to do it. The train of boats to be towed used to start at Lesdins and the other one from Bosquet crossing at a basin about halfway across the summit, this took between eight and ten hours and each tug could pull up to thirty péniches. At the end of the Lesdins tunnel an empty péniche called Salve from Feurne was moored in a new piled layby under a new loading chute at the village of La Haucourt. 

What a beautiful bird! Bellenglise

We carried on a further 3kms and moored on the end of the silo quay at Bellenglise at 3.00 p.m. Chckens from the house by the quay were scratching about on the quay, so Mike took photos. Gave Mike a hand with the bike and he went to retrieve the car at 4.00 p.m. At 5.30 p.m. an empty péniche called Cindy arrived and also moored on the quay. At 6.45 p.m. three empty péniches went past heading for Lesdins; Ideal, Navigo and Rose d’Or, the latter moored just beyond the road bridge. The first one, Ideal, winded and returned to moor in front of Cindy on the quay. At 7.40 p.m. a loaded boat, called Farida from Douai, wnet past and carried on to the tunnel. Getting very busy!