Monday 20th June 2016 Masniéres to Lesdins. 32.9kms 11 locks 2 tunnels

The future!

14.1° C Grey skies, cold, windy and with rain most of the day. We left Masniéres at 7.30am. The first four locks were close together. The first, Masniéres lock 7 was not far and we were soon in the lock and up another 2.3m. 1.2kms to lock 8 Saint-Vaast (2.2m) and 1.3kms to lock 9 Crévecoeur (2.30m) where the controller came out to ask us for papers and the telecommand. He swapped the latter for a large new blue one that looked like the hand-held computers that the pickers use in UK supermarkets. It looked complicated - he said they weren’t as good as the little boxes. Asked him about the cameras, as we’d seen lots of black dome ones had been installed at the locks. He said the only ones that work are the ones at lock 1 Iwuy and lock 17 Bosquet – there were no boats currently in them on the TV screen. A new system is being installed – the computer screens were set up ready in the adjacent room. We were the only boat symbol on his screen, showing that his lock was in use. We filled up with water while we chatted and we booked the tunnel for the 5pm tow. 940m to lock 10 Vinchy (2.10m) then 421m to lock 11 Tordoir (2.4m). A longer pound of 2.4kms took us to lock 12 Vaucelles (2.1m). The new zapper gave all sorts of messages on its screen but this one, lock 12, was the only lock to do so. Dutch péniche Daevanos

Below lock 12 Vaucelles

was loading maize at the silo quay at Bonavis on the 2.1kms pound to lock 13 Bantouzelle (2.3m) which was closely (500m) followed by 14 Banteux (2.5m). At the lockhouse on the left there were workmen digging a trench to the newly refurbished house, maybe installing gas mains or cable TV? The longest stretch yet 2.6kms took us to the last three uphill locks. An old Connoisseur cruiser went past heading downhill, not far behind it was a small cruiser. At lock 15 Honnecourt (2.5m) there was a dead heron floating in the lock and above we could see a DB coming down

Daevanos loading maize at Bonavis

towards lock 15. It was British flagged and had moored on the waiting quay. No one about as we passed it. 16 Moulin Lafosse (2.2m) a cruiser was moored below the lock. On to the last uphill lock 17 Bosquet (1.5m) and on to the summit level. It was about 5kms to the tunnel entrance, the tows are made up several hundred metres before the entrance, so we slung ropes around two lamp posts behind moored loaded péniche Jama from Douai. Lunch. Mike went for a nap. Another empty called Eidelweiss, arrived at 2.15pm. It was still raining. At 2.50pm Bergen, another empty, arrived. The râme arrived from the other end, towed by the ancient tunnel tug hauling itself along on a chain that lies on the bottom of the canal. The

Three peniches (first one and the tug are out of sight around the bend)
 and us being towed into Riquval tunnel

new arrivals were soon detached and they continued across the summit level. The loaded boat was attached first behind the tug, then the two empties and finally us – I threw our long green rope, that had our long white rope attached too, up to the skipper of Eidelweiss who looped it around a bollard in the middle of the stern of his boat. OK? Yes thanks. One VNF man came to check we were all OK, he asked for the zapper – we’d already deposited it in the box at the top lock Bosquet, OK, and he handed us another zapper, noted that this one had no “bassinée” button. The tug started off and eventually all our line became taught and we were off through the damp, chilly tunnel at a very sedate 3kph. We could just about hear the clanking made by the electrically-

The boat in front almost inside the tunnel

powered tug heaving itself along the chain, glad we were three péniche lengths plus towropes away from the noisy thing. Eventually the boat in front switched his smoky engine off, but someone in front of him still had an engine running all the way through the tunnel - we could smell the fumes. The guide books say that the tug is still used to tow boats through because of the dangers of exhaust fumes as the tunnel is not ventilated, this is not correct as there are several ventilation shafts in the roof, most of them are open to the sky. Two hours later we emerged at the drizzly misty far end where a group of gongoozlers were watching the boats emerge from the tunnel. The three

Tunnel tugs, old one on the left and "new" one on the right.
Lesdins end of Riquval

péniches were soon detached, the empties sped off and the loaded boat, Jama, moored beyond another loaded, called Farida, who was waiting for the morning tow in the opposite direction. VNF staff had locked up and gone as it was past 7pm. As we were passing the first of the loaded boats our engine cut out. Fortunately we were alongside a quay with a few bollards so I tied a rope on and stopped the forward motion. Mike soon discovered a tagged wire that had broken, which he soon fixed and we were on our way again within ten minutes. Out of the cutting and there were rabbits along the grassy banks going into

Paused while Mike crimped a new tag on a wire.

Bellenglise. The “No Mooring” signs had gone, but nobody was moored there anyway. There was a red light at Lesdins tunnel but notices had said the tunnel was open in the direction we were going from 20.00 – 21.30 so we were OK and ignored it, as had the two commercial boats. In the distance we could see a boat, but going which way? Through binos Mike saw it leave the far end, it had a boat across its stern – none of the péniches had one so where did that come from? Must have been moored at Bellenglise. Rain hammered down as we arrived at Lesdins. The two empties were side-by-side just before the sensors

Moored before the cattle sheds at Lesdins

(which we later learned were out of use) for the top lock, and the boat we’d seen in the tunnel (a Dutch motor cruiser called Nora) was moored next to the cowsheds, so we went to tie up in front of the péniches until the skipper of Eidelweiss shouted no,no,no, and mimed that he was going to moor there shortly. OK, we backed off and went to the far end of the quay, well beyond the smelly cowsheds. Soaked and fed up, it was gone 9pm. We got dried out and we ate a very late dinner at 10pm.