Saturday 18th June 2016 Iwuy to Masniéres. 20.3kms 10 locks.

Previous evening's storm clouds - glad it missed us!

12° C. Cold wind, grey overcast morning. First spots of rain at 10.20am, then heavy showers until late afternoon. Pulled the mooring pins and set off at 9.30am. Took photos of the orange Hawkbit growing among the grass before we left. A goldeneye duck was paddling along with four little balls of fluff trailing behind her. 2kms to our first lock, 4 Thun-St-Martin. Had to get very close before the telecommand would work. The lock emptied and nine geese came out! In the chamber there were four

Orange Hawkbit

floating dead goslings. Explain that. No blue rods in these locks, a function on the modified zapper says “bassinée” and one press starts the automatic sequence off. They’d left the red rods, which can be used to stop the lock working in an emergency. Up 2.5m and the gates opened, 4.2kms to the next. There were two swans with four cygnets above the lock, plus coots and moorhens. Several runners went past on the towpath. Lock 3 Erre lifted

Below lock 3 Erre on the canalised river Escaut

the boat another 2.4m. There was a litterbin on the towpath so I dumped all the packaging from yesterday’s grocery shopping while I had the chance. 2.7kms of lovely green scenery to lock 2 Selles. I went to the fore end as the zapper wouldn’t work until we were within a boat length of the lock. Getting closer to the town of Cambrai, there were fishermen on the towpath and three retired péniches moored below the lock. Up 1.6m and just 750m to the last lock on the Escaut, 1 Cantimpré, up another 1.8m. Someone told us

Below lock 3 Noyelles St Quentin canal

that the port at Cambrai was thinking about limiting the boat length to 15m for mooring in the basin. There were just three boats bigger than that now, the rest of the basin was filled with cruisers. Now on the canal de St Quentin the locks are numbered starting with 1 again. 1.9kms to Proville with heavy rain falling to soak the towpath runners. Water was cascading over the gates of the locks as water is weired through them. Again we had to get very close before the lock would work, then had to back off while it emptied. Up 2.4m and on the next pound, 1.6kms to Cantigneul, the rain continued to pour. I left the fenders out as the locks were now close together and we both stayed under the

Old towpath traction engine sheds at Noyelles

brolly to try and keep dry. It was great that Mike could zap to work each lock rather than me have to lift a rod, that way I stayed relatively dry. The rain went on pause at lock 3 Noyelles (2.4m) and we had a long pound of 2.9kms, so I made some sandwiches for lunch which we ate on the move. The sun came out for a while. Lock 4 Talma (2.3m) emptied and we went up. Ducks were sleeping under the central guard between the two lock chambers, but they woke up and all dropped into the water to swim away until we’d gone. Just 500m to lock 5 Marcoing. There were fishermen all around the edges of an off-line basin (that would make a good mooring – there are several more on this canal). Amazed the zapper worked lock 5 from about 100m away and the boat

Above lock 3 Noyelles, St Quentin canal

had soon risen another 2.5m. A fisherman on the bend above the lock looked very miserable. Past an old silo with a banana palm growing among the trees next to it. 1.6kms to the next. At last, life! A loaded péniche had just come down lock 6 Bracheux (2.4m) the first boat we’d seen all day. VD was well loaded, pulling a big hole in the water at its bows and churning up the mud behind it. Nice to see another vessel moving. We thought our last lock of the day was not going to play nicely when it took an age to activate and re-open its gates, we were getting ready to call control when the lights finally came on and the chamber emptied. Above the lock a motor yacht had moored next to an old silo quay. It had just started to pour with rain again. An empty péniche, Lore from Nancy, was moored by a sand quay, waiting to load on Monday perhaps. Into Masniéres, under the bridge and we moored at an old quay with rings 40m apart for péniches to tie to. There was a fisherman at the uphill end, so we stayed at the downhill end of the quay to use the ring at that end and Mike knocked mooring pins in for our bow ropes. The fisherman sheltered in his car as it bucketed down. I stood in the hatch and handed all our stuff off the roof down to Mike to try and keep the camera, phone, binos, etc, dry in the engine room. I was soaked as the wind blew the torrential rain sideways. Waited for it to ease off a bit then took the gear indoors to dry out. It was 3.10pm when we finished. Made a cuppa and Mike waited to see if it would dry up a bit. It did. Two loaded péniches went past heading downhill, the second one was Maringo that we’d locked with on the Escaut. Gave Mike a hand to get the bike off the roof down a gangplank and he went to recover the car from Iwuy. Glad to see we had 4G Internet at Masniéres. Mike managed to get to the car without getting wet. Left the bike in the car so he can move the car on to Lesdins next day.

 

Wednesday 15th June 2016 Below Fresnes to Iwuy 34.9kms 7 locks

Aftermath of strike. Boats waiting below Fresnes lock

12.5° C Grey skies, rain showers and a cold wind. The automatic weir opposite woke us several times in the night, the rushing water was noisy and made the boat rock. Strike over, boats started moving at 7am. The second lockful went up at 8am, a cruiser, called Atlantis from Wachtebeke, North Belgium, followed them but didn’t get in, so it tied to the piling by the lock mouth. Mike winded the boat so we were bows towards the lock on the pontoon. At 8.40am we set off following

Leaving Fresnes lock. R Escaut

empty 80m Dutchman Willy-N, loaded péniche Melinda from Chenôve and empty péniche Maringo. There was just enough room for us and the cruiser at the back of the lock chamber in Fresnes lock. Up 3.13m lifting ropes up on to mucky bollards recessed into the lock walls as the water rose. There was a long queue of downhill boats slowly advancing down the next 6.3kms long reach of the river, including an 80m boat called Poznan, registered at Bruges with a Polish skipper – it was

In La Folie lock Valenciennes. R Escaut

loaded with containers. A scruffy un-named boat (110m x 10.5m 2200T) was unloading scrap just up from the lock. We passed Willy-N (he’d just come up the lock with us) he'd just winded below the next lock and he was on his way back to one of the quays to load. 80m St Louis was loading scrap. There were no boats at the first of several container bases. Loaded push-towed péniches Bel’R and Nouvel’R came down La Folie lock and we followed the two péniches into the chamber

Derelict factory Anzin on banks of R Escaut

, more space for us now the 80m boat had left us. Up another 2.94m hanging on to ropes on recessed bollards as we ascended. Wenderlien, an 80m empty boat from Zwolle (NL) was heading for the lock as we left it. The lock keeper was trying to talk to the skipper in French on VHF, but he didn’t understand, so, to our amazement, the keeper spoke to him in English! Not very good English, but just to ask him to stay at the back of the chamber on his right as there

Waiting for Folien lock. R Escaut

was a crane doing some work on the lock side. A shorter reach of 2.8kms into Valenciennes. We passed the next container base and noted that the big factory just upstream at Beuvrages on the outskirts of Anzin was now looking derelict. The péniches in front slowed down under the Bleuze Born railway bridge to wait for the next lock, Folien, to empty. It started to rain (which it did on and off all day) as 80m empty Orissa and loaded boat Lakonia left the lock (61.2m x 5.10m 599T - ? a very odd size, possibly a stretched

Ancient fortifications at Bouchain. R.Escaut

péniche? It had a board with “A Vendre” on it - for sale). We followed the péniches into the lock and rose another 3.03m. A stupid duck with a load of ducklings went into the chamber as we went out, the keeper was busy fetching floating lumps of wood out on to the lock side with a boathook. It was unusually quiet as we went past the University at the entrance to the weirstream and the new port-de-plaisance moorings. It was 11.15am as we went through the city of Valenciennes to our left, with Anzin on the opposite bank of the river. Loaded boat Freya

Pont Malin lock. Last big lock on the Escut

from Bleharies (110m x 9.05m 2208T) went past heading for the lock we’d just left. A little further upriver 80m empty Ferijn was moored. It had a big advert for Vankerkovens on its coamings as they had fitted a new Volvo Penta engine for them. Empty péniche Maringo moored next to some dolphins, so now we were three – and nobody was more surprised than us that we were managing to keep up with the loaded péniche without resorting to a huge increase in engine revvs and that the Belgian cruiser had stayed behind us. There was a péniche under the next railway bridge with a crowd of men in dayglow jackets, who were doing visual inspections under the bridge decking using a cherry picker. The péniche went upriver, winded, and then went back to the bridge. Although the area to the north of the city was still very industrialised, the banks were now pleasantly tree lined, 6.7kms to the next lock.  The crew of passing 80m Nautiek were washing their gunwales down as it must have just loaded. Into the next lock, Trith-St-Ledger, after Mare (85.09m 1605T) left it. It was deeper than the previous locks at 3.96m, so it was equipped with floaters (floating bollards for boats to tie to that run up and down the walls in a recessed metal channels in the lock walls). The péniche had two to tie to, but the layout meant that we only had one available, next to the 

Iwuy lock. Canalised Escaut. Un-manned lock cabin
Lock zapper dispenser, operated from Crevecoeur lk

centre lock gate, so we used a centre line. Our bows were closer to the open centre gate than I’d have preferred, our fenders were in danger of getting stuck under projecting bits of the gate as we rose, so I had to keep a close eye on it and Mike had to reverse several times to keep away from it as the water surge pulled the boat forward. A loaded boat called Lucky Way (80.09m x 8.20m 1101T) was waiting above. We had lunch on the move on the next reach of 6.7kms. Denain lock was the deepest on the river at 4.84m. 80m Alexandre was loading scrap below the lock. An empty 80m called Terragona, followed by a loaded péniche called Pelican, came out of the lock then we followed Melinda into the chamber.

Moored above Iwuy lock. Canalised Escaut. Quiet

Hanging on to one floater again with the cruiser doing likewise on the opposite wall, we were soon leaving the lock. Workmen were doing some drilling by the lock cabin. Above the lock empty pusher pair of péniches Winnepegosis and Mustang, plus another empty péniche called Apache were heading for the lock and further up the next 8.7kms reach we passed empty Lapurdensis (70m x 8.7m) followed by 85m Infinity III loaded with scrap metal. The last two were too long to lock together in these 144m long chambers. Another pusher pair of péniches Aqua-Mundo was moored by the entrance to the old lock, with empty 80m Ber-Mel moored on the far side of the wall leading to the old lock. A very smelly reach as we went past a gigantic rubbish tip, where hundreds of gulls were circling, followed by a rotten sewage smell. Two more empty pushtows went past, Eperlan3 and Eperlais, then Bastie2 and Bastie at Pont de Neuville, then another péniche, called Charigny. Took photos of the old fortifications at Bouchain. Loaded 80m Con Dios and two loaded péniches Hudson and NDL II left Pont Malin lock and we went in. Up another 4.32m attached to a floater. The last one. The péniche in front had visitors waiting for them and they chatted as they lock filled. The cruiser went past the péniche in the lock when the gates opened as the crew were still talking to their friends. An empty called Osiva (75m x 8.20m 1000T) plus two loaded péniches, Sejos (just come out from the St Quentin direction) and Euro, were heading for the lock. We followed Melinda out of the lock and watched it carry on up the canal de la Sensée (high tonnage route) following the cruiser and we turned left at 3.10pm into the sublimely peaceful, quiet and weedy river Escaut, which hadn’t been widened and deepened to take 2000 tonne ships, heading towards Cambrai and St Quentin. Nice to be back with the 40m péniches. Several two man kayaks were paddling along the river towards Le Bassin Rond off to our right. We carried on to the first lock, 5 Iwuy. Sensors activated the lock (or called the controller at Crévecoeur to operate it) we had red/green lights as the lock on the left emptied (locks on this navigation are in pairs but usually only one works nowadays). Lifted the blue rod and the lock filled. We rose 2.7m and I went to get the zapper from the old lock cabin. Buzzed the controller on the intercom and he released a zapper into a box with a flap, then I told him the boat name and the number on the zapper (44) so he could record it – then he asked me to press the button that said “montant” (going uphill) and the gates started to open. Merci Monsieur. Back on the boat and we went just as far as the silo quay about 150m above the lock. Grass on the quay was waist high but we found one bollard to tie the stern end to and Mike hammered in some pins. It was 4pm and we were glad to tie up after an arduous day. Around 7.30pm a loaded péniche called Galion arrived and tied in front of us, Mike went out to lend a hand as we were tied to the other bollard. The young skipper didn’t look too pleased to see us, Mike reckoned he was working single handed, but he put two ropes on the one bollard and gave Mike a strange look after he'd said to him that he’d be OK as there would be no more passing traffic now (the locks had closed at 7pm).

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.