Monday 13th June 2016 Pommeroeul to Antoing. 25.3kms 2 locks.

Moored at Pomeroeul

14.7° C Raining first thing, grey skies, cold west wind, but no more rain. Set off at ten, wishing the crews of Rival and Johanna a good summer, if it ever arrives.  An 80m boat called Zijpe, loaded with sand went past as we turned back on to the Nimy, Blaton, Peronnes canal, about 20kms of canal to Peronnes’ two locks. At the first bridge we passed 80m empty boat Chris-Li, followed shortly after by a French-flagged Luxemotor called Alazarine. A

Wrapped railway bridge

crow was trying to drag a large dead fish up the steep sloping concrete bank – that’ll feed it for the next week! Dream Boat (85m x 10m 1700T) loaded with containers was moored at the first quay. As we went through the cutting near Blaton a loaded 80m boat called Johanna went past followed by a new build British barge called Grizzled Skipper. The railway bridge before Peruwelz had been carefully wrapped in two layers of netting, cargo netting and fine meshed netting, neatly knotted to the bridge and the sheets to each other with white

Polish Bromberger Pati

cord. Looks like they’ll be painting that soon. The moorings at the Port-de-Plaisance at Peruwelz seemed full of boats, cruisers and barges, plus a row of campervans. Several converted péniche houseboats were moored on the outside walls plus a tjalk called Zorg. Just beyond that there were more cruisers moored along the old canal. A loaded boat called Popeye (62.5m x 5.85m 580T) went past making the water

In Peronnes lock 1 with cruisers and a push-towed pair of peniches

lumpy for several kilometres, two cruisers trailed along behind him. We passed a loaded péniche  called Jomel at Grosmont bridge. Another railway bridge had been neatly wrapped up prior to painting. As we were passing another section of the old canal we were surprised to see a boat coming towards us with a familiar shape. I said to Mike that’s an empty Bromberger, surely. It was! Now re-named Pati (you could still see the embossed BM number underneath the name on its bows) it was flying a big

The bottom lock of the old flight (now a slipway)
of locks that pre-dated Peronnes' two deep locks

Polish flag and had Wrocław (pronounced Vrots’wav, been there with Temujin!) on its stern. That’s a long way from home - unless they’ve settled in Belgium. We passed it under the bridge at Weirs. An 80m Dutch boat called Lincy loaded with scrap metal had just come up Peronnes 2 lock and a cruiser was catching us up. We went into the lock on the right wall, waved right to the front of the chamber by the lady lock keeper as there was a big boat coming. Another cruiser arrived, a Dutchman from

65m barge Loukoum refuelling, bunkership lashed alongside

Rotterdam, then push-towed péniches Noliser and Nolise came in on the left next to the lock cabin. Fore and aft ropes on floaters to drop down 12.5m. The commercial blasted off down to lock 1 and we followed at our usual pace. One cruiser went off to moor by Plaquet’s boatyard and the Dutchman followed us into the lock. Both péniches were under power and they left the front one’s prop turning to keep it against the lockwall, which made it very difficult getting past them to get to the front without scraping along the wall. Down another 5.6m, but no floaters this time, just plenty of bollards recessed

Moored in the old weirstream at Antoing.

into the lock walls. The Dutchman asked Mike what our boat was named as the lock keeper had asked. Mike tried to tell them but the péniche engine noise was too much so he picked up the microphone and told the keeper on VHF, immediately he got the thumbs up from the keeper in his high cabin overlooking the lock chamber. The push-tow left the lock first and the Dutch cruiser overtook us before the junction with the Escaut. A loaded 80m was going upriver and a loaded péniche called Star was going the same way as us, downriver on the Escaut towards Tournai, as was the Dutch cruiser and the push-tow.  Loaded boat Loukoum (65.4m x 5.8m 937T) was poodling slowly upriver, then we spotted the bunkership from Neptunia lashed alongside his stern, he was refuelling whilst underway. We arrived at Antoing at 2.15pm and moored on the outside edge of the basin in the former weirstream of the now long-gone lock at Antoing. Mike went to get some petrol from the Total garage by Neptunia’s chandlery/fuel barge just in case we need to use the gennie. Then he settled down to watch the F1 Canadian GP that he’d recorded the night before.