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.