Saturday 20th August 2011 Masnières - Lesdins. 11 locks 26.1kms.

Above Crevecoeur lock 9. C de St Quentin

Hot and sunny all day. Mike took a walk into town to get some bread (2 baguettes at 82c each) and found very little choice and a queue out the door at nine o’clock. The cruiser that was in front of us had already gone before we even got up. Left at 9.45 a.m. The first five locks were very close together. Up 7 Masnières (2.30m), 1.3 kms to 8 St Vaast (2.20m) and another 1.3 kms to 9 Crévecoeur, where I hopped off to take a rope on the lockside and ask the lock controller if we could top up our water tank. Yes, no problem. He told us there were only three water taps available on the whole canal now, theirs and one at the first and last locks. He had a previous VNF bill from me to copy so he could fill in all our details later and gave us the bad news that Riqueval tunnel is now closed on Sundays even though the canal on both sides was open. 

Fishermen sieving for worms below lock 10 Vinchy

We said we’d take the evening tow today rather than wait until Monday; he gave us a new list of times and rules for the tunnel which included no mooring on the summit level! It was 11.00 a.m. when we set off again. 900m to lock 10 Vinchy (below the lock three fishermen in waders were standing in the canal sieving the mud for worms,) then 400m to 11 Tordoir where Mike did it again – pressed the wrong button on the controller and filled the stupid thing. I had to hop off and tell the controller at Crévecoeur that Mike was an idiot and told them what he’d done. Within a few minutes one of the guys we’d been chatting took earlier came up in his van, went into the “greenhouse” lock cabin and reset the lock for us. Mike brought the boat in and I lifted the blue rod from the lockside while chatting with our lockie. 

Bar/tabac above Bateux lock 14.

He told me that VNF are not replacing staff as they retire - which is why no Sunday service on the tunnel tug – and that the latest plans involve making the Grand Gabarit from Dunkerque to the Belgian border automatic - with all that traffic! There will be mayhem! That’s the way we’d just come into France and it was pretty busy. I made a cuppa on the 2.4 kms pound. An ex-hireboat was coming down lock 12 Vaucelles, then we went up. Mum sat out on the front deck in the sunshine for the first time. I loaned her a long sleeved cotton shirt as she said she couldn’t stand the sun on her arms nowadays. It was midday when I sat out to drink my coffee on the 2.1 kms pound to lock 13 Bantouzelle (2.30m). The empty péniche called Trucker that went up the locks after we tied up yesterday was moored just beyond the silo quay at Bonavis. 

Little tug from Toulon moored above Banteux lock 14

I steered round the twiddly bits on the one-way system around the island where the N44 crossed the canal, then we went up Bantouzelle; another 500m (an ex-hireboat now called Valentre was moored) and up 14 Banteux (2.50m). There were fishermen both sides below the lock. I made sandwiches for lunch on the 2.6kms pound to lock 15 Honnecourt (2.50m). The last three locks to the summit were close together Up lock 15, then 1km to lock 16 Moulin Lafosse (2.20m) (where the Belgian cruiser Marie Galante was still moored just above the lock, tied to some Armco) and then 600m to lock 17 Bosquet (1.5m) the top lock. I posted the telecomand at the lock cabin and spoke to the controller at Crévecoeur, telling him we would be stopping above the lock at Lesdins. 

Eh?
They mean put the telecomand in the letterbox

We set off on the summit level at 2.00 p.m. I steered again. Converted péniche Jarga that was moored at Venhuile now had a well-established vegetable garden all long the bank by where he was moored. We tied up before the red light on the right hand bank in the shade and I repotted the remains of my Cambria orchid. Mike put the pins in so we could do some more washing once we’d cleared the tunnel. At 4.30 p.m. two cruisers went flying past (what new 4 kph speed limit across the summit pound?) Pleine Lune and a tug-styled boat. The lad off the tunnel tug came to find us as the tug was moored right up by the tunnel. I hauled the ropes in that Mike had just laid out ready for the tow and we set off past the red light to find the tug. I handed the lad the end of our long green rope and played out the whole of that then the doubled long white rope as the tug started off. We went at max speed for the chain tug. I steered while Mike showed Mum the holes and doors and rooms within the tunnel using our big spotlight. I couldn’t get him to hear me by buzzing or knocking the roof due to the noise made by the chain-tug, so I set the tiller strings and went inside to get my fleece myself as it was decidedly chilly in the tunnel – no one even noticed I’d been in the cabin. 

Riqueval. The old chain tug.

After an hour Mike came to steer as he knew I needed to get the washer ready. I made him a cup of tea and soup in a cup for Mum and myself as we were both chilly. At 6.00 p.m. we emerged into the cutting at the southern end of the tunnel where a bunch of badouts (gongoozlers) were there to see the tug emerge. I reeled in the tow line and we said thanks to the crew as we passed them. There was a thick layer of nasty looking brown scum on the surface of the canal – it looked like an oil slick, but was actually rotting vegetation which rises from the bottom of the canal in warm weather. Wound the revs up to 1300 and started the washing.  Sandpipers flew in front of the boat and the trees through the long cutting were covered in wild clematis (old man’s beard). 

Ancient stables at the southern end of Riqueval tunnel

I noticed wild marjoram was growing all along the edges of the canal banks. I went inside as we went through Lesdins tunnel to cook dinner. Tjalk Elizabeth J flying a red ensign was moored about 100m from the lock (by the cattle pens). We carried on to moor just before the sensors for the lock at Lesdins, away from the smell. It was 7.35 p.m. and dinner was ready.