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| Loaded peniche Ma Pensee leaving lock 3 Erre |
Rain in the night, sunny with a light breeze when we set off at 9.30 a.m. clouding over later. A cruiser had just set out from the little port’s basin in the corner opposite the pontoon. Kids were playing around the basin in canoes and little sailboats. Passed the old boulangerie and greengrocers shops, still both for sale and empty for a long time. Turned right on the Escaut heading uphill for Cambrai. Arrived at the first lock, Iwuy 5 (2.70m), at 10.00 a.m. as a little Dutch tug called Amor was just leaving heading downstream. We got a green light and went into the lock. I lifted the blue rod and started the automatic sequence working. When the lock was nearly full I went to the intercom on the old lock cabin and pressed the button to speak to the controller at Crevecoeur. He took boat details and issued us with a telecomand (zapper) which appeared in a hole in the wall. I had to tell him the number (30) so he could register it to us. I took our rubbish to the bins on the far side of the other lock (all the locks on the St Quentin/Escaut canal are in pairs but only one of each pair is in operation as an automated lock) before we left. I made some tea and toast on the 2 kms pound, just in time for us arriving at the next lock Thun l’Evêque 4 (2.50m). The locks were slow to activate after lifting the blue rod, taking up to a minute before the gates started to close behind us. 4 kms of meandering river between meadows, with grazing cows or horses, to the next lock. There were loads of flies due to all the animals. Mike went inside and I steered. A man walking in his garden had a shotgun under his arm and a loopy retriever running in circles around him. Please wait until I’m well out of sight before you shoot at anything! Loaded péniche Ma Pensée from Dunkerque was just leaving lock 3 Erre (2.30m) as we arrived. The gate paddles on the opposite side to the control rods opened first, which caused the boat to drift over to the far side of the lock. 2.6 kms to lock 2 Selles (1.60m), which was full and stubborn to accept the signal from the zapper but eventually it emptied and we went up and into the outskirts of Cambrai. The same three retired péniches were moored in the arm below Cantimpré lock 1 (1.80m), To Like and Morgane (but couldn’t see the other one’s name). Again the lock was slow to respond to the zapper. Past the port, devoid of boats as it’s summertime, on the 1.9 kms pound and the last stretch of canalised river before the start of the St Quentin canal. We passed a large DB flying a Dutch flag as went towards lock 1 Proville (2.40m). At last! Lifting the rod caused a siren to sound and the gates to close as soon as I lifted it, that’s more like it! (You can’t tell if it’s working or not if there’s a long delay) 1.6 kms to the next and we went past a loaded péniche called Netty moored in the layby on the right. Cantigneul lock 2 (2.40m) was empty as the DB had just come down and a white cruiser with a new Belgian flag pirouetted above the lock while it filled. On the next pound, 600m, we passed another cruiser, a large one with an SSR number on the side of it (but no national flag) as we were passing the old arm on the right. Up to lock 3 Noyelles and Mike zapped. It started filling so he assumed he’d pressed the wrong button on the telecommand, so he hopped off to reset the lock by being a “ghost down boat”. He checked first to see if anything was coming down, no signs of another boat (VNF in the control cabin up at Crevecoeur can set the locks remotely, which made me wonder if a commercial was coming down). The lock was fooled and emptied, the gates opened then the gates closed, but it wouldn’t respond to the zapper.
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| Boundary post Esaut/Canal de St Quentin |
My turn to hop off and go and call the control centre. He asked me to zap it again which Mike did, nothing happened - so he said he would send someone. I went to the top to check what lights were on, double red – en panne (out of order). I walked back down to the boat and got back on. I finished making lunch. Mike tried the zapper again and it worked, just as the VNF man in a van arrived to fix it! Typical! Lots of Gallic shrugging of shoulders. It works! We went up. Then just after the first bend on the 2.9 kms we met loaded boat Cindy coming downhill (hmm), Madame washing down the decks - so they must have just loaded. A British barge called Celestia (formerly called A.C.G.I. according to the metalwork around its bows) was moored at the next silo quay, the couple on it waved and said hello. The next three locks were pretty close together and used to be “chained” (linked so that you worked through one and the next started working for you). Lock 4 Talma (2.30m), 500m then lock 5 Marcoing (2.50m), then 1.5 kms to lock 6 Bracheux (2.40m) our last lock of the day. As we went into Masniéres there were fisherman on the banks and people out walking the towpath. A Belgian cruiser called Hilton had occupied the upper end of the brick quay by the Canadian war memorial, but there was enough room for us. Mike knocked pegs in and we tied up. It was 3.20 p.m. He went off straight away on the moped to collect the car from Le Bassin Rond while I made a salad for dinner. Loaded boat Maxi went downhill at 4.35 p.m. and an empty called Trucker went uphill at ten to five.
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