Friday 10th June 2016 Pont-de-Loup – Ville-sur-Haine. 50.8kms 5 locks 1 lift

Dry dock and chandlery at Pont-de-Loup

8.9° C Sunny and warm, clouds taking over by late evening. Left the basin at 8am and met the first boat of the day, Merrimack - 81m long and loaded with scrap, by the road bridge to Farciennes. We knew there was something going on when he slowed down and his bows slewed to our left, and he blocked the canal. Kept well back out of his way as he reversed through the winding basin and under the road bridge to an unloading quay that we’d never noticed before.

Under Chatelet -Farciennes road bridge, what's he up to?

Despite the fact that the water was as dark as brown Windsor soup and had loads of floating rubbish and wood in it, there were surprisingly large numbers of ducks and geese about. Sad to see the ruins of the big factory belonging to Hainault-Sambre laid waste by fire. Opposite the factory 90m Censor was loading 2600 tonnes of scrap metal. 80m boat St Louis, loaded with 1450 tonnes of scrap went past us by the motorway bridge, heading

Hanging back to see what he's doing
- ah-ha reversing into the winding basin 

downriver. Mike called the keeper of lock 12 Montignies on VHF radio and he said OK there was a tug waiting to go up and we joined Melissa and an empty pan in the chamber. (Tug Melissa had been in the basin at Vankerhoven’s opposite us overnight). Up 2.2m with ropes fore and aft up the recessed bollards in the lock wall. Amore, loaded with soil, was waiting to go down the lock and another boat loaded with scrap had arrived below the lock to go up. The swirling wash from the tug as he left the lock glued our

Burnt out factory buildings

boat to the wall and it would not come off, so we scraped our fenders along the walls all the way out of the chamber. 5.5kms to the next and the tug was soon out of sight. A Dutch-flagged DB called Ria went past heading downriver, followed by two loaded Dutch péniches, Shiva and Athena, both blue-boarding (going round the bend on the wrong side), we were already on the left. Throughout the length of this section, between the two locks, there are navigation signs that indicate that the boat traffic swaps sides - 

In Montignies lock 12 with tug Melissa

so we should be on the left anyway!! Workmen at a building site, where some smart new houses were being built, waved and said hello as we passed them. Into the winding concrete channel through Charleroi town centre. No signs remained of the recent flash flooding. Followed the tug into lock 11 Marcinelles, right next to the steel works, and we came up 3m, then one of the lock keepers came to ask Mike if we had a “Permit de Circulation”, nope, what’s that – we though

Two Dutch peniches blue-boarding

t the toll tickets commonly called “Quittances” had been stopped as a waste of time and paper. 80m Infinity was at the scrap berth alongside the lock chamber, waiting to unload. An empty set off in front of the tug and pan and a loaded Dutch boat from Krimpen called Pauline (105m x 9m 2006T) went into the chamber we’d just left. As he was too big for any of the locks further up the canal or the Sambre, we reckoned he’d just loaded at the long quay at

Minor repair work!

the start of the canal de Centre. We turned right under a bridge then left on the Centre, while a smart Belgian cruiser turned right to head up the Sambre (which leads to the Sambre á l’Oise canal, still closed on the French side of the border, shame as it is a lovely route back into France which we miss). The tug had arrived at his dredging site so he dropped off his empty pan and circled round to pick up a pan full of dredgings to take back downriver. We had a half hour wait below lock 1 Marchienne-au-Pont, while the big empty that took off from Marcinelle went up the lock, so I made a cuppa. The next three locks were each 7 metres deep but easy to work through as they were equipped with floating bollards recessed in the chamber walls and the ones either side of the central sliding lock gate (they can use half a chamber for péniche-length boats, but rarely do) are the ideal distance apart for us. Just us to go up. 4kms to lock 2 Gosselies. Ryanair planes were taking off from Charleroi airport, to the east of Gosselies, one after another. A narrowboat and a crowd of cruisers came past heading downhill – might have guessed - it was Mike Clarke with Sika – lots of waving and shouted greetings as we passed. Houseboat Luxemotor Denta was still

In the tank waiting to go down

moored in the pound. Loaded péniche Safari came down the lock, then we went up. A workman perched in the bucket of a small digger was doing some repairs to the lock wall about 1.5m down from the coping stones as we came up another 7m, which made an unusual sight. Loaded 60m boat Eidelweiss and a smart Dutch steel cruiser went into the chamber we’d just vacated. Gaelle (73m x 8.26m 1063T) was being loaded with minced scrap metal by a digger with an

A boat load of aggregates heading for the lift (left)
Two trip boats tied up, not working

onion grab at the recycling plant just above the lock. The surroundings were starting to get less industrialised as we reached the last lock, 3 Viesville. Just us to go up. Another 7m lift and we were on the summit level. A Dutch cruiser was waiting to go down. A DB called Zophia was moored at the end of the lock waiting area, having lunch no doubt. 16kms to the junction with the new canal. Mike put the sunshade up. A British barge (a Sheffield keel I do believe) called Riccall was moored by Carrefour and just about to set

Strepy-Thieu lift, with all its lights on! (Both tanks working)

off as we went past. Lunch on the move. A loaded péniche called Mi.Amore Pat went past while I was making sandwiches. Mike swatted the first big horsefly of the year as we passed the Bellecourt arm, feeding it to the fish. Two rowing skiffs came out of the arm and raced off into the distance. An empty péniche called Porto-Rico was still moored by a factory, think it was there last time we went past, must be retired. Just the rear end of a péniche, power

The old boat lift at Thieu, new lock and campervans on the mooring quay

plant and accommodation, was being used as a tug to push a dredging platform, it went past us at the junction with the new canal de Centre and was followed by a loaded boat called Casablanca (85m x 8.45m). The water seemed cleaner as we approached the aqueduct before the new Strépy lift and there were grebe and cormorants fishing in the canal. Mike called the lift and was told next locking was on the tribord side (had to look that up, neither of us could remember which is which with tribord and babord) right – it means starboard. Loaded Dutch boat Relax (80m x

Moored on the quay at Ville-sur-Haine

8.20m 1088T) went past. Allegria (80m x 9.5m 1211T) was being loaded by tipper lorries with small granite chips at the sand quay above the lift. Into the empty tank and had a short wait while a cruiser called Mi Amore arrived, then the caisson started its descent. Mike went in the cabin and gave the young lady our Belgian MET number and she filled in the details of where we were going and printed out a form identical to a quittance, which she said was definitely not a quittance and was only for the lock keepers in case they wanted to know where we were going! Old habits die very hard here, it’s a quittance, I’ll add it to the collection. Surprisingly both caissons were working, that’s the first time we’d seen that. Admittedly it was pretty busy, even though the trippers were tied up below and not working, A boat load of aggregates was going up in the babord tank. Another loaded 80m boat called Tornado was heading for the lift as we passed the new lock leading to the old lifts. The cruiser Mi Amore was just about to go up the new lock. A new build DB Addi Quo Vadis (Dutch) was moored at the end of the quay by the lock, there were seven campervans parked on the quay. It was 5.50pm as we moored next to what used to be the public quay at Ville-sur-Haine, but was now was fenced off and had a locked pair of large gates for road access. We won’t be disturbed by fishermen then. Boat traffic continued until around 8pm. Mike watched the first Euro 2016 football match from the Stad de France, France versus Romania. 

Thursday 9th June 2016 Pont-de-Loup. At last! Off the dry dock.

Opening the gate valves to re-fill the dock

12.4° C. Sunny with white clouds. Mike was up early. Nobody about until two men cleared the dock of wooden boards left by the welders before opening the two gate valves to refill the dock. It was 8am. It filled slowly, at 11am they brought the big crane to lift the gates and the bridge out. We backed out first – the big pump that empties the dock was on and was trying to pump the canal out! Mike shouted to then to tell them and he’d just got our stern to the far canal

Filling up

bank when loaded boat Dependant came round the bend. We shouted to tell the crew of Vage to stay put as they were just about to back out and follow us – why did nobody think to call on VHF to say we were coming out of the dock?! Turned into the basin and moored along the end wall by the slipway again. L’Imprevu, on the slipway, was still undergoing stretching, gunwales being fitted on the port side, starboard side was already done so they’ll soon be

Pont-de-Loup dry dock

back in the water and back to work. Started cleaning down. Buckets and bowls, the shower, the toilet – all needed scrubbing to get rid of the mud, river water wasn’t at all clean but it improved them. Lunch. Mike went to see Sandrine for our receipts and went out in the car to Carrefour Market to get some bread and buns and take back an empty bottle that I’d bought which had a refund of 20c – it had contained lambic cherry beer, sour isn’t the word for the stuff (looked it up and found it’s a very rare beer, only made in a small area of Belgium near Brussels, sorry not really a big fan). I scrubbed

Getting there - it takes three hours to fill

the front deck and put the paint, brushes, rollers and trays away until next time…..

Tuesday 17th May 2016 Pont-de-Loup. On to the dry dock

I know this is out of order but FB picks the first picture I post!
The dock, empty.

9.6° C Sunshine and grey clouds. Mike went for a look around the yard. While he was out a young man came and knocked on the cabin roof, time to go on the dock. I told him Mike was somewhere by the dock. He was back not long after and we moved round to the dock. The péniche that was on the dock had refloated and moved out and another one had just gone in. Vage from Gent looked like it had been retired a long time and was well in need of a hose down and paint, its prop was still turning and they

Our neighbour peniche Vage tying up

were just tying up as we went in. There were metal stanchions around the wall with welded-on bits to put ropes on. The two guys who were doing the docking wanted our boat on the bostocks nearest the gate. OK. Mike had already told the Vankerkoven siblings that the boat was flat-bottomed but we needed to be careful with the stern end gear as we have a skeg (a narrow flat bar supporting the rudder. No problem, but the men kept

Metal bits to tie to.

asking to make sure that the bottom didn’t slope up at the bows. Nope, completely flat. The dock slopes slightly. Once we were settled they craned the gate back in – it was in two parts and slotted into the gap, then they put the metal bridge back in place over it. Interestingly they use the same method here of stopping gates from leaking that was used in the UK when we first went boating. Called racking in the UK, it simply consisted of pouring shovelfuls of ash or dirt into the water around the gates

First section of gate going back in

edges to stop up the gaps. I took some interesting photos, especially liked the slinger hitching a lift back from the gate on to dry land on the crane hook! The péniche grounded first, on at the bows. Water was pumped out of the dock as it is next to a river and can’t be drained out like the ones we were used to on canals. Took quite some time to empty the whole swimming pool! Nothing else to be done today.

Riding the crane hook back to dry land

Second section of gate going back in

The bridge over the dock gate being craned into place

Gates in and bridge back in place

Weed growing on the waterline 

Monday 16th May 2016 Auvelais to Pont-de-Loup. 12.8kms 1 lock

Dependant waiting above Auvelais lock

7.4° C. Grey skies, damp, sunny spells late afternoon. Boats started moving around opening time, 6am. We didn’t rush to get moving as we hadn’t got far to go. An 80m boat loaded with steel coils went down Auvelais as we were getting ready to move at 10am. Shortly after an empty called Dependant arrived, a square-fronted, square-sterned boat, it made a sweep into the lock waiting area skimming past us more closely than was necessary. I noted that the corners of its square

Willie wagtail

stern were battered and rusty from the times it had missed when skimming past close to things. It had to sit above the lock to wait as the previous boat had only just left. We set off at 10.30am, jackets on again as it was chilly and, although not actually raining, the air was damp. A long reach of 11.5kms to our one and only lock of the day. I got on with a few chores before making a cuppa. There were, as usual, loads of sandpipers and goldeneye ducks on the river. Amazing that there is so much wildlife on the Sambre when you consider that beyond the narrow belt of trees there are close packed towns and industrial estates. At Farciennes there was an offline loading basin with a low quay and the 4m high wall

Wash-eroded concrete

surrounding it had dozens of gulls, two herons and a cormorant using it as a lookout post. Under the railway bridge below Roselies lock and we could see there was a loaded 80m called Ave Maria moored by the lock, tied at the base of a 4m high wall. The lock gates opened and we had a green light so we went in after saying hello to the skipper of Ave Maria who was doing some work on his boat, lying flat on the gunwale by the cabin.

Czech boat Apollo passing Ave Maria (blue and white boat)

Started attaching my centre rope to a recessed bollard in the wall at the back end of the 112m long lock chamber when the keeper came out of his cabin high up above the lock and indicated that we should move forward. OK, we thought, he’s going to use the half lock. But when we got in the top end he wanted us to go right up by the sliding gate as he said there was a big boat coming. No way. Mike backed out and said the big boat can go in first and we’ll sit at the back. We went alongside the wall opposite Ave Maria. Five minutes later an old brown boat called Apollo from Decin in the Czech Republic arrived, 71.5m

Sharing Roselies lock with coal boat. Note keeper's cabin top left. 

long and loaded with 1,000 tonnes of coal (we know where that’s going! Steelworks in Charleroi) and went into the chamber. (Haven’t seen one of them since the Mittellandkanal in Germany!) The deckhand put one rope from the bow on a bollard in the right hand wall and the stern went over against the left wall (no rope), we had the last bit of the right hand wall and used fore and aft ropes. Glad we used two ropes because the Czech skipper kept his engine running and (most of the time) his prop turning. Up

Heron on a mud boat

3.7m fairly slowly and without too much trouble. Waited until the commercial was almost out of the lock before we took the ropes off and followed him. There was a long unloading quay on the left above the lock, an empty 80m was moored there and three mud hoppers – a heron was perched on the gunwale of one of the mud boats. The river from here through to the far side of Charleroi is very industrial. The next quay was piled with aggregates and an 80m boat called Ecoutable was moored there, his hold full of grey granite chippings. On the far side of the quay were piles of cullet

Moored in the basin at Vankerkhoven's

(broken glass) glinting in the weak sunlight. The river was turning a dark chocolate brown where the coal boat had been churning the mud up from the bottom. Not far before we were at our destination and scratching our heads as to where to moor as the place is full of boats. We went into the basin where an old tug and a smartly painted commercial were along the outer wall, we turned left to moor by a high quay wall at the end of a long side slip. It was 1.45pm. Mike needed our ladders to get off

The side-slip trolleys

the boat up the overhanging concrete-topped steel piling. There was a man working on one of the boats that were on the bank by where we’d tied up, he said he was surprised to see a narrowboat. Mike went to check the car was OK and to have a look round. I made some lunch.

The empty dry dock. One peniche (on the right) sat on the bostocks.
Enough space for 3 peniches 40m long x 5.50m wide

Saturday 14th May 2016 Namur to Auvelais. 27kms 4 locks.

9.4° C Grey skies with a cold north wind, sunny patches later. Set off at nine, downriver, into the wind again.  The skipper of  the tjalk waved as we went past. Two more DBs were also on

Road cleaning with a vacuum

the mooring, both UK replicas. Five minutes later we turned left heading upriver on the Sambre, the first bit of the river is very enclosed, much narrower than the Meuse and very little current. They’d made a good job of renovating the riverside walk and properties along the bank. There were no longer any no mooring signs, except for one at the confluence that defined the no mooring limit from the junction as 150m, and we were surprised to see a lone Dutch flagged little Luxe moored by the flats opposite the citadel. Mike called the lock keeper at Salzinnes and got the OK for the lock. A

110m boat with a load of 3,462 tonnes of sand

loaded 80m boat called Samarkand came down and passed us on the bend before the lock, we could just see another loaded boat was setting off into the chamber. We waited next to quay below the lock next to a multi-storey block of flats. Nothing else coming down just us to go up. The chamber was 136m long by 12.5m wide (18m x 2.10m filled one small corner) and we slung our centre rope on a + stud recessed into the stone wall and rose 1.5m. On upriver with the

Empty 80m boat above Floriffoux lock

railway (no traffic today) on our right and factories both sides as we passed through the outskirts of Namur. Past the bus depot and a shooting range (we could hear the pop pop of gunfire) and a road on our left was busy with Saturday holiday traffic. Mike made a cuppa while I steered. Lots of birds about, mallard, sandpipers, house martins and the ever-present Canada geese even though the canalised lower Sambre flows through a sloping sided concrete sided trough. In places the anti-flood concrete walls are 2.5 to 3m higher than the water level. Because of all the concrete there were not too

Abbaye de Floreffe

many wild flowers. The first offline basin housed a boatyard. As we passed a man came out to ask where we were going, when we said Pont-de-Loup for bottom painting he asked how heavy the boat was, we said we’d call in to see him on the way back. If he has a crane big enough we might get future work done there. There were lots of wintered boats in the basin plus the river taxis (wondered where they were, maybe they only do weekends or summer season). Erone, a boat loaded with sand (110m x

Mornimont lock

10.56m 3,462T) from Landelies, was moored at a quay opposite a recycling yard, its crane was in the air so the crew must be off in their car, probably shopping. Mike called Floriffoux lock and got a reply, OK. The lock was ready for us. Up another 3.3m. Two new lock houses had been built in recent years and the lock cabin was high over the lock at the end of the machinery for lifting the weir. A little tug called Zwever was moored in the lower weirstream opposite the HEP plant and a big tug called Turquoise was moored in the upper weirstream. Just after we left the lock an empty 80m called Raypa went past heading for the lock we’d just left, his wash was almost watering the grass at the top of the concrete and our boat did a little bouncing for a while. A converted

Moored above Auvelais lock

péniche called Carpe Diem was moored at Floreffe, a banner along its side gave a website www.bateau-carpediem.be - must check that out later. Mike took photos of the abbey high up on the hill overlooking the river. We tested the depth in the next offline basin (which had a sign at the entrance saying it was a winding hole (turning round place) and found it was pretty deep, 4m in the middle. Mornimont lock was a deep one at 4.9m, no problems as the keepers (who came to the window and waved) filled it steadily for us. Two loaded Belgian boats were moored above the lock on its waiting quay, Exaudi from Marchiennes (55m x 6.6m 665T) and Almi from Chatelet (55m x 7.23m 699T). Lunch on the move. Passed a Dutch cruiser heading downriver by the Glaciers de Moustier, followed by a Belgian cruiser, then loaded Belgian boat Insomnia from Moerbeke (79.92m x 9.0m 1332T) which went past with hardly a ripple. An empty 80m boat called Marcari from Antwerpen was moored opposite the Solvay chemical works and, as we passed the moored boat, another loaded Belgian boat called Conjono from Gent (55m x 7.20m) went past heading downstream. A group of eight youths on trials bikes went zooming past on the towpath. Mike called Auvelais, our last lock of the day, on VHF radio and got a mind block when he couldn’t think of the word in French for a pleasure boat, so I added plaisancier and started laughing. The keeper heard and was also laughing when he said Mon Dieu, l’ecluse est prête! It was, gates open, and we rose another 2.7m. A small Dutch yacht was waiting above to go down. It was 3.10pm when we tied up at the far end of the waiting quay. It was a fairly sheltered spot, so not so windy, and not long after we moored the sun started showing itself between white clouds.