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2004
This Weeks "We-think-we-are-here-map". (Our estimated position at the END of the week.


The Map is a "thumbnail", click on it for full size whilst still connected to the web-site

26 July 2004 Monday Soulanges to Vitry le Francois Canal Lateral a la Marne

Unbelievable weather for July. Last night went to bed - absolutely clear sky, clear bright moon. Rain and drizzle in the night, this morning, grey, cold, spits of rain.

Sweat shirts and cardigans worn.

Mild electrical crisis - had to run engine for 10 minutes last night, and should have run it this morning - 3 days loafing along for a couple of hours only at slow speeds is not running the alternator enough to charge domestic batteries for our use.

None-the-less, enjoyed run - incident free, arriving in Vitry before lunch, to find favourite mooring - the long one on the bank outside the P. de P. free.

Moored up in strong offshore wind, but managed to get everything wrong, in front of obliging Dutchman helping. Bows blown off by wind, then skillfully cast rope deployed into water in a soggy heap at feet - was standing on the 2nd loop.

Enjoy Vitry - first sight from canal is a rather disgusting run down place with all it's industry dead or dieing, and great blocks of council flats sticking up. The town itself, having been flattened in the first

world war, and then again in the second - in 1945 - is really rather gracious, and apart from the cement works, and boat yard - can only see 1 working - must be economically strong if one can judge by the fact that it has 3 or 5 supermarkets - good ones.

Did heavy shopping - particularly beer and wine, and topped up with diesel (cans in trailer behind Brompton - as indeed was the beer and wine - 3 trips alto-gether. A little nervous about the the disselboom, which flexes too much when carrying heavy loads.

Arranged to leave to-morrow 12.30 at first lock - appointment - manual lock - so have to be there.

27 July 2004 Tuesday Vitry la Francois to Pargny-sur-Saulx C. Marne au Rhine

Finally got batteries charged right up - had the mains charger running half the night, but it is at the foot of our bed, and couldn't stand the noise of it's fan, so turned it off, but back on first thing. It was slow, because we had something like 70 long paces of domestic extension lead connecting us to the mains outlet, asnd must have been suffering a considerable voltage drop - apart from the limited current available to us at P. de P.

Finished all other jobs - hair-cuts and more loo paper. Cleared up, and pushed off rather earlier than intended.

A dull misty cold morning changed quite quickly to a brilliant sunny clear cool day, an ideal day for

boating!

Off at 11.30, and got to first lock at 12.30 - theoretical lunch time. L.K. (one of the old types, responsible, neatly turned out, lived in lock cottage, pretty garden, official water point with hose) insisted on putting us through, then happy half hour discussing his garden, his career, - 9 years on this lock - etc whilst we sat in his lock and filled with water.

Water fill highly necessary - we were full of diesel at the back end, but light of water up the front, and Albert hates running arse down - hammers and chatters with cavitation and bad temper. If one applies more power, the back end settles more deeply, and it all just gets worse. Finish up creeping along at ¼ km per hour.

Most enjoyable afternoon's run - the canal runs pretty well dead straight, and a lot of it is above the level of countryside, with much less bush and trees on the bank than the rivers, so that views across the country are possible.

Countryside back to bucolic France - albeit flat, Small fields, hedges, but mostly cereals, sunflower, and so on. At present the landscape is covered in cotton reels.

Stopped at Pargny - a little halte with a neat jetty and facilities vaguely remembered from last trip up here.

Worried that we wouldn't get space. In fact traffic very light. Met 1 yacht (English), 3 peniches - 2 loaded and 1 empty, and after we moored up an enormous - literally huge - cruiser came through behind. Tried to moor up next to us, but water too shallow - thank goodness. Watched them through lock next lock. Reckon he drove exclusively on his bow thruster, even then only just got in - could only just fit in, anyway. Very well rubbed rubbing strakes. Suspect a hotel boat. 5 on board, but 2 pairs (elderlie) only went to the local brasserie for supper. Had ours sitting out - towel for table clothe on pic-nic table.

28 July 2004 Wednesday Pargny-sur-Saulx to pk34, lock 50, C. Marne au Rhine

Good run, clear sunny windy.

Through Fains-les-Sources - the limit of our 2000 exploration. Was a bit harsh on it then - 2 boat mooring, facilities, but right by a main road, another road crossing on a lift bridge, and a railway line that sounds as though it goes right through the boat. In 2000 there was a serious fisherman problem - shoulder to shoulder right down the moorings. Plus youths, scooters, etc. Naturally this year mid morning there was no problem, and we tied up, filled water, and bought bread.

In all fairness - apart from the above - it is all very neat and tidy - just too many seats surrounded by cigarette ends!

Country side changing - much settlement, small villages, large villages, industry - but not the smoky sky filthy surrounds sort. Farming changing to huge fields - almost exclusively cereals.

Through Bar-le-duc. Large, busy, hot, VNF HQ of some sort or other - swarms of them. Lost our L.K. and got a new one. There are proper moorings in the tow - right in it - with a couple or 3 boats of alongside, and several angled finger ponmtoons. Again, not wildly atractive, very noisy and hot, so safter the lift bridge had broken down been repaired and let us through, we went on.

Come finishing time there seemed to be a dearth of potential moorings, result that we keep going on too long. Not much else to do, really.

L.K. suggested a spot a couple of locks on that was well shaded.

Duly committed ourselves to it, and arrived.

Thick weed jungle, ancient steel revetts lieing lengthways loosely retained by lengths of railway line driven more or less vertically into the canal bed. However, unlike most other canal banks, there was deep water.

Settled to with chains, clamps and hedge trimmer and "enthusiasm" to make decent mooring with boat in shade, and a sitting out place for ourselves. Managed it with much sweat but no bad language, it was too bad for that -

Pulled muscle - or something - in small of back to-wards end of process - sore.

After all that, peaceful cool mooring- quiet night!

29 July 2004 Thursday pk34, lock 50, to Lock 34 C. Marne au Rhine

Clear bright but windy

First feelings of autumn in the air.

Back still very sore, spent lot of day lieing on back on bed!

30 July 2004 Friday Lock 34 to Naix au Forge C. Marne au Rhine (West)

Left mooring 0900.fine clear sunny and warm.

Back much better - albeit still very stiff.

As we left, it looked rather as though a demented bomb had hit 15 metres of canal bank - grass and bush all cut low or mashed flat, and great masses of herbage gently drifting off down canal on the current. That was a "bush mooring" that was.

Waited the customary 20 minutes after start time at the first pre-arranged lock for our L.K. - no-body, A tel call soon brought results in the form of a, good looking, extremely competent and hard working young lady.

What a joy it is that now-a-days VNF staff - certainly on this canal - no longer hide behind deliberately carefully concealed and never to be revealed telephone numbers. It must be more comfortable, convenient, and effective, managementwise from their point of view - and it certainly is from the view of the hot, sweaty and frustrated boater sitting in the sun watching nothing happen, and hoping somebiody would turn up.

This canal - like others we've been on this year, is in very good fettle. Water is full, and overflowing all gates vigorously, lock surrounds are neat and tidy, short cut grass has re-generated well, and the whole set-up looks good.

Only problem - once again - is automatic locks that automatically don't work. For most of the day - up to the last 2 locks, we had the assistance of our young lady in manual operated locks. Then at the end of this section, the 17 locks up to the tunnel is one of the original type of automatics that should work as a chain - once the chain has been kicked off on entry through the radar below the first lock, each lock should automatically welcome the boater on a fixed time from when he left the last lock. In our case the radars weren't working, and we sat for an hour looking at a red light, awaiting the "fixer".

The run itself was through the upper (physically that is) end of this canal. To-morrow we enter the summit pound, and , hopefully, go through the 5 km tunnel before beginning the descent on the east side to the Moselle. The country side on this side changes from enormous areas of agribusiness - 100 acre fields of cereals, to a mixture of Swiss-like views of pine trees with little meadows and chalet like houses, and more ordinary farming, and lots of woodland.. We have only risen a few metres, in fact, but what a difference The towns are ,however, deeply industrial, and the railway line and main road are never far from the canal.

We had committed ourselves to stopping at a "tables pour pique-nique" - (so marked in our now very elderly Navicarte), and what a find. Proper jetty, at least 3 if not 4 boats long. Proper bollards, and huge tree to sit under for shade. Most satisfactory. Only complaint, the small road just above us was the way between a working combine in it's field and the local silo. Hence periodically, right up to midnight and after, we had enormous tractors pulling huge wheeled bins - 3 axle trailors, or articulated lorries carying baled straw back to farmyard. Sounds bad, but possibly 8 trailor units and 3 lorries during our entire stay

31 July 2004 Saturday Naix la Forge to Sauvoy C. Marne au Rhine (West)

Started day with intended dash to nearest village for bread, However, Dutch lady - only other occupant of mooring very retiring Dutch couple in sort of houseboat thing going opposite way to us - assured us that there were no shops, and no bread much before Toul - away beyond the tunnel, and probably 2 to 3 days away, and certainly none before the tunnel!

Checked potatoe stocks - good - and set off up canal. Had told someone or other yesterday that we would start at 0900, and sure enough first lock of day opened, right lights showing, and off we went. (after yesterday's episode, were deeply suspicious.)

In fact, arrived at Trévenay after 3 locks, found regular village/township, complete with boulangerie and Proximarché. Herself did bicycle dash, whilst self fiddled boat through lock, and pulled in just beyond. It was here that we were formally booked through the tunnel. Wonder if Dutch boaters were victims of the syndrome that demands storage of bikes on some completely inaccessible part of the boat, so that it is too difficult to get them down, so they are never used.

Potentially, we had a comfortable 3 hour run to the tunnel mouth, half an hour to spare, and 3.5 hours to go before next convoy would set off!

Should have been perfect, except 3 locks "broke down" - 2 with faulty lights (red "hors de service" on with green "enter"!), which we tumbled to after 10 minutes and just over-rode, and the third probably our own fault - complicated business with a zapper - zap a yellow light on entry to tell the lock you have arrived, and zap a yellow light on leaving, to tell it to tell the next lock you are on your way to it. Suspect forgot to do the leaving zap - busy holding a committee meeting!

Result - after mad dash at our top speed of 6 kms per hour over the last 3 pounds, we were 15 mins late for convoy, but they held it for us. 3 other boats already tied up in a string waiting for us.

Tied to back end of small German cruiser, and off we went, whole string dangling behind an electric chain tug. Needless to say - all the other boats in our string were idiots! No 2 was the huge battle ship thing we have been seeing since Pargny (never saw no 1, he was hidden by the battleship thingy). He the - battleship - appears to be just a very large bow thruster, with an enormous boat built round it. The bow thruster sounded like an incredibly loud nose blow through a lighthouse type fog horn. He used it constantly to - presumably - keep himself off the wall, so for 5 kms long it was like being towed behind an over endowed eructing buffalo. The chap we were actually tied to should not have been allowed to have a tin boat in his bath, without undergoing driving lessons. He spent the entire trip standing staring straight ahead (the buffalo was in front of him, and filled the whole tunnel, so all he could see was it's bathing platform) fiddling ineffectually with his steering, while his wife poked at slippery underground France with the sharp end of her boat hook - an indescribably dangerous favourite trick of hirers in locks. (The pointy end, which is blunt and has no grip slips - easily - and because the poker is poking and pushing outboard, he or she inevitably and messily falls in).

There was a final cock-up at the end when those who should have cast off didn't, and those who should have remained connected, untied. The cruiser in front of us suddenly took off like a kangaroo. Had recovered one of our ropes, and the other was loose, otherwise small cruiser in front - with 15 tons of us behind - would have been longer and less small. There was a super bathing platform in contact with bows type of crash noise further ahead.

Having passed through into the open pound, we were immediately started looking for overnighter.

However, the nature of the canal seemed to have changed to a very wide industrial type waterway, descending sharply, and almost straight down the valley, with curved edges of concrete and long bleached grass, without the contact of the villages and towns we had got used to climbing up the other side.

It was very hot - and shade was a must, deep water sides also and revetts.

But lock after lock - nothing.

Eventually, found a short scruffy jetty, and a couple of bollards at a sort of picnic spot at a village Sauvoy. No shade, so passed it by and entered next lock. In lock were able to see down and - ahead not a hope of mooring - very even open wide canal, with sides sloping up to about 6 inches of water.

Backed out of lock before lifting blue pole, and "worked" it as if we were going down - the system would have had a wobbly, otherwise,

Tried a poor looking mooring place that had shade, failed, and went back to the jetty.

Tied up quickly and easily - worth it for that alone, and found small tree shade of which into which we inserted our chairs, and recovered with gin and beer. (another disaster - had given all cold beer to chain tug operators, and had forgotten to recharge the fridge!)

3 youths arrived, and settled themselves at the picnic table by the boat - horrors, should never moor near tables or benches - had intended to poke our brolley through hole in middle, but forgot, but when we returned to the boat and established ourselves in the shade of the bimini, youths were dead polite, and after 20 minutes sloped off. Had super at table under brolley.

Long trying, but interesting and adventuresome day!

1 August 2004 Sunday Sauvoy to Pagny C. Marne au Rhine (West)

Quiet night - unexpected being Saturday, and being so close to urban connurbation - albeit, a village.

L.K. arrived at 0900 to ask us our intentions. Not unfair, as we had pulled out of the chain last night, slept over in the "wrong" pound, and at one time had been moored up facing the "wrong" way.

Set and started system for us, and we trotted down the next 5 locks. It was already hot, and the locks very similar, so boat chores on the move carried out.

Lot of fun where canal crosses the River Meuse in an aqueduct, and the Canal de l'Est Branch Nord leaves,

with National Roads, and huge quarry works - and even a flasher in the bushes "showing" himself, dashing along the canal in his car (??) and ensuring we didn't miss him. On the whole, though, this stretch of the canal - at anyrate in hot hazy weather where views are impossible - is not all that exciting.

Meant to stop at Void, where the book shows a mooring. There is one, VNF run, beautifully neat andtidy, lots of flowers, old tunnel engine painted up, etc, but it was entirely full of VNF kit - barges, tugs, and more barges. The was no room for Plaisanciers - in spite of the notice!

On to Pagny - no real hardship. Very placid boating - not a thing except us moving.

Pagny pontoon - proper one - empty, so chose our spot to suit present and future shade. Still tying up, when from Toul direction, a hire boat and a private cruiser arrive and tie up. Shortly after them, 2 Dutch cruisers pass - the second at a ridiculous and dangerous speed - very unlike the Dutch.

Hire boat left, and had quiet afternoon - except for occasional silencer-less scooter patrols and grain tractor and trailers going to the silo.

Noted first newly ploughed land this morning - the season is galloping away.

Discovered water taps were push button timer variety, and quite useless for watering boat - 1 cup lukewarm water per pressing, and no apparent way of fixing them, ulike others of similar sort at Sens and Mailly-la-Ville - just tie them

Buzz bikes became a serious nuisance later in evening - but disappeared with dark.

Local hobby - come right onto pontoon and pear through window - spent second half of evening trouserless.

Photos:-
1. Vitry at dawn
2 - 5. Canal Scenes, Marne a la Rhine, Vitry side
6. Marne a la Rhine Merse valley side
7. Crossing over river Merse beside national road.
8. Pagny.