- 1. Hover cursor over small pictures in tex, and the "We're Here Map", and title appears in little label, along with it's size in bytes. (knock off last 3 digits to get kbs)
- 2. Click on them, whilst still connected to the www, and
We're Here Map
- May 27 Sun
- Pousseaux to Chatel Sensoir
- Weather warm to hot. Dry.
- Enjoyable run of the placid sort - is it a sign of the times that we seem to appreciate quiet gentle runs more than the derring-do-overcoming-difficulties sort of boating?
- Must be - perhaps age has something to do with it.
- We are really appreciating running in convoy with l’Etal - never thought that we would say that, as normally we only have to hear of the proximity of another narrow boater - or any kind of boater - or even a rally - to cut and run flat out in the other direction.
Tried to be clever again, and moored up under
a tree to a bank in the shade, rather than in the Chatel moorings. This was
partly because we arrived at lunch time on a hot day without deciding
whether to stay or move on.- However, water level dropped, we stood on our side, so we stayed.
- Moved into port and coupled up electricity and carried on doing not a lot.
- Snoozed and read afternoon away whilst feeling vaguely gaily as Eric and Leslie explored the surroundings (as they had at each previous stop) on bike, on foot, and with energy.
- Rewarded in evening by beautiful view and reflections in the harbour of Chatel Sensoir village and Church. Much fotografing.
- As day wore on, harbour filled with overnighting hire boats.
- Supper on water’s edge, but got quite chilly in the evening.
- May 28 Mon
- Chatel Sensoir to Maille la Ville
- Still pleasant - although weather warming up appreciably.
- Enjoyed run past the Rochers du Saussois,
chalk cliffs where climbing of all the hairier sorts is practiced by numbers
of
French lunatics. - When we came past a squad of pompiers et sapeurs were doing their rocky mountain rescue act, with stretchers - sooner them than me.
- Round Mailly le Chateau with it’s Chateau and village up on the hill overlooking it’s 180 degree bend in the canal.
- Into the Mailly la Ville river section - flowing quite fast in our direction. Necessary to turn boat to face upstream before mooring, and space limited to complete maneuver in time before descending the barrage at the bottom end of the stretch.
- In fact, there was plenty of room, but in excitement of the moment misjudged, and collected corner of mooring pontoon, and presented it with some black paint. Ouch!
- Moored up, and made with the filler and more paint to conceal evidence of bum driving as quickly as possible.
- Very hot now, so spent rest of day in shade under tree reading and not reading.
- Barbecue under trees with Eric, Leslie, and Leslie’s sister and brother in law.
- Chilly evening chased us off to bed betimes.
- May 29 Tues
- Maille la Ville to Baillie
- Still fine and hot.
- Lateish start - in fact so late that as we were making our farewells to l’Etal - upstream round the bend - Elisabeth hotel boat (full sized peniche) appeared looming over us in the upstream lock.
- It is best not to get right behind hotel boats, as they are perceived to go very slowly, lock even more slowly, and being "commercial" have all the rights of way.
- So Leslie made gallant efforts to hold them up by gossiping with them whilst we got away - but it was one of those occasions when everything went wrong such as the bikes coming to pieces after being folded up, mooring ropes ending up like knitting, keys falling on the floor instead of going into keyholes, etc etc etc.
- It was obviously dicey going on - the bend between the lock and us was blind, and we would have looked silly being half way through our U turn, retiring downriver sideways on, when Elisabeth finally did appear.
- We stayed put and waved - and never saw Elisabeth again! So much for horrors of being behind a "slow moving" peniche!
- Set off after the excitement - solo for the first time in about 5 days. For a boat that has always declared it’s desire for being on it’s own, and hates sharing anything with anyone, it is arguable strange to relate that we - all 3 of us Albertiers - thoroughly enjoyed our shared doings, entertainments, al fresoe meals, locks, work, dramas (actually there weren’t any) spell of sailing in company with l’Etal, everything seemed to work out well - certainly as far as we were concerned - and above all, was great fun. Will always retain a mental image of Leslie of l'Etal with a boat hook held either at at the "high port", or the fix "bayonets and charge" position. Where do these guys get the energy to walk a million miles a day, and then cycle two million. Are we dossers? (answers on the back of an unused postage stamp).
- What with our late start, and the onset of the heat wave we only got about as far as the Vermenton branch by lunch time, so cowered in some shade for lunch, and headed through Vincelles for Bailey moorings, where we stopped both last year and the previous.
- Horrified to find 6 A.C.C. tied up, but enough space at the top end for us.
- This meant that our turn into current had to be accurate - undesirable and unsual to use line of plastic boats as fenders when approaching moorings.
- Fortunately it came dead right, and we were able to pretend that that was they way we always did it.
- Trouble with these moorings is that they were on the East bank, and Albert sat in the late afternoon and evening sun and sizzled. We should have moved across the river but were too hot and feeble, and there was enough shade in the bush for the chairs.
- May 30 Wed
- Bailley to Auxerre.
- Still fine and hot, but monumental thunderstorm in the evening and the night.
- First lock was a favourite of ours - L.K. has fine dog and garden, and likes talking about them.
- Also this lock is one of those remaining with water supply actually available in the lock, so we filled up, and followed the custom on these occasions of holding the traffic up until we were full. In this case a rather charming boat load of New Zealanders in a sort of shared boat.
- Alongside the lock there is one of those
fascinating barrages - needle barrages - where the water is held back by
rows of
square cross section lengths of timber about 2 metres long, and 4
cms square in section, stood on end across the current in a frame, with a
hook in the top end. When flow is permitted they are withdrawn by means of
the hook, the whole permits a highly accurate measurement of water to flow. - Down the last few kms of the Nivernais to Auxerre - very hot.
- The valley - the valley of the R. Yonne, - opened right out into typical large river flattish alluvial valley, but still scenery very nice, green, luxurious, and good looking.
- Met Narrow Boat Tinworm on way out of Auxerre going up the Nivernais
- Into Auxerre just after lunch - missed the 1200 gone to lunch dead line at the last lock by 10 minutes.
- Tied up on town - public moorings - side.
- Went up town to pay phone bill - always have ants each month until this chore is done - and have look around. Still hot work climbing the hill - not as bad as Lincoln, but steep.
- May 31 Thurs
- Auxerre to above Joigny (le Vieux Pêchoir, Chez Juliet) (River Yonne)
- Weather cooler after storms last night in Auxerre.
- Quite a long day, but very interesting, technical wise.
- First chance to use VHF - most useful, and saved lots of hastle, but found understanding French L.K. speaking argot difficult - especially as they don’t answer half the time - just do what you ask.
- Some of the lock exits - the locks on the Yonne are enormous - were exciting, with the river still running quite strongly.
- One comes out of the quiet water of the lock to meet the main current in the water equivalent of a wind sheer, and if not watched, the boat can be grabbed twisted and rocked quite alarmingly. Found the answer was to watch the hire boats - there were dozens of them - and make a judgment on line and speed from what happened to them.
- Stopped at Gurgy where we have "always" (3 times now) stopped for lunch.
- Unfortunately, we had told the L.K. of the previous lock that we were going to, and he broadcast it over the VHF for the L.K.s further down, and all the hirers must have heard that there was good lunch stop there because the whole damn lot pulled in, so we shared what we have come to regard as our own pet mooring with about 10 boats
- Left "friendly" part of river at Laroche Migennes where we turned through 90 degrees downstream onto the main commercial part that leads to the Seine, Paris, and beyond.
We were back in peniche country- Through first lock, strange shape to us - normal width but double length - and found "chez Juliet" - lovely cottage with excellent vertical concrete walled mooring right in front of it, on river bank 2.5 kms below lock. The cottage is or was the lock keeper’s cottage, there are actually 2 identical cottages (relief L.K.?) when there was a barrage and lock across the river at this spot in previous centuries. All that is left of the barrage is the "pile" or round tower on one side, and the chamber - unusable and overgrown - of the lock just outside the cottage on the other. (and, of course, the 2 cottages)
- We had met Juliet when she stayed with Ferdie and Judy - Riverdance - the year before last, and ever since have had a post note pasted into our Navicarte with addresses and tel nos, and an arrow pointing to location of cottage in our Navicarte.
- Warmly welcomed by Hélène - daughter - with vin gris, a most enjoyable local wine neither red (obviously) nor white, nor rosé, but just "off" white, and jolly nice!
- Watched peniches running up and down the river - they were in 2s, one pushing a dumb one - hence double length lock.
- To bed without waiting for Juliet to arrive back from Paris. Rather rude - but we wos knackered.
- June 1 Friday
- above Joigny (le Vieux Pêchoir, Chez
Juliet) (River Yonne)
- Slep in.
- Juliet got us moving. Cycle rides, S.M. restocking, rowing practice, strawberry picking, site seeing, boat admin, digital fotografy onto her computer, all organised within 10 mins. Joys of accessibility of a car with willing driver.
- Picked enough strawberries to see us through for next week or so, even at our rate of consumption - super, lovely great big fresh strawberries. These were organic, no artificials, no chemical sprays, large, red, juicy and prolific.
- Thence to S.M. for heavies - diesel, loo paper and beer, and other things. (imagined)
- Long French lunch on terrace.
Oxford took on Cambridge in small plastic
boat.- June 2 Saturday
- At le Vieux Pêchoir, Chez Juliet) Above Joigny (Chez Juliet) (River Yonne)
- Grey and cool
- Spent morning with Juliet at weekly market. Under cover, and every imaginable fresh food product available. Very profitable and enjoyable.
- Then a quick stroll around Joigny. This town appears to have been neglected by the boating world - or is it that as we knew nothing about it, we assume no one else did either? It is a lovely town, has all usual shops, water side S.M, and banks. It appears (from a distance) to have a good Port de Plaisance, with overflow moorings on the opposite side of the river, and a hire boat fleet. It also has a rail station - 60 mins from Paris, and good road connections.
- Left moorings lunch time - cold, grey, windy day - in exact right time for L.K. to open up for us after lunch.
- Had called him on nice new VHF, but got no answer or acknowledgement, so was delighted to see him getting ready for us as we came round corner, especially as starting from between 2 locks as we had, we hadn’t been "handed on" by the previous L.K. - frequently a cause of long and frustrating delays.
- Not answering a call is, apparently, quite usual - the boat has asked for the lock, the lock has been made ready, so why tell him - after all he has got what he wants, hasn’t he? We were very happy.
- Tried it again at the Laroche Migennes lock, again got no reply (couldn’t hear any other chatter, either) but found that the Channel given in the book was wrong, and anyway, he had a boat coming down, and another already queuing to go up.
- Joined queue - thankfully at the back as L.K. was hyper-active stand in, opening paddles fully at alarming rate. Fortunately, we had tied up properly.
- Into Laroche moorings for gas at supermarket. Made with Brompton and trailer - now used to it and comfortably confident over it.
Millions of hire boats and trillions of
people everywhere - Connoisseur Cruiser change over day!- Heard that Yonne closed to-morrow for Ascension Day (or was it Pentecost) and then closed for 2 more days after for maintenance. Therefore entire fleet - 20 to 30 boats - coming up Bourgogne. Big Ouch.
- Got 4 kms up canal to Esnon, nice vertical re-revetments, so tied up comfortably at village mooring with 4 pins well in.
- After 15th - or was it 50th - high speed white monstrosity had passed us, all pins had left ground, temper completely gone, and days feeling of contentment in rags. We were right alongside railway line. Were SNCF were hosting a high speed rally for white plastic air craft carriers driven by terrorists? Only one went past at a reasonable speed out of the whole lot - and he moored up 100 metres in front of us broken down.
- Once they settled down at about 8.00 - we were joined on our "quiet" mooring by 5 boats - had a quiet night.
