Saturday 30th April 2011 Longeuil – Abbécourt. 30kms 3 locks

River Oise, peniche overtaking.

Sunny with white clouds and a few grey ones, but no rain. A chilly wind made us keep our fleeces on until just before we moored up. We were up at 7.30 a.m. The first boat past had been at 7.00 a.m. and there had been a procession past of around one every ten to fifteen minutes. Wiped the roof and sides down and got the boat ready and then winded and set off up the canal at 8.45 a.m. Shortly after we set off two loaded push-tow pairs went past, Phil-Ange (missed the name of the pushed boat) followed by Tahiti pushing Aloha. There didn’t seem to be so many retired boats at Longeuil as we remembered, perhaps they’ve had new lives and gone back to work. Among the few retirees was a push-tow pair for sale. Iso, a single loaded péniche went past heading downhill. Portland, running empty, was fast catching us up at KP31. Mike broke his best green Polish tea mug, and tea went all over the slide, map, GPS, etc. 

Peniches waiting for lock 19 on the canal du Nord
at Pont l'Eveque 

Leaving the paired locks, 2 Pont l'Eveque, same time
as an empty peniche

Maeva was doing some school work first thing but changed to composing a song using my keyboards. When we arrived at lock 3, Bellrive (2.98m) the big lock - right hand chamber – was full, but the keeper emptied the little lock on the left and we were soon in it, centre rope attached to the recessed vertical bar in the wall and the lock was full in minutes. Nouvel’R, a loaded boat went into the big lock. Loads of boats were moored above the lock, among them was Rose des Sables a 57m long barge. Further on there were more boats moored by Ribecourt bridge, Traveler (loaded) Risque (loaded) Delcacia (empty) and Pionier a loaded 450 tonne Dutch boat. Beyond that was an old pusher pair slowly rusting away, their names obliterated. We came to the end of the large chemical works, that stretched along the left hand bank from the lock, and there were big fields full of bright yellow flowering colza before the village of Pimprez. There were two more dead deer floating in the corner where the old loop had been stanked off. A pair of sandpipers flew in front, stopping, then taking off again for hundreds of metres before turning to fly back the way they came. Near the bridge at Chiry-Ourscamps two péniches were fast catching us up. Empty péniche Fugace overtook us at KP23. At 11.15 a.m. we went past the junction with the Canal du Nord at Pont l’Evêque. We could see four or five boats moored abreast below the first lock on the Grand Gabarit, probably waiting for the lock. Lots of boats were moored around the junction. Beyond the junction the locks were now péniche length but still paired. Lock 2 Sempigny (1.52m) was just past the junction. The right hand chamber was empty so we went in and I threw a rope around a bollard. 

Above lock 1 St Hubert paired locks

The keeper came out to ask where we were going then he started the lock filling. Mike had asked Maeva to go and ask him about the strike, so she crossed the bottom end gates and went up into the lock cabin. He was very helpful, the strike (which was about the Government plans to raise the pension age for functionaries - civil servants) would be on Monday, but he wasn’t sure about Tuesday and Wednesday. (No one had mentioned Wednesday!) He knew nothing about the Canal de St Quentin which was not his canal. Movimento went uphill in the left hand chamber, he left, the keeper emptied the lock and then Valinco came in and went up. Maeva returned and we followed Valinco, but not for long, it was soon a dot in the distance. A Dutch cruiser called Ichthus from Rotterdam went down in the left hand chamber as we left (first private boat since leaving the Aisne). It was 11.45 a.m. as we left the lock. Mon Rêve and Portland were moored side by side above the lock on the left. Beyond them was a wreck of an old DB, a rusting half of a tanker push pair called Trans Navi (418T) On the right were some more old boats, then the VNF yard with a brand new small fast cruiser tied up outside the offices among all the pans, workboats and tugs. 9.2kms to the next lock so I made some sandwiches for lunch while Mike chased more sandpipers. I had to get on the roof to sling a rope around a bollard in lock 1 St Hubert (2.49m). We went up in the right hand chamber and the keeper, a cheerful chatty bloke, came out of his cabin to ask where we were going. He said the locks were closed tomorrow for the holidays but Monday was a bordel (mess, chaos), depends on the lock keeper as to whether he works his lock or not! So we may drive up to Chauny on Monday morning to find out. Another péniche was approaching the locks to come up as we left. In the woods I could hear the distinctive call of a golden oriole and more sandpipers flew in front of the boat. It wasn’t long before OVNI (French for UFO) from Bethune, empty with bows high in the air, came past us just after the bridge at Quierzy. Nice paint job, the crew had recently painted the hull as far as the water line. Noted there was nice quay with bollards and room to park the car should the quay at Abbécourt be full. An adult on a scramble bike with a child on pillion, plus two young boys on small-sized scramble bikes went down the towpath on the left bank (there’s a No Entry sign by the road bridge, but this is France!) Nobody moored on the quay, one fisherman at the downhill end and a campervan half way along. We winded at the junction with the Oise à l’Aisne (where we would have come out if the canal hadn’t been closed for lock repairs, it’s taken us four days to go round when normally we’d have done it in two). We tied up at the top end of the quay with only one bollard at the stern, Mike had to bang stakes in for the bows as the bollard had been taken away. It was 2.35 p.m. Portland (empty) went past us (again, he went past earlier but we overtook him when he was tied up) to test our mooring ropes. All OK. Alize went past a little later. Maeva rang her Mum, she said her Dad would be about four hours (she’d already packed) as he had to visit the Mayors at Noyons and Pont l’Evêque where they would be playing in a couple of weeks’ time. Set the TV up and Mike and Maeva watched snooker. At 4.30 p.m Jaël (loaded Dutch péniche) went past again (we’d seen him last Wednesday running empty up the Lat à l’Aisne). Maeva’s Dad and brother arrived around 7.30 p.m. had a cup of tea then they set off taking Mike with them back to Condé to collect our car. Mike phoned at 11.30 p.m. to say he was leaving Condé after having a coffee with Christelle and Jean-Max. It took around two hours and he was back around 1.30 a.m.