Monday 24 August 2009

24th August 2009 Monday. Santenay to St Ledger-sur-Dheuen. C. du Centre.

After a few days rest, keeping out of the sun, and collecting our post from Chagny, we finally set of again. One downhill boat had already passed us. Two boats were left on the quay, a large cruiser going the same way as us (uphill) and a blue boat pointing downhill. To turn round we went towards Chagny as far as the big bend at Remigny and winded where the silted up winding hole had been blocked off with a string of buoys. It was 10.25 a.m. when we started heading uphill again. Twenty minutes later we passed the mooring at Santenay, the blue boat was still there. We gave way to a boat coming towards a bridge, another new Brit flagged boat. This one had an elderly skipper with his nose firmly in the air and not acknowledging our presence at all. He went through the herbage on our left hand side through lack of steering skill! His wife was on the bow with a pole. The start of the close association with the road started at Chassey-le-Camp. 11.00 a.m. Two skaters passed by on the towpath. A wave came down the canal a few minutes later followed by a downhill Dutch cruiser. Lock 23 was empty with double green lights. In and up 2.80m, deserted no signs of life. 500m to the next, lock 22. I finished de-icing the ‘fridge and putting all the food back in it. Into 22 and Mike pulled the cord to start the lock cycle. A VNF flatbed was parked by the lock. Lunchtime. A longer pound to the next 1.3 kms through the village of Dennevy. There were three "dead" old cruisers moored on the left bank before the bend and road bridge, all looked in need of some tlc. Beyond the bridge there was an old commercial quay, higher than our cabin roof, with rings and a picnic table. Lock 21 was ready so we went in and up. Another longish pound, 1.2 kms to lock 20. As the lock was almost full the resident VNF man came out to ask if we were stopping, etc, etc, and said to phone when we wanted to continue – the phone number was at the Capitanerie. Went beyond the moored Locaboats on stern-to-bank moorings and Mike dropped me off to get the number. No signs of any phone number on the windows and the place was closed for lunch. I got back on again as the man in a van (whose phone number we needed - possibly) went off up the towpath. A couple of cruisers were moored by the Capitanerie and two houseboats, a converted péniche and a small Dutch Barge were moored outside the old basin which was empty. Mike said someone had said they’d filled the basin in. There were bollards and electricity posts all around it. We carried on beyond the houses and past a Dutch Barge with a Locaboat moored alongside it and a cruiser behind it. A little further on there was piled edge (the Dutch Barge was moored next to a very bad sloping edge but had a cable from the farmhouse). It was deep enough for us and we had a nice view across open fields to the distant low hills. The only drawback was the busy road on the far (right hand) bank. Five minutes after Mike left on the moped to collect the car there was a light shower of rain.

19th August 2009 Wednesday. Fontaines to Santenay. C. du Centre


The girl trainee arrived (in her own VNF car) to ask if we were moving; yes; going that way (pointing uphill) yes. The towpath was already very busy with cyclists as we set off at 9.20 a.m. The first lock, no 31, was ready when we arrived with gates open and green light on. I pulled twice on the slimy cord thinking nothing was happening, found it was just slow for the gates to close. I found the very loud creaking of the gates as the lock filled very un-nerving on the shallow (2.5m) lock (bottom end lock gates have been known to "blow" when they don't have proper maintenance, in other words reverse direction and let all the water out plus anything else in the lock like boats!). The lock house was empty and there were new wooden posts around the lockside waiting to have chains added to keep the cyclists off the locksides. Lock 30 was full! With a LeBoat hireboat in it, slowly getting ropes in, etc. The lock emptied and we went up. Found the lock working was very slow for automatic locks. No house at 30 and more new wooden posts. As the shallow lock (2.64m) finished filling the girl in the car returned and asked if we’d share the next lock with the hire boat in front of us. OK. The next lock, 29 (2.39m the shallowest of the flight) was having a new hydraulic cylinder fitted to the bottom left hand gate. The fitter called us in through the one open gate and we asked the hire boat to move up a bit so we could get behind it on the right hand side of the chamber. The gate was fixed, so the repair man worked the lock using a yellow crane-style controller device. Two boats were waiting above the lock to come down, a narrowboat and a British cruiser. Lock 28 was the first of the deep (5.20m) ones and the hireboat crew went slowly up to it and started to wave us past. No way! Lighter boat at the front always. There was panic in the air as the crew (who turned out to be a British couple) tried to fathom out what to do with their ropes. Mike went up front to tell them what to do, fore and aft ropes around the single floater to keep the boat centred around the bollard as it rises. Told them that the water comes in via the floor of the lock chamber, so it would glue the boat to the wall anyway. Deaf ears, still in panic. They went very slowly up to lock 27 and were still having fights with the ropes again when a new lock keeper arrived to take charge. Lock 26 was a shallow one (2.56m). There was graffiti on the lock cabin wall which translated as “commercial boats decline, VNF have no worries”. Yes, we see the point. Two more boats were waiting above, a British cruiser and a Belgian steel cruiser. Lock 25 (5.20m) shoved us over to the left again. I just let the rope out and let it push the boat against the left wall. No lock house. The keeper returned to ask if we were stopping at Chagny. The hireboat was and I told him we’d stay on the long pond. One more to do, lock 24 another 5.20m deep one. Two more boats were waiting above, another Brit flagged steel cruiser and an ex-hire Connoisseur, French registered. We left the top at 12.05 p.m. The hireboat stopped on the new mooring right hand side at the beginning of the long straight cutting into Chagny. At the far end there was a small French cruiser moored, a small Luxe in need of some tlc and a converted péniche. Two permanent moorers on the right bank of the basin, an ex-Rive-de-France and a catamaran. A small tug was moored on the left by the new resto and a Dutch yacht was moored at the left end of the VNF quay. We moored in front of them, bow into the corner. Mike asked how much they charged for the mooring. The Dutch couple replied it was free with water but no electricity. It was 12.30 p.m. We had somelunch then Mike went for a walk up to the post office. Our post hadn't arrived yet. We set off again at 1.50 p.m. pausing on the aqueduct over the railway while Mike took a photo. The hireboat we'd locked with had just gone past. Round the bend, missing a fisherman’s two lines and we passed the hireboat at the Snailly base taking on water. Told them we weren’t staying in Chagny as it was too hot and there was no shade. There were five ex-hire Locaboats moored there and a converted péniche. Found no shade and only a couple of places to tie up, so at 3.10 we winded at the last mooring near Corchanut and went back to moor, still facing downhill, opposite the village of Santenay, which was on the far bank of the river Dheune. It was excessively hot. Once we’d tied up we retreated inside and crashed out for an hour before unloading the bike off the roof using the big plank. Mike went to get the car from Fontaines and I started preparing a salad for dinner.

18th August 2009 Tuesday. Fontaines. C. du Centre.

Mike had a few jobs left to do on the car; renew the wire that burned out the day before on the max/min thermometer, rotate the steering wheel one spline and finish bleeding the radiator. Our VNF Jockey had a young lady trainee with him and he stopped several times to see how we were getting on. After lunch we went out in the car to get a few odds and ends from the big hypermarket at Chalon Sud. Mike needed some two stoke oil for the moped and I wanted some new place mats (they had none) plus we bought a new motorcycle cover. It was hot, like walking into an oven coming out of the supermarket. Nice not to have a leak by my feet in the car!

17th August 2009 Monday. Fontaines. C.du Centre.


Mike went to work on the car and I gave him a hand. During the morning he changed the radiator for the “new” one and then we put the dashboard back in place. It was as much of a struggle to get it back as it was to get it out. Oh the joys of owning a very old Citreon car! After lunch we put the rest of the car back together. A very small Czech yacht (crewed by two young men and a young woman) moored between us and the replica Dutch barge.

16th August 2009 Sunday. Fragnes to Fontaines. C. du Centre


A Polish couple we'd met the day before came along on their bikes and stopped to chat and exchange e-mail addresses. They said next year they would go up to St Mammes then the Yonne and Nivernais. No lights came on the lock at nine and the man in the van arrived about five past and helped a Finnish yacht through lock 34. The lock emptied and sat with gates open and a green light on. It was 9.30 a.m. when we went into the lock. Mike went right to the front gates while I pulled the blue cord, nothing happened until the keeper arrived and did something in the shed and then left us to it. The lock house had a beautiful garden and a lovely Pink Siris tree, with pink fluffy fan-shaped flowers, right outside the house. The chamber of the shallow (2.23m) first lock filled, gates opened and we motored along the 1.5 km pond to lock 33. There were lovely misty views across to the distant hills on our left. The towpath cycle piste was in full use with walkers, cyclists, roller-bladers and dog walkers. The lock was ready with gates open and a green light. Stooged up to the top end and I yanked on the string and the gates shut behind us, Mike backed off to sit the boat by the bottom end gates and nothing happened. Back up to the front of the chamber and I climbed the very narrow ladder, impeded somewhat by my longish skirt (I was aware of almost treading on the edge) and the control ropes at the back of the rungs. I pressed the button on the intercom and told the tinny female voice that lock 33 was "en panne" out of order. Heaven knows what she said in reply the audio was so distorted, I hoped she said she’d tell the itinerant and he’d be on his way soon – I said merci, au’voir. He must have got the message as the usual chatty young guy arrived within minutes. He went in the old lock cabin and reset the lock which started filling. I saw water coming over the top end gate and asked if there was a downhill boat. No, he said it was the yacht in front of us going uphill. I told him that it had stayed overnight in the lock chamber. He replied that they’d told him they’d stayed in the port! In their defence I said if they’d come up the Rhône and Saône then that would be their first automatic lock and they might not have noticed that fact and were waiting for a lock keeper to appear! He said he would pull the cord for us on the next as it was the first of the deep ones at 5.12m. 1.9 kms to lock 32. A small plane kept taking off from a local field and dropping parachutists. True to his word the keeper was at the lock and pulled the cord for us, then left. We started off on the right hand side of the chamber with a rope on a floater, but the water pushed us over to the left, so I took the rope off. When the lock was half full the water pattern changed and we went gently back across to the right. At 11.10 a.m. we moored next to the piling by the bridge at Fontaines. The water was deep so we were OK when the lock filled behind us and when the hireboats went past making big waves. The man in the VNF van came to see how long we were stopping. Told him about our car problems (we'd got a leaking heater radiator) and said we’d probably stay a couple of days. He gave us his phone number to call him to set the locks for us. Mike walked the 4.6 kms back to Fragnes to fetch the car as he said it wasn’t worth getting the bike off the roof. He returned just as I finished making lunch. After lunch he started work on the car. I went to lend moral support and fetched tools he’d forgotten, etc. Changing the heater radiator wasn't difficult but it involved a lot of stripping down - the dashboard, the steering column, and the windscreen wiper plus its motor. Then the stupid dashboard wouldn’t come off - Mike ended up banging the end of a plastic peg under the bonnet and that did the trick. A bunch of teenage lads arrived, four in a car and one on his bike. They put all their stuff on the picnic bench and went swimming in the canal – well, jumping off the road bridge actually. They weren’t rude or intimidating at all, but still made me nervous of leaving the boat open and unattended while they were running back and forth (memories of the UK still linger!). They left at six and we packed up just after that. Mike found a wasp spider and took photos of it. He showed it to the skipper of the replica Dutch barge moored in front of us (who’d been watching him crawling on the tarmac to photograph it) and he asked him if he collected spiders!

15th August 2009 Saturday. Fragnes. C. du Centre

I cooked some Pangas for dinner, excellent white fish fillets at 5,90€/kg. Mike had looked it up on the ’net and found it was called river cobbler or white catfish and was farmed on the Mekong river, reputedly the most polluted river in the world! The article condemned France for importing it in great quantities when it was said to be full of toxins, poisons, etc. Hmm. I don't think we'll be having any more of that even thought it tasted OK! We caught up on all our domestic chores and got ready to move on up the canal.

13th August 2009 Thursday. Fragnes. C. du Centre


We moved the boat over on to the pay moorings in Fragnes and had trouble getting close to the grassy bank so we moved a little further towards the lock, but the bottom was very close – then the deep lock, 34bis, started filling and the water level dropped. Mike organised the two tyres (that we sometimes use as fenders) to lay horizontal in the water to keep us away from the wooden edging but the boat still went on the bottom and listed whenever the deep lock filled. We watched what the boat would do and adjusted the ropes, etc, accordingly and then added heat reflectors to the windows on the sunny side and shut the blinds before we went into Chalon by car to do some shopping.