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| Digger breaking up concrete. Pont Malin. |
Hot and sunny. Mike went off on foot to get some bread. He asked in a tabac where the nearest boulangerie was – when he found it it was closed for holidays so he called in somewhere else to ask and the same thing happened – he ended up at Carrefour Market - where he bought a baguette and some crusty buns, plus a brown sliced loaf for me. He’d had a good long walk. When he got back he discovered a slight fuel leak, so he changed the olive (shouldn’t have used one twice, it never works) in the fuel return line. Put the pins in and set off at 10.15 a.m. winding in the weirstream then turning right, heading on up river on the Escaut, and the washing machine running. There was a boat coming up in the lock. I did the ironing as we went along. An empty 80m barge called Imernia was heading for the lock, pushing hard. Inspe was unloading scrap at a scrap quay. Shortly after we were overtaken by Che-No from Gent - the empty barge that was coming up in Folien when we left the arm. Paused the washing and ironing as we approached Trith lock and we followed Che-No into the lock. The lock had two chambers with central gates and floating bollards located by the gates. The barge filled the top section and kept his screw turning throughout the locking. We kept at the back and managed to get a rope (eventually, after a shouting match) on a floater and Mike kept the engine in gear to keep the boat against the wall. The washing finished just after midday, so I made a cuppa and sat out while Mike took the pins out (just in time again, as a loaded péniche called Massena came down river followed by an empty called Agora (70m x 7m, 902 tonnes). As we approached Denain lock we could see the 80m barge we’d shared the last lock with was going up. It emptied just for us and we went up on our own attached to the floater up by the middle gates. That was timed well as an empty called Nautilus (73m x 8.2m 1,051 tonnes) followed by a Dutch cruiser arrived to go down. A tug styled barge called Allea, loaded with coal slack, was moored above the lock. Just before Bouchain an empty pusher pair, called Tourisme and Fluvial, went past heading down river followed by two loaded péniches, Hurricane (Belgian) and Vasano a French boat from Dunkerque. Also just before the town two pusher pairs were being unloaded by a grab into lorries, Galata/ (no name) on the inside and loaded pair Rianex/Aubepin on the outside. Quiet as we headed through the town, past the old citadel walls and under the road bridge heading for the last lock of the day Pont Malin. When we could see it, we noted that it was full with the top end gates open, something came in and it emptied. Minutes later loaded pusher pair Punkie/Punky went past and the lock was ours. A digger armed with a jack hammer was busting up the concrete on the left hand lock side, making a big mess. Wonder what they’re going to do with that? We went for the floater below the gates on the right hand side (well, gate slots as the actual gates had been removed) and there was no floater in the hole! Backed up to use the recessed bollards, then as the water came in it forced between the boat and the wall causing the boat to start to list towards the wall – I loosed the rope off and the boat went gently into the middle where we stayed, ropeless, until the lock was full. Just one empty pusher pair was moored above the lock, Pax Mea/ (no name), with no car on board - we guessed they crew were on holiday. Turned left continuing up the canalised Escaut (which goes as far as Cambrai before becoming the canal de St Quentin) and the Grand Gabarit (high tonnage route to Dunkerque) now becomes the canal de la Sensée. Immediately the depth became less, down from 3.5m to 2m, with weeds in profusion growing along the edge. We turned into le Bassin Rond and found a gap between two boats moored on the pontoon. One was a little cruiser out from the marina just to have a scrub and clean, the other was our old friend Charley! Well, fancy meeting them!
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