Tuesday 16th August 2011 Pommeroeul - Anzin.

Loaded tanker takes the lock at Fresnes. Back in France!

Rain in the night, showery morning and warm sunny afternoon. The alarm went off at 5.30 a.m. Mike knocked it on the floor. It was still dark and raining so he checked the time of sunrise on the GPS - 6.30 a.m. - he had another half hour doze. He got the boat ready and moved off at 6.35 a.m. I had a lie in and took him tea and toast, which we just had time to eat before the first lock, Péronnes 1 at 9:30 a.m. Loaded péniche Safari came out (he had some sort of large electric transformer on board – an unusual load for a péniche) then we went down it on our own; the second half of the 11m drop was very fast so we were surprised when the gates closed behind us. Dawdled down to lock 2 as we could see a boat coming up in it and a cruiser twirling in the pound over towards Plaquet’s. Mercator, a loaded tanker (85m x 10m 1,461 tonnes) came out of the lock and the Dutch cruiser Zinnin followed us into the chamber. Down and out at 10.15 a.m. An empty barge called Seba (80m x 9m 1,054 tonnes) was waiting close to the gates to go up. We trundled on down to the junction with the Escaut and had to hang back as a German barge called Rhein (80m x 9m 1,100 tonnes) was coming upriver and wanted to turn into the canal. He hadn’t answered Mike’s call on VHF in French (probably because he was German!!). The cruiser was off downriver, heading north. He’d been expecting to go on the Lys until the keeper at lock 2 told him it was closed. We turned left heading upriver, south into France, but drifted for a few minutes while Mike put the pins in to connect the Markon generator so I could do some washing and ironing. He did it just in time as we were about to be overtaken by a loaded pusher pair of péniches called Forever/Together. The pusher hung back and didn’t overtake as he pulled in to pause at the quay at Bleharies. Two empties were moored on the quay; Rayclau (55m x 6.6m 631 tonnes) and Rodzina (80m x 8,25m 1,091 tonnes). It started raining as we approached the border (welcome back to France!) so Mike put our newly repaired brolly up for me and went inside to make a cuppa. A Dutch cruiser went past heading downstream at 11.35 a.m. just after Mortagne and ten minutes later an empty 80m barge called Country overtook us. I put a second load of washing in the machine and did the ironing. I made a cuppa and sat out ten minutes before the lock at Fresnes. The washer hadn’t quite finished its final spin as we went under the two bridges below the lock. Switched the machine off and dropped on to the new pontoon below the lock. An empty tanker barge called Faraday (86m x 10.5m 1,508 tonnes) went into the lock and the gates closed behind it. We’d set off to follow it into the chamber but had to back off back to the pontoon when the keeper emerged from his cabin and waved his arms. An empty pusher called Mimi came down and the pusher pair Forever/Together arrived and went into the lock, he was narrow so we followed him in and went on the opposite wall halfway along the wall so we were out of his prop wash. It was 2.15 p.m. when we left the top. An empty called Atlantic (85m x 9m 1,472 tonnes) went past us heading for the lock we’d just left. 6 kms to the next lock so Mike went in the cabin to make some soup for his lunch and his Mum’s while I steered, following the pusher. At the second bridge we passed an empty pusher pair Suzel/Libreccio heading downstream. Four péniches (two pushers) Maryland/Kroonland, Touriste/Aquila were unloading soil at KP28. The scrap quay a little further upriver was empty. La Folie lock emptied and we followed the pusher pair in again and went up together again. Left the top at 3.15 p.m. A Dutch barge from Meppel called Remonsi (60m x 6.6m 675 tonnes) came downriver and we passed them under a railway bridge. Into the outskirts of Valenciennes/Anzin with a slightly deodorised sewage smell emanating from the drains emptying into the river. Followed the pusher pair into Folien and we went up together again. Left the lock at 4.00 p.m. A loaded boat called Le Carolo (58m x 5.7m) followed by an empty called St Louis went into the lock we’d just vacated. We turned right under the railway bridge and went down the weirstream to moor next to the road after passing a couple of night clubs on converted barges. Two fisherman seated on the bank a few metres further down the weirstream were not bothered by our arrival, however, their little dog barked and barked and barked. Gave Mike a hand to get the bike off the roof and he went to collect the car from Pommeroeul.