Wednesday 14 October 2009

Tuesday 13th October 2009 Cercy-la-Tour. C. du Nivernais

Sunny but chilly after temperature almost down to freezing overnight; cloudy after lunch. At 10.30 a.m. Mike took M and B to collect their cars from Chatillon. I got on with the chores. Mike said the Ozzies were at Chatillon and about to go back to Oz. They told him their boat was owned by them and two other couples and one of the others was coming out to take the boat the rest of the way up to Baye. Lunch. Mike ran the engine (electricity only 5Amps) and I did some washing. He gave M a hand to fix his boat hooter and took some photos of my new Cambria orchid.
Mum and Dad rang around 8.30 p.m. Mum had had a fall the day before and had broken her arm in three places. Told them we were no nearer finding a winter mooring.

Monday 12th October 2009 Panneçot to Cercy-la-Tour. C. du Nivernais


Sunny but with a chilly breeze. The Big Boat left at 9.40 a.m. to get to the first lock for 10.00 a.m. We left at ten to get there for 10.30 a.m. The resident keeper at lock 26 Sauzay was the guy from the day before. Today he was in his gardening gear with wellies and was on the ‘phone all throughout the locking. He opened both bottom end gates as we left so we thought there would be uphill traffic. There were lots of fishermen on the left bank by the old basin where the road crossed between Sauzay and Vandenesse. We met the uphill traffic, the Ozzies we’d met at Chatillon, well wrapped up against the cold. They asked if we’d found a winter mooring yet and we told them we were still waiting to hear from two places. They were going up to the summit to stay at Baye. The large lady with glasses was just closing the left hand top gate and closing the paddle as we went into the next lock, 27 Moulin d’Isenay. I stepped off and closed the right hand gate. She said thank you. She was on the ‘phone as we left, telling the next lock keeper we were on our way. 2 kms to 28 Isenay and we could see The Big Boat going down in the lock as the cut was almost straight. Just before the lock I noticed a lovely heavy horse in the field by the canal, it looked like a Pecheron. The fields around the Château du Tremblay had lots of horses in with the Charollais cows. Another lady keeper, one we hadn’t met before, worked the lock. She was a bit unsure about one gate and was poised to open the left hand gate too. Hooted and shouted OK with one gate. She said Mike was a bon Capitain to steer through one gate! It was getting close to midday and she told us we could run down to the next lock and wait in the chamber until one o’clock as it was full. Fine. She drove off down the towpath in her VNF van. 2.7 kms to Chaumigny. As we left the lock we saw a very large rat swimming, not big enough for a copyu it must have been a musk rat. Past the Château du Tremblay and through the open lift bridge (not used in years judging by the vegetation) and down to the lock. The Big Boat was in the lock. Didn’t think it was a good idea to go in the lock as they would want us to lock together again so we tied to a bollard and I made some lunch. At one o’clock Mike went out to lend a hand, but The Big Boat was already going down so he started our engine and I walked down to the lock to lend the lock keeper a hand. It was another new bloke. He was chatting with someone in the lock house and came out with a clipboard to take the boat’s name, registration number, etc (but didn’t ask us anything just wrote down what he read off the boat). I wound a top end paddle up (after asking permission first) while he wound the other to refill the lock. He went back in the lock house and I opened one gate when the lock was full. He was surprised we only wanted one gate open, he said most narrowboats have two gates opened - I told him most of them can’t steer! The guy who had insisted The Big Boat go through Bernay lock with us the day before came out of the lock house and took over - I heard the other bloke say he had an appointment and asked him to work the lock before he drove off in his van. The older chap reminded us that he’d worked a few locks for us the day before (how could we forget, M’s still traumatised!) He was chatty and asked where we were stopping for winter. 2.7 kms to the last lock of the day, 30 Cercy, where the lady from before lunch was getting the lock ready. Above the lock there seemed to be plenty of space on the quay and two boats were now out on the bank. The Big Boat was already tied on the downstream end of the pontoon. It was just after 2.00 p.m. as we winded to point back upstream on the river section and M and D came out to lend a hand with the ropes as the wind was blowing the boat off the pontoon. 

SSunday 11th October 2009 Chatillon-en-Bazois to Panneçot. C. du Nivernais

Grey, misty morning, sun out at lunchtime for a short while then lots of grey clouds but no rain. Mike went for bread. An English couple had arrived to move the boat behind us, a Dutch cruiser; they were off to St Leger. We set off first at ten. D came over to lend a hand with gates. Yet another different VNF man, a large quiet bloke with a moustache. Down 15, Chatillon, and The Big Boat followed. 4.7 kms to the next lock. Through the flood lock, 16 Coeuillon, and a blonde lady in a VNF van drove past us on the towpath. An ex-hire Connoisseur cruiser went past heading uphill and another VNF van went uphill as we went round the last bend before the lock, 17 Eguilly. 



The blonde worked the lock, slowly.  Lock18 Meulot. The large guy with tosh arrived to help the girl, she spent most of the time shouting into her phone. It was 11.40 a.m. when we left the bottom en route 1.9 kms to lock 20 Brienne; by the time we arrived there it would be midday and they were off to lunch. No mooring bollards above the lock, which was empty, so Mike banged a stake in for the centre rope and I made some sandwiches. An older man arrived and worked the lock, nattering to a friend all the time he was working, slowly. It was a short distance to Fleury, lock 21, round a long bend. The old man from 21 was coming to work it after he’d locked The Big Boat through. I stepped off and opened a gate as the lock was full, boat in and I closed the gate and closed the paddle. Then we waited for the keeper to arrive. Today, being Sunday, the café in the old lock house was open but not doing much trade. A couple a with small child were sat at one of the tables by the front door; they left as the lock emptied. The keeper was on the phone all through the locking booking the locks for us for the next day. The Big Boat arrived before we left the lock. The wreck (an old Belgian cruiser) was still by the campsite facilities below the lock. If what the VNF said was true it will be sitting on the bottom as that pound is due to be emptied in a couple of weeks’ time. 1.6 kms to lock 22 Bernay. The lock was empty with both bottom end gates open. Not knowing if there was uphill traffic due, we tied to a bollard to wait the arrival of our lock keeper. The Big Boat arrived as the keeper filled the lock. He insisted that we went in the lock together - as an experiment, he said, to see if they would fit - if not they could back out again. Our stern overlapped The Big Boat’s bows and our bows were on the gate as the lock emptied. I kept a close eye on our bows and D kept a close eye on their stern. The old guy had another friend to natter to as the lock emptied. I told him if we kept the right gate closed (the one our fender was on) he could open the left gate and we could slide across and get out. The lock emptied and his nerdy friend started opening the right gate as the keeper opened the left, shoving us back into The Big Boat until D shouted. Not doing that at the next. It was his last lock. Heaven knows why he wanted to do that, they’re not short of water and we weren’t in a hurry – just being a lazy bone idle whatsit and didn’t want to work the lock twice if he could do it once, eh? He was on the phone again as we left. It was 3.00 p.m. as we started on the 4.3 kms pound. The canal is now fairly straight after all the bends following the course of the Aron. No signs of life until the road bridge linking the villages of Mont and Limanton, then there were walkers, cyclists and fishermen fishing from their cars on the towpath. I made a cuppa but had to make myself a second coffee as the first one had a fly in it before I got to the stern! Loads of flies about as the weather had warmed up, the sun had come out and we’re in cattle country. Our new keeper at lock 23 Saigne was one we’d seen on the way up, a large chap with glasses. He wanted The Big Boat to share the two remaining locks with us. M said no. it was too dangerous and risky for his boat. D came to lend a hand with gates, Mike shut a gate and lifted a bottom end paddle. The keeper said we’d come uphill together. No we didn’t. We could go down the locks below Cercy together, he said that the locks were the same – no, they’re not, these are 10m shorter! A short distance to lock 24 Anizy. The lock was full with a paddle up. I stepped off and wound a gate open, the boat went in and I closed it then closed the paddle. Spoke to the French skipper of a small private pénichette moored below waiting to come up. He was off up to Baye for the winter; we wondered how long they’d kept him waiting. When the lock keeper arrived he wound the paddles and went through the booking procedure again - he said his own lock was the next one. The French guy went back to his boat and cast off to go up the lock. Waved to an elderly man sitting in the back cabin. Looked like the younger chap was working single handed. It was 4.30 p.m. as we tied up in the basin above the weir at Panneçot. Connected to the electricity once Mike fixed the two pin plug. The Big Boat arrived twenty minutes later and we almost filled the wooden edged quay. We were on the bottom and had to sit the boat on submerged tyres. Internet very slow 53Kbs