Wildbird

Toul on a Sunday

Peace and quiet.....

A lovely sunny morning, and an early exploiration of the city, but much is left to do - no rush, as we have several days here.  We find a nice square with a fountain and several cafes and have breakfast in the sun-- proper french style.

Then the "Vide Grenier"- what a fantastic flea market! Hundreds of stalls and all very cheap and we cannot resist lots of "Bargains".  It appears that people here have to sign on their honour that they are not professional sellers and can only sell at two markets  a year. Just like UK car boots used to be. Fantastically cheap and lots of stuff. 

Its takes us hours to walk round (including the obligatory Muerguez sausage ina bun, frites and a can of beer). Final  haul:

4 deep green old lidded jars (1 Eu each)

A metal decorative lighthouse (1 Eu)

A Lovely square pot with fish decoration (50 cents)

Pair of linen trousers (1 eu)

Two little beaded decorative bags (50 cents each)

Fish shaped chalk board (1 Eu)

Easter childrens decorations (1 Eu)

Cat picture (wow- expensive!  2Eu)

A childrens snowman mobile which has produced (on dismantling) about 10 lovely xmas decorations (1 Eu)

And finally  ... the cuddly toys! (two animals   at 50 cents each)

What fun for 7 Eu each!  Very tempted by an antique bicycle for 50 Eu.. and a gorgeous green carbouy for 6Eu but  decided it was going too far to stash those on the boat!

Probably the best car boot I have ever been to...

 

 

Ooooops.... how not to do canal locks, and Trish's heroic moment

... but first of all ...

Soon after we leave Richardmenil, we do the last two locks of the Canal des Vosges  and emerge onto the Moselle...wide guage/ big lock country and big barge country. Quite a shock after the little domestic Canal des Vosges.  Immediately on leaving the last lock we emerge to Neuves Maisons.. a gigantic steel yard, where recycled metal is delivered by large gauge barges, and then reprocessed into steel wire. Wow.... here's one of them 170m or so long

The locks are  wide(12m) and deep, and we feel dwarved inside them.. here we are coming out of the first one.

The Moselle - first of all canalised, but then on the river proper - is wide and deep and one the one hand it feels really spacious and easy to navigate, and on the other hand a tad boring at times, with deep grass banks obscuring much of the view. But as we get down towards Toul and on the river proper, its better: lots of activity with rowers and dinghies all over the place.

We've decided, having looked at a couple of potential  half way stops, to continue right on to Toul, which means leaving the Moselle, and starting up the Canal de La Marne au Rhin...  ...just three locks up to the marina in Toul, where we'll have a few days relaxing before Sylvia joins us.

 

As we activate the lock system, we spot another little barge coming the other way, who also wants to go up the canal. Although we've activated the system well in advance of him, and the lock is now empty and ready for action, he ignores us and charges at full pelt into the lock (bouncing off the walls) with us yelling for his attention. He finally acknowledges us and we creep in behind him. Good.. at least we are not in front and near the horrid waterfall of the up locks. I stay well clear of him at the back of the lock.

The lock starts to fill and I'm watching Wild Bird and getting ready to swap ropes on the rising bollards, when I become aware that the barge in front is in deep trouble. They have let go of their ropes and the barge is crashing into the lock gates, driven forward by the surging undertow.  I'm concerned that they may drive backwards into me and am concentrating on keeping Wild bird out of trouble, when Trish yells that one of the guys in front has fallen in the water.  

I look up and see that the nose of the barge has become trapped in the lock gates, and as the water continues to rise the back of the barge is tilting upwards at an increasing angle and bucking violently with its nose by now well under water. The bucking must have thrown the other guy off.

The crew member  on the barge manages to scramble off and stop the lock with the alarm pole, but then yells that the guy in the water can't swim (and of course he is not wearing a life jacket) and can we throw him a rope.  In the confusion,Wild Bird's nose has drifted across the lock (which turns out to be a good thing as ladder access is opened up), so we tie her off at both ends, and Trish throws him one of our mooring ropes.   He misses and submerges again.. clearly he's in deep trouble. Trish yells and throws the rope again and this time he gets hold  of it and Trish holds on to the other end and talks to him whilst the VNF guy, who by now has arrived, is working out what to do.

A passer-by also comes to help (thank god, as the crew of the other boat is standing helplessly.. obviously in shock) and we get the drowning guy to get hold of another rope which  I then walk down the boat with and pass him over to the  guys on the steps - now including the VNF man  (Why did none of them - or indeed us - throw him a life ring, I wonder in retrospect?).

The drowning guy is completely exhausted, but after a bit of coaching manages to climb the ladder and be hauled to safety.  I'm really concerned that he has not the strength to climb.. but he just makes it.

The VNF guy empties the lock enough to free the barge's nose. The barge by now is listing badly and l has a lot of water in it.. and I have visions of it sinking in the lock..  but they manage to pull it out and moor it just outside the lock giving us enough room to get out. PHEW!  The ambulance arrives just as we are leaving, and carts the near-drowned guy off to hospital.

We are shaken, but able to continue up two more locks to Toul marina where we moor up on a ridiculously short finger pontoon.  A little while later the damaged barge arrives too,  being driven by the very competent Duncan from Lorraine marine. He tells us that after we left, the  fire engines and divers arrived, pumped out the barge and checked the damage on the bottom.. and miracle of miracles it is not holed. It seems that all the water flooded in  over the top when its nose was under water.

The near drowned guy is still in hospital, we believe... 2-3 days was the forecast. But apparently OK.

To Richardmenil

Trish and I have a first day"solo"...  planned as a short day, but we are going so well, and the promised moorings after half a days trip look dreadful. So onwards to Richardmenil to a very pleasant mooring by a small town.. yes with two restaurants (although we don't partake)

Its not the same without the little flathaired communication bird, twittering in the background with running commentry on the days events and scenery... it fact its very quiet .. but we cope.

And it is quite interesting travelling down this bit of the canal if you are in to industrial archaeology. At times we are travelling through lush green countryside, through plane tree lined canal banks and pushing our way through drifts of blossom in the water.

Then up pops a factory... mostly derelict and fascinating.. some lovely buildings, some in art deco style, but crumbling or with roofs fallen in, like this factory.. or brickworks?

The proposed moorings we were going to stop at turn  out to be nasty metal lined banks, some near busy roads.. so a quick calculation reveals we can get to Richardmenil.. but first we have to cross the Viaduct over the Moselle.  Its very windy, and the zapper turns out to be really close to the start of the viaduct. Hmmm. Not good news.

I can't enter the viaduct until I get a green light, but we have had to get about 30 yds away before the zapper works.  The wind catches us, and I realise I am not going to be able to hold position, so have to execute a 180 degree turn pronto and retreat a bit. Another moment of concentration, as the canal isnt that much wider than Wild Bird. Thank god for bowthrusters (that work.. thanks Yannick)!

 

 

 

 

 

Then a far less eventful trip in very warm sunshine,  and a lovely peaceful sunset  at Richardmenil.

 

 

A domestic day

 No mast and rigging makes wash day more difficult but a bit of improvision is called for. The boat hooks come in handy...  (Trish says ".look what she's done with our poles, Val")

A day off?  Yeh..Right!!!   Shopping.. yes there is a Lidl, hurrah... washing, cleaning.. and what was supposed to a be a quiet day turns into a bit of a domestic blur... but at least the long promised sunshine has arrived.  (Sorry, Val!)

Val's last day (Thaon to Charmes)

Val’s last day (Val writes)

I am feeling rather sad this morning: I have so enjoyed myself on this adventure.  However, feeling sad does not disqualify the “volunteer” from duty and after taking the rubbish out for the last time I jog off to the boulangerie for a very naughty breakfast order for all 3 of us.  Croissant Amande.  Mmm Mmm.  Worth every extra inch and could be eaten over and over.  Carol and Trish decide that the rest of the trip will be devoted to discovering the best croissant amande in France.

The weatherman tells us that we are going to have a little cloud and then sunshine, what a treat after yesterday.

Then its on deck, the volunteer on the ropes and now jumping nonchalantly back on board  after pushing off with Trish yelling to me to get back on board as she is worried I will not make the leap.  And we are off.  Carol has tried to time our departure to miss meeting the Sand Barges.  They are so enormous and traverse this section of the canal all day, They are big and travel fast and when loaded are quite low in the water so they don’t like moving over for small boats with keels and we are concerned that their wash will push us onto shallow water and ground us.  A number of people have warned us about them and we are quite worried. 

One goes past us and then another, and we are fairly confident that if we leave now we will have them behind us, so cast off.  We were wrong.  There are 3 of them, and a couple of locks down we realize there is one in the lock heading towards us.  We pull over as far as we dare, and I practice looking worried and vulnerable and stay up the front of the deck.  We needn’t have worried, the pilot stays over and goes past us incredibly slowly so we are safe.

Then its out of the industrial zone and back into beautiful countryside and the cuckoos are back.  They deserted us for quite some time in the dense woodland and commercial areas, but now we are back in open fields we can hear them almost permanently. 

The weatherman is wrong, its still drizzling and no sunshine, so its wet ropes and wet legs and then, the “dooberry wotsit” (my name for the blue rod we have to push in the lock to close the gates and activate the system) changes sides!  How dare they! We are all very blasé about operating the system on the right and now its switched to the left and we have heavy wet ropes on this side having switched the light ropes over a couple of days ago to make life easier.  However, no time to gripe: Trish and I switch sides and haul the heavy wet ropes into position.  Trish’s lassoing technique is second to none and she continues to catch the bollard first time nearly every time.  I am less able but am nearer to the  bollard so have less excuses to get this wrong but still manage to miss quite a few times.

Now the big test.  Trish and Carol decide to try and “do” a lock on their own in case they decide to continue travelling when I have left.  It works a treat and both feel confident that they can do this.  I video the process and we will put this on the blog as soon as we have a good internet connection.  Its quite an art.

Finally we are here in Charmes.  Lovely mooring, but lots of motor homes, clearly a bit of a tourist spot.  Never mind, the attraction of electricite and running water, means not just showers but hairdryers too.  Will we remember how to operate them I wonder?  Me first because Paul is on his way and Trish thinks I should look and smell OK!  Whilst I am drying my hair I hear music and  discover that there is a wonderful musician on the boat behind.  He is Dutch and serenades us all with a fabulous repertoire on his Sax.  When he hears that I leave today he plays he plays “We’ll meet again..” especially for me.  What a fabulous last day. 

So that’s it.  I’m off.  I can’t thank Carol and Trish enough for having me and giving me this wonderful chance to have such a big adventure.  I have really loved it and recommend it to all the crew who are to follow.  Just remember though, you do have to “volunteer” an awful lot, but its fun really. 

So au revoir Wild Bird, Au Revoir dogs, and most of all Au Revoir and thank you Carol.  And by the way Trish, your hair’s flat. 

Bye

Down the stairs to Thaon les Vosges

( Trish writes)

If anyone out there has any idea that this a holiday, relaxing on the deck and watching the world go by, I would like to disabuse of this notion right now. 

We awake to heavy drizzle and low cloud.  We are promised sun later which we live in hope of.  Val “volunteers” to nip up to the boulangerie and orders are placed for croissant and pain au raisin.  Lovely breakfast with coffee and then we are off at about 8.40 to aim to get to the first lock for opening time, 9.00 am.  We are all kitted out with waterproofs and layers, although its not as cold as it has been considering how high up we are now.

Carol has shown me how to lasso  the bollards so I am hoping to put this into practice.  In we go, and this is very strange, the locks are so calm and there is no turbulence at all because they are full and we are looking down at the bollards.   Val hooks the rear bollard and I try out my lassoing technique and it works a treat.   However, all the ropes are sodden from the overnight heavy rain and within a very short space of time we are both soaked through. 

So the treadmill begins, 15 locks to go through, back to back.  I notice that there seem to be jackdaws on each lock and they appear to be watching us, but after a few locks Carol realizes that they are actually waiting for the lock to empty because the fish are becoming trapped in the rear gate of the lock and the jackdaws swoop down and grab them as soon as the lock empties.  Another example of nature adapting to the opportunities presented.

The drizzle persists and so, once we are through the 15 locks I “volunteer” to go and make some soup for everyone and Val and Carol continue, managing the next 4 locks between them.  

What a contrast the landscape has been today.  We have been going through a really different part of France, with a massive housing development which seems to go on forever.  Who says the economy is in crisis?  Next we have a huge industrial park and one of the biggest gravel pits producing and shipping gravel via the canal system.  Not attractive at all, but we know that our mooring in Thaon-les-Vosges, according to the pilot book, promises abundant restaurants.  We can’t wait to eat out, and early signs are good.  Its clearly a huge place and there are all sorts of lovely facilities, a football stadium, running track and some sort of modern theatre like building.  Signs are all good. 

So moor up, watch the locals playing boules, shower and change into dry warm clothes.  The promised sunshine never materialized and we are all feeling chilled and missing that sun.  Then off we go, out to search for a nice restaurant.  Initial signs are not so good, everything looks rather shabby and run down, but we find the main street and the patisseries and boulangeries proliferate and we think this must be a good sign as they all have the most fabulous pastries and sweets in them.  But no, we find nothing so we ask.  There is a look of blank amazement on all faces.  They offer a pizza parlour but there are no restaurants! 

Its an absolutely huge town and we do not believe them and set off on a search.  Carol on the bike and Val on foot.  Rien, they are right.  This really is a town without anything other than pizzas and kebabs. Carol even cycles as far as the Chinese restaurant we saw on the way here on the industrial complex a few kilometers back, but it doesn’t open for another hour, its drizzling and she has no coat so she returns empty-handed. 

Well that’s it then.  Left over smoked chicken and pasta.  Carol cooks and we all enjoy enormously.  Then we stay in to go out to the flicks again, to watch the Most Exotic Marigold Hotel.  It doesn’t play properly, the sound is bad, so Carol suggests "the Bucket list".   What a beautiful film, we all end up in tears and have a thoroughly good night in.  We need to get to Charmes tomorrow as its Val’s last day and Paul is picking her up.

Onto the TOP!

Monday morning 9.00 am.  Yannick picks up Carol and off they go on the hunt for the much needed screws.  Whilst they are away, Trish and I  do some housekeeping and got Trish’s bedroom ready for the Frenchman again.  Trish is very excited, but sadly he turns up in his double zipped overalls which she feels are too much for her.  Add to that the fact that the whole package smells rather pungent with oil and grease, and Trish decided to scrub the deck instead.     Yes!  Success! … we found the correct screws at a massive cost of 3 euro, and Yannick quickly reassembled the bowthruster , and it worked and sounded well again. What a relief!

Yannick and Jacqueline wanted to return the hospitality and invited us over for coffee before we left.  This was a wonderful opportunity for us all to be terribly nosey and elicit a conducted tour of their boat which is being beautifully fitted out inside using wood, mainly oak.  On the outside it looks rather like a boring steel hull, but inside it is a warm and welcoming home. 

Chocolate cake, chocolates and coffee along with stories of Yannicks many trips all over the world, provided an entertaining hour before we left, and despite Carol’s best endeavours she was not allowed to pay him for the work which would have cost so much if a professional engineer was doing it.   Contact details were exchanged, photos were taken, and we left, promising to let Yannick know how the bowthrusters performed. 

Through the lock without incident and then we enter the narrowest and darkest section of the canal so far.  Heavy trees overhanging the canal, and steep walls cut out of the sides provide a rather austere and dark canvas after the sunlight and green fields of the last few days.  

Once we are back out into the open again we are running alongside a busy main road, the first we have encountered, so we decide to delay mooring until it is quieter.   We are rather frustrated by a sign for a restaurant which is on the right, but the only mooring is on the left and there is no bridge, so we decide to move on a little further.  The style of the houses is clearly showing a more alpine influence here and there which is probably due to being so near to the Swiss border.  This is a much more affluent area with more modern homes. We are now approaching the highest point on the Vosges canal (Carol adds....and the highest point of the whole trip): the watershed at 361m (1185ft).   Honister Pass in the lake district at 1167 ft is actually lower than us! All those locks!

We come to the last likely mooring at les Forges and decide to pull in if the water is deep enough. It is, so we stop for the night and Carol takes the dogs for a walk whilst Val “volunteers” to suss out the restaurant options.   Disaster!   It is Monday, and everything is closed.  So, back to the boat,  into the depths of the fridge to find the smoked chicken and a meal is cobbled together.  Tomorrow we will DEFINITELY eat out because the Pilot Book says we will be moored in a place with at least 3 restaurants!

After a few glasses of wine, life seems quite acceptable, and we decide to get to bed because tomorrow is THE DAY OF THE 15 LOCKS OF THE GOLBY STAIRCASE  Once we are in and going down, we can’t stop without seeking permission as one lock triggers the next.  This is going to be a new experience as we will be entering a full lock, and descending, so Carol suggests some lassoing skills might be useful to hook on to the bollards.  This will be interesting!

 

Well.. we are stuck in Girancourt, but the good news is that our lovely Frenchman, who we know now is called Yannick, has dismantled the bowthruster and has isolated the problem..  two allen screws which hold a particular piece in place seem to have come undone, and the piece has dropped and is hitting some other screws (highly technical this!), as are the heads of the allen screws.  Bits of shiny metal abound. Hence the horrible noise.  The solution is going to be two new screws... …if we can find them (seems like they are imperial, though the rest of the measurements are metric?). Yannick and Jacqueline offer to drive me to Epernay or Golby where there are specialist shops.. but of course not today, as it is Sunday.

Instead we decide its  a “fill up with water” day as we are running low, and showers are not possible without  more resources. The ever resourceful Val spots that the Englishman on a boat three away has a trolley, so she “persuades” him to lend it her.. but instead he comes and insists on filling up our water carriers. I haven’t the heart to tell him that we want several refills, so he duly delivers one lot and then goes off with the trolley. We get out the trusty bikes, and wobble our way to and from the lock where there is a tap.  Yannick and Jacqueline,  on seeing our wobbles, insist on using their car…. 

Not a lot else to report.. Val cooked a meal for us all, including Yannick and Jacqueline.. the least we could do after all their help;  Sam howled at the Sunday bells, and I had a jungle trek along a very dank part of the canal and back through very wet woods, coming back drenched.

Between locks 8 & 9 to Girancourt

  (Val Writes)

After 14 hours sleep we all feel a lot better and get up to have a healthy breakfast, walk the dogs and wait for the VNF man to arrive, as he has to accompany us through the next few locks.  He duly arrives around 9 am and Carol has already spoken to the Dutch people on the barge who are going to go through the locks with us.  They understand that we swing about a bit in the lock and need to stay forward of us to give us room.  So, off we go. 

This is easy compared to yesterday. The locks are so close together and the VNF man keeps on helping us to rope the bollards.  Whats more, its easy with the barge in front of us taking all the turbulence from the lock gates which means that we sit still in the water and Trish and I have very little to do in comparison to yesterday.  Oh yes, this is turning into a good day.

Five locks later we say goodbye to our lovely VNF man who informs us that the next lock is “automatique”  So we sail through the last lock with the help of the dutch people who kindly slip our ropes on and off the bollards for us.  Carol suggests that we moor up for a spot of lunch and to get some shopping from the Intermarche which is right next to the canal.  We moor in a beautiful spot, write a shopping list and do a BIG shop.  Then after this is stored away, we saunter out for lunch at the local restaurant. 

This is where things begin to unravel.  The restaurant has closed for the weekend. 

So, back to the boat, make a lovely lunch, eat it, and decide to continue on our way to a mooring which is outside a restaurant about 10Km away.  Just as we cast off, the guy in front of us does the same, and heads for the lock.  He fails to see us so we have to back up as the lock gates close.  This means reversing up the canal using the bow thrusters to stay straight, as the wind has got up, and is blowing us about.

All is not well. The noise coming out of the bow thrusters is not healthy, and then they pack up completely. We limp back to our mooring, fighting a strong breeze which is pushing Wild Bird in all directions.  Eventually, moored up. Carol suggests that we need to look at the bowthruster propellers to see if there is something snagging them.  On enquiring she explains that she really needs a dinghy to do this or she has to jump in the canal.   I head off up the line of boats and suss out that the large one on the end has a dinghy. 

After a rather convoluted exchange (they said they spoke no English, and I spoke no German, so it had to be in French), they agreed to lend us the dinghy.  The guy kindly brought it up to the other end of the mooring and handed it over to Carol.  He then walked off, and I held the rope, whilst a rather unattractive Carol, clad in old clothes and a snorkel emerged from the boat to board the dinghy.  She then submerged her head in the water, issuing a string of instructions through the snorkel which were totally unintelligible to Trish and I, and using manic hand signals, waving her bum in the air, as she traversed the front end of the boat apparently doing something.

 I was then instructed to take her around to the far side where the same procedure was followed, equally unintelligibly, bum still in the air and head under water.  This time things did not proceed so fluidly, she went a lean too far and flipped the dinghy over!  Carol disappeared under water, and I am ashamed to say that I was less worried about Carol than I was about telling the German that his pristine outboard motor was upside down in the canal. 

However, she fortunately re emerged, looking worse for wear but much calmer than I, and politely asked me to lower the ladder at the back of the boat so that she could board.  This I did, at the same time as rehearsing in my head, how I might tell the German about his dinghy.  Fortunately Carol, dripping and bleeding from a cut finger, made it rather obvious that something was amiss.  The German was not amused.  By now, we had been joined by a Frenchman who helped to haul the sorry dinghy and motor out of the water.  Then an Englishman arrived and the three men took off with the motor to try and rescue it using “man language” and leaving Carol (dripping) and me hovering.  There was no attempt to ask Carol if she was ok, the engine needed to be attended to.  We all breathed a sigh of relief as said engine sputtered back to life after major surgery, and smiles all round, and a few pats on the back, and I rather thought we might have been forgiven.

So back to the boat and Trish and Carol agree that Carol should use our meager water supply for a shower as the Eau de Canal Vosges was not too pleasant.  Carol then dashed off to get some decent wine from the shop to give to the German, by way of apology, along with her insurance details in case the engine suffered a relapse.

Next, the lovely Frenchman next door turns out to be a marine Engineer so he offers to have a look at the bow thrusters.  Trish now has a Frenchman in her bedroom although the oily overalls are perhaps not as romantic as one could wish.  He is delving into the bowels of the boat with Carol testing the engines.  On checking the manual it appears that the Frenchman knows whatn he is talkign about, and also knows how to contact the french suppliers. .  We are therefore staying put until Monday so that he can help us to sort this out and allow us to continue with confidence. 

We are all rather frazzled again so I am therefore “volunteered” to ride the collapsible bike,  down the road to the Intermarche, where a pizza van with a feu de bois pizza oven is awaiting our order.  I park my collapsible rather nonchalantly in its semi collapsed position.  This draws a crowd, there are clearly no collapsible bikes in Girancourt.  I am now the centre of attention so my pidgin French and my admission that it is pretty crap draws laughter and a crowd sourcing support system to order the pizzas and understand that it will be at least an hour before they are ready. Laughter and bon homie all round.     However, pizzas ordered, collected, eaten and all is well.

A day off tomorrow, and we might even go out for a bike ride.  The only obvious hazard is that this is Sunday, we are near the church, and Sam appears to like howling in unison with any bell ringing, so it may be rather noisy. 

Addendum

Well it seems our day was not quite over after all.  Not sure what was in the wine we drank but I woke at about 12.30 am absolutely convinced that we were floating down the canal in the dark having somehow slipped our mooring.  Not wanting to disturb anyone erroneously I even took the time to take a panicked trip up on deck to double check.  No, we were definitely in the middle of the canal and had water on both sides and seemed to be travelling at speed.  I rushed back below deck shouting to Carol that we were drifting down the canal and she emerged from her slumbers to tell me that this was impossible.  However, I was so insistent that Carol climbed out and took a look.  She then, much more politely than I deserved I think, told me I was not quite right in the head and got me to look out again.  It seems the rippling water I had seen was actually rippling long grass on shore to which we were still securely moored.  Doh!  Back to bed chastened and embarrassed

But the night was still young and a couple of hours later I awoke to hear Trish crashing past me on my sofa bad,  with Sam in tow.  She was muttering about needing to get on deck and then that she had forgotten her shoes and she would go back for them.  “Trish?” I said.  She stopped, looked at me and said “WHAT?”  then “Oh I thought I was wanted outside”  With that she promptly marched into her room and went back to sleep.  There was definitely something in the red wine last night.

From Port le Bains to Ecluse 9.

(Trish writing)

We know that today is going to be one that is full of locks, as we are rising quickly towards the top of the Canal de Vosges.  So after our wonderful meal, we agree to start early to make the most of the day.

The weather is chilly and dull with one shower to come, so we are wearing layers and fleeces.  This stretch is going to have a lock at least every kilometer and sometimes more (we actually do 21 locks in 18 kilometres).  So Val and I are going to be on duty almost permanently with no coffee stops, no wees and no chance for me to make the soup which they all seem to like so much.  Carol graciously agrees that we can stop when we find a mooring which will take the boat (depth is always a problem for the Wild Bird).   Lunch calls!

This is a good move, as we are able to fill up and feel a bit more energized for the long afternoon to come. 

Little did we know how long it would be!  One lock after another until we glazed into a trancelike state, with all of us saying, “so, what number was that then, how many more to go”?

By now we are a really slick team and Carol takes the opportunity to ask Val to take the wheel while she has a much deserved pee.  Unfortunately, I am unaware that she has left the helm and when I see a barge coming out of the lock only a few metres ahead, and Val behind the wheel, I go into survival mode.  I send clear instructions below, “Don’t flush, don’t flush Carol, get up here immediately there is a boat coming”  (Readers need to be aware, that on the boat, a flush takes a long time with lots of pumping).   Val is still offended that I did not trust her to hold the fort until Carol had finished in a leisurely and ladylike way.   Carol arrived, looking rather flushed, (sorry for the pun) and took the helm.

Another lock problem, but this time, we have no mobile phone signal and are outside the lock with nowhere to moor.  What to do?  Two blokes on bikes cycle past and stop at the lock, and we wave franticly and yell. Our French is as bad as their English, and they have no idea about canals, but we manage to get them to understand  that they can press the intercom and tell the control centre the lock is not working by saying “deux lumiere rouge” (canal speak for non operational). They kindly do this and even take the time to cylcle back down to tell us in person what is happening. Duly a  nice VNF man arrives and resets it. I have to say they seema jolly lot, the VNF guys...

We find out from the VNF man that we have to moor between locks 8 &  and wait for an itinerant lockkeeper as,  despite what it says in the guide, the locks from 8 to 3 are not automated.  We agree that we will be ready to leave at 9.00 am and the VNF man confirms that someone will be there for us to operate the lock gates manually.  We are on lock 13 (Ecluse Treize) so we continue to Lock 8 to be ready for the morning.

A bloody long day.. and when we arrive at the mooring, we are all exhausted, so we manage to eat and then collapse into bed .. still light, and still with birds singing.

Somewhere on the canal to Port le Bains

After yesterday's bad lock day, but a lovely isolated eveningsideways on in the canal, today is a significant improvement. Definitley a “good lock”  day, going through woodlands and serene countryside.

Carol’s Canny canal crew perform faultlessly, and all locks go smoothly… on our part, at least.  We’ve got our act together and are sussing out the Vosges locks which are all built on the same formula, with bollards roughly in the same places (though sometimes more user friendly shapes than others!). Some are a tad tall but some manoeuvering backwards and forwards and the deft boathook wrist flick (perfected by Trish) gets the ropes in place. Trish activates the blue pole (video to follow) and up we go.

Of course our growing competence at lock procedures  does not always mean that the locks respond in turn.  At the lock at Fontenay le Chateau, we approach, use the zapper as normal.. red and green light comes up.. approach slowly… and suddenly the lights turn to red.  We are in a narrow channel with stone walls on either side, but the depth is Ok, so we drift sideways onto a wall, and Val “volunteers” to  go and see what to do. Simple..  approach the three older men on the side of the lock using her very best French.  Hurray!  She’s speaking to the mayor and now we have some action. We learn how to use the intercom, and shortly a nice VNF man turns up in his van to reset the lock.    The locks opens and to our surprise, out comes a  ****** huge barge!  Trish  starts hopping  from one foot to the other, but I say.. we’ll fit.. and we do.

In the process a lovely English guy, who lives here, had told us that it was a public holiday.. Bugger!  We had intended to go shopping for beaucoup provisions…  but he tells us that the boulangerie may well still be open, and may sell slightly more than just bread.  Val  “volunteers” again.. and shoots off with a Bag, returning with basics (bread, wine, crisps, beer and milk). That will do!

We continue onwards.. next lock..  all goes well on entry, but once we are moored up, Trish lifts the blue rod and ….nothing happens.. Rien, pas de tout…..  we try again. Val tries, then I try….  Bloody nothing!  This Is  a bit disturbing.  Nobody is around, the lock is not manned, so guess who had to climb up from the bowels of the lock on the slippery and slimey ladders. Yes, you guessed Val “volunteers” again. Meanwhile Trish has decided to sunbathe….in her fleece.

 Cue the lovely Eric from Belgium who strides in to help (and tells us that the restaurant at our proposed mooring is great and run by Anne).  Despite his help, this time the intercom raises no response. So we decide that this needs a telephone call to the emergency number.  After a quick practice. I ring .. and our  VNF hero arrives again. I wonder what he is thinking. Two locks in succession failed with a Wild Bird boat and three women.

He pushes some buttons and we are off.

We have no further hitches and  have a great trip up to Port le Bains, where we moor on a new pontoon.. so new there are no cleats, and have to jump over to the bank, but we cope. The restaurant close by is indeed run by Anne and looks fab, so we decide to have our first meal out. 

A lovely afternoon walk, in which Bliss perfects her canal jumping skills, and also posing in the flowers.

 

Anne's meal is indeed excellent, so all is right with the world.

 

Early morning in the Vosges

We've got up early, just in case there is any commercial traffic.. ...it can start on the canals at 7am, wheras we have to wait till 9am. As we are currently sideways across the canal, and blocking it, we have to be ready to move at short notice. Still, getting up early has its compensations.. its a glorious morning - still and sunny with a mist coming off the canal.. and, yes, a frost.

 

We may be slow starting.. after the trials of last night, the other morning view is this one...

 

From the Petit Soane into the Canal de Vosges (...Val writes)

 Well, we didn’t make the flicks via the laptop after all last night.We were all far too tired, so we ate moussaka and salad, drank some wine and went to bed early.

Although that wonderful weatherman had made it quite clear it would be cold, we didn’t really believe him, or at least I didn’t until I woke at 5.00 a.m. absolutely freezing cold. Brrrr, and it didn’t get any warmer so by 6.45 I was up and reading my book. Trish and Carol joined me at 7.00 and we decided porridge was the only option to warm us up! As we were not hooked up to power and water, we all agreed we would remain unwashed together and get on with the day.

Post-porridge Carol checked the weather again, still cold, and by now raining too. Dogs had a quick walk and then we all layered up with as many clothes as we could find, including hats coats, gloves and scarves, (the continent is not all its cracked up to be on the weather front you know!) and we were ready to leave our lovely peaceful mooring in the middle of nowhere.

Carol warned us that this would be a busy day, and boy was she right! First lock up went like a dream, and we were in and out without a hitch, but then we approached the monster that will remain in Trish’s dreams for some time, (we are still feeding her Valium as I write). It was a deep lock and usually that had meant we had bollards inserted into the lock wall about half way up which we could reach easily with an option to raise the ropes to the top bollards as the boat rose in the lock, but on this lock there was no such luxury, and it was a case of reaching up high with a heavy rope on the end of the hooked poles and trying to lasso the bollards. Not easy when you are vertically challenged like me, and even less so when the blasted bollards are set back from the edge of lock. We just couldn’t see them and panic set in. Even worse than this, the bollards in this lock were spaced so far apart that we had to drive forward to hitch on the front and then run back to hitch on the back but we couldn’t reach it so we had to take a middle rope and hitch to the ladder in the centre. This left us far too close to the front gates and when the water gushed in pushed us into the turbulence which we had, until this lock, avoided. Inevitably the short middle rope (the one I was holding, was torn from my grip and I have rope burn to prove it and we slewed around and the front anchor drew sparks as it smashed into the lock wall. The back end then went the other way, and well, you have the picture and Carol was trying to keep the boat straight, the dogs calm and us functioning.

A pretty scarey experience but we decided that we would learn from it and try a different technique on the next one.

Today was the day we would leave the Saone river and move onto the Canal de Vosges so we knew there were changes afoot. On the Saone we had developed an easy routine (apart from the last lock!) and the locks were no longer phasing us, in fact we had become rather ‘nonchalont’ as the French might say, but Carol warned that the new system was likely to be challenging. We were all rather excited about the anticipated acquistion of a ‘zapper’ to notify the lock that we were arriving: this seemed preferable to having to hang over the side of the boat to grab and twist the cable hanging in the middle of the river, and we had a lovely lock keeper who explained it all to us very carefully in French before handing over this prized possession.

So we motored off into the sun, feeling rather good about the whole thing. It didn’t last……… but before the tale continues we had a stop off, called, technically a “rafting up” alongside Bob and Jackie, for whom we had brought engine parts all the way from the UK. After warm welcomes all round we handed over the “packages” and then “unrafted” (my term) and continued on our way.

Next lock up having had a crew conference, we decided that Val would be sent up the ladder to have someone up top to take the ropes and hook them on. Whilst I was happy to do this, it wasn’t as easy as it looked as the ladders were vertical, slimy and rather hazardous but I skipped up like an old gazelle and we gave it a go. Not a good plan! My language was ripe, Carol was very calm, at least on the outside, and Trish, who couldn’t hear a thing for the noise of the water gushing in looked about ready to pass out! We bashed both sides again and escaped feeling rather less than confident that we had this new system sussed.

But, onwards and upwards, as the saying goes. We reverted to the old system, calmed down, took our time and talked it through before entering the lock. After a couple of good experiences I found myself sipping my tea whilst holding the rope, a sure sign that nonchalance was returning.

Now, part of the lecture from our very nice French canal man who handed over the zapper included the information that the lock system closed at 6.00 pm, but we wanted to eat out, we thought we deserved it after the day we had, so we exceeded the speed limit (slightly) to try and reach the section with the restaurant……….

We failed by one lock and 5 minutes. So here we sit, having moored ourselves by hammering two metal mooring posts into the canal bank (Carol says she has never done this before but thinks its OK) which were placed by the old gazelle leaping off the front of the yacht onto the canal towpath.

We are blocking the whole canal, sideways on, because its too shallow at the edges to moor up properly, and we are hoping against hope, that there are no early commercial vessels coming through tomorrow morning, because right now, they can’t.

Carol is promising that tomorrow we really will have a short day because provisions are low………. is there anyone out there who has red wine nearby that could ship it in?

So, the Most Exotic Marigold Hotel, will have to wait another day, we are all zonked, but as I said earlier, if anyone out there has any red wine we would be most grateful to receive it.

Port sur Saone (PK 365.5) to Montureux-les-Bauley (PK384.5) (….Trish writes)

Carol informs us this morning that the weather forecast is iffy for the afternoon, with strong winds and possibly thunderstorms. But we could make some progress this morning. We are not that impressed with Port Sur Saone, so we decide that a short day is a good idea.

We are not convinced about Carol’s forecast, as the day dawns bright and clear, so I pop up in my shorts. Carol looks aghast, as she is wearing her thermals, socks and sheepskin slippers (again). But 10 minutes later, I decide that… maybe.. she’s not that stupid.  More clothes required!

Despite the fresh weather it’s a beautiful day and there is fabulous scenery as we motor northwards. Its more open, with lots of water meadows, abundant wild flowers, herds of Compte cows and the beginnings of hills.. just lovely.  The water is still and the reflections are fabulous. 

Even more fabulously, Carol suggests that if we had showers en route, the water would be really hot, and we could also have hot water later for washing up.  Bliss - that’s all I can say…lots of hot water and I can take my time while Carol and Val steer. Val draws the short straw, as when she goes for her shower, Carol suddenly realizes there is a “unexpected lock” shortly ahead.  She puts the boat into low gear and drifts, hoping Val will emerge, even if in the buff!

Val does emerge at the same time as a hailstorm hits. No time to dry her hair.. so its flat (again! …standing joke).  We don our waterproofs for the first time, and wait for the rain to pass, before going through the “unexpected” lock.

Carol suggests we moor up shortly after that, as the black clouds are looming.  Good job she does, because later that afternoon we get ferocious gusts and downpours.   A nice little pontoon .. all by ourselves in a rural setting.. and bizarrely a little tourist office just up from the pontoon, manned by a very nice person.. Who on earth was she serving? One visitor a day?

Carol didn’t get her shower, so we have suggested she eats upstairs while we eat downstairs!

Looking forward to a nice meal and “out” to the flicks, watching “The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel”

Savoyeux (PK 314)- Port-sur Saone (PK365.5) (…Carol writes)

Quite a contrast to yesterday.  Its dawns bright and sunny, and with little wind and soon warms up to the low 20s. A glorious cruising day.  The water is green and glowing, the trees are in the full flush of spring greenness and the water meadows each side of the Saone are just lovely.  We have the sprayhood down, and the shorts and t-shorts come out again.  All is right with the world!

Val and Trish are getting dab hands at the locks which we now whizz through with ease (video to follow). No sooner has Trish said that her only disappointment is that the locks are automated and there is nobody around selling things (which was her fantasy about canals), we meet a couple of lock keepers: at the first lock we are offered honey, wine, and various pates, and, later, we are offered “salade”.   When we agree to buy some salad, the very friendly lockkeeper rushes off to her garden and cuts us two lovely fresh lettuces.  These go down a treat with some French dressing for supper.

We arrive at our second tunnel  - the Tunnel de St Albin – just after the French lunchtime break and see a VNF van rushing down the canal road just ahead of us. Think he was sitting having a leisurely lunch waiting for the next boat to come along… (although Val speculated that he was visiting his lover)  We go straight in to the lock and straight into the tunnel.. no wait and he’s sold us some poulet pate as well so all are happy.  He is particularly impressed when he starts the polite conversation about where we are going and I respond England from the Med.  He was clearly impressed.  

The tunnel: brilliant!  Another atmospheric subterranean experience. 

This time, when we reach the planned destination at Port-sur-Saone, there is plenty of space, and it is deep enough, so we moor up and enjoy the warm afternoon sunshine.  I volunteer to cook the lamb on the BBQ and Trish and Val go off for a stroll to the supermarche, where (so Val reports) Trish causes complete chaos by trying to buy a bag with 1 cent pieces that she wants to loose out of the purse: sixty three of them.  

On the way to the supermarche they observe a  wide load with a police escort which turns out to be 3 wind turbine blades being taken through the town and causing the biggest traffic backlog in the history of the universe. The French definitely need to think about timing this: the rush hour traffic was clearly not happy.   These things are absolutely enormous and make you realize the power that they must provide

Later, a Leg of lamb on the BBQ, glass of wine in hand, a stroll through the plane trees along the canal, and generally chill.  A lovely day….

Auxonne (PK 233) to Savoyeux (approx PK 314) (…Carol writes)

Auxonne doesn’t fail to please.. A good (free) mooring (water and leccy optional for 1Eu for two hours access), admiring the beautiful restoration work on the cathedral, and a lovely walk round the city walls in the early morning, before a prompt start at 9am. I have planned a longish but do-able day up to Gray.. or that was the initial plan.  

Unlike yesterday, it dawns very cool and slightly cloudy, and Trish and Val soon abandon their shorts for warmer clothes.. and then even warmer clothes as we shiver up the canal. Quite a contrast to the 30C  of Friday and Saturday… probably nearer 10C with the wind chill, and 3C overnight according to the forecast. Brrrrrrrr! And it was particularly Brrrr for Val who had to get extra quilts out in the night because someone (???) had left the hatch open. Doh!   The great redeeming feature is that Trish saves the day by converting our salad lunch and pepper stuffing into fantastic mushroom and coriander soup.

 Sam decides that the engine is a creature from hell and pants his way anxiously up the river, with Trish also looking anxious as we get into our first lock with another boat. Sam escapes which adds to the tension, and it proves very difficult to reach the bollards.  Then to crown it all, the other boat full of Dutch men started the gates closing before we were ready.  Thank goodness this wasn’t our first lock!

  Things are looking up several locks later, all of which go without mishap. Sam settles down (and so did Trish after several glasses of red wine- later in the day of course!)., and we arrive in Gray with the weather improving. Good news.. plenty of space on the moorings on the left bank which we had planned to use.  Bad news… the maximum depth was 1m.  Oh no!  That is no good for Wild Bird.

After a bit of conflab we decide to carry on northwards and pick up a pontoon near Rigny.  Unfortunately someone else has had the same idea, and there is only space for 1 boat…  …and its taken.  No option but to carry on.

This part of the Petite Saone is very rural, and studying the pilot reveals nothing until after the  “Souterrain de Savoyeux”.. …our first tunnel. Tunnels on the canals only operate during French “opening hours”.. which in this case means until 7pm.  Scratching of head… if we step on the gas and are slick through the two locks we can make it.  The crew agree to give it a go.

I confess that we almost end up anchoring unexpectedly as I mistake the pilot book and temporarily get stuck in the mud… ooops!  A quick application of a strong burst of reverse gear gets us off the mudbank and I give a sigh of relief.  And the canal angels are smiling on us as both locks are in our favour… and we get to the lock before the tunnel at 6.50pm. The guy there is very friendly, and lets us in and tells us we are the last boat of the day. Phew! WE’VE MADE IT.

The tunnel – as its our first one - is very exciting. Lots of piccys and Val makes a video (it will be posted later once we find a new cable to connect her iphone to my computer). It proves easier than I think I expected, and we cruise silently through the orange lit subterranean space, emerging in Savoyeux unscathed.

 

 

 

 

 

And –yippee – there is a very convenient space on the outside pontoon, which a marina person waves us into.  This is a new experience for Trish and Val, but after another tutorial we succeeded in leaping gracelessly from the boat )or at least Val did, Trish, because of her knees had to be hauled unceremoniously through the netting and posted over the side, but we got there!

We are all knackered after travelling so far—three hours beyond Gray, it turns out, and after Trish’s stuffed peppers, collapse into bed.  Today was the day for Trish to be Cinderella and she did us proud in the galley (partly as therapy!). We may put her there again tomorrow we think.

Carol's canny canal cruises! Day 1 (Val)

The first day of our adventure, rather unfortunately, is  cooler than yesterday -  when it was 30C.   In fact, if we are honest, its bloody freezing. Trish says -20C but actually probably about 15C, and we have had to abandon our strappy tops and  go back to winter fleeces and of course Carol has had to wear her slippers again.  Cold weather causes procrastination so we didn’t actually leave until after lunch when the weather man said it would be warmer.  And, guess what -  he was right!

Training. This was conducted seriously because Carol was relying on us to crew properly and we were very concerned to take on board all the things we needed to do to keep the boat safe and be able to get us through the 200-300 locks coming up over the next few weeks.

Writing this tonight, Carol has just admitted that the cautious, but seemingly confident exit from the marina was actually conducted with fear and trepidation as she had actually grounded 4 times on the way in and was  terrified of doing the same thing on the way out with 2 rookies and no marina staff to come to rescue! 

It was in some ways a blessing to leave the marina, having been serenaded by the mating frogs and copulating carp [they weren’t singing, but they did do a lot of splashing about)

Once out into the river Captain Carol sighed a huge sigh of relief and we managed to exit without hitting any of the large logs and flotsam which was all over the river after the heavy rain and flooding, nor hitting the bottom. 

So out on the river, free and easy. We thought it was great fun until Carol said, “Right now, Val, you can have a go at steering!”  A 40ft yacht, in Val’s hands?  But Carol was very patient and all seemed well, it was going in the right direction and confidence grew until she introduced the dials with the depth monitor accompanied by an instruction along the lines of, “it will be fine unless it goes under 1 metre”!  Which it did, almost immediately.  The accompanying the rather unattractive photograph taken in an off moment by Trish, shows the level of concentration required, and the flat hair. Fortunately it got worse, Trish took over but we still didn’t crash and Carol still seemed incredibly calm!

We had a relaxed an uneventful 10 miles on the Saone enjoying the fabulous scenery, green and lush and the every bluer sky and sunshine.  However, we knew something big was coming up when Carol started to get prepared, check the chart and ask us to look out for the lock.  We had a quick run through our rope training for the lock and took up our positions.   Its not the easiest thing in the world the first time but once we saw the automatic lock gates opening we were off and it all ran seamlessly as planned! 


No, we can’t believe it either!    Its not like the UK, no spanners, no frantic winding up and down, the automation is fantastic so its all just like magic.  Apparently it will get even better soon, and we will have a zapper to do it for us, but unfortunately we won’t be able to get Coronation Street (Trish) with this zapper!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here we sit in Auxonne, the wonderful Vaubin walls; the place where Napoleon studied maths at the Artillery School (monument in the square is huge), with a glass of wine in hand (the 10^th for Trish I think)
and Val has had to do all the cooking this evening so she is very very tired.  Could anyone come and fetch Cinderella, she is throwing her rattle out of the boat? ("Val”)

“We thought it was fantastic” (Trish & Carol)

More reunions

More old friends....

Vic and Christine arrive in Tranquil Bay whilst we're there. Its great to meet Vic at last.. he's stayed on my boat when I've not been there and I've heard so much about him from Susie, John and Lynda. And here he is in the flesh, with Christine.

We have a great evening with them on Saturday, and they return the compliment last night.    Its a shame they are off to Zakinthos today, but no doubt we will catch up in a few weeks, and maybe even play "Vic's game"....

Jasmine again

Friends old and new

As the season goes on and more and more boats arrive here, its fun to catch up with people.. and this week has been a particularly good one. There are friends we've made here,who we often meet (usually in Porto bar, Vliho yacht club, or for an arranged beach barbie), old friends who are just arriving, not to mention friends of friends and people who know us through the internet.

Earlier this week we meet Stuart Carter - a Lancastrian, who, drawn by my Lancashire flag, comes over to say hello.  It turns out he's  a lifelong friend  of my brothers (plural). He's closely followed by Curly Sue, "met" through ybw: "you must be Carolwildbird!".  We catch up via email with someone we first met in Brittany who is now in Preveza, and later in the week with Neil and Cathy, who we last saw at a ybw get together in Plymouth, and who are now in Paxos en route to Lefkas..

We're sitting in Vathi when we get a text from Bill and Lynn, first met in Almerimar, and last seen in Paxos en route to Crete, who want to know where we are.  We're in Vathi, I text back. It turns out they are in Astokos.. a mere 90 minutes away.. so they sail over and come and spend the night with us in Vathi.  Its good to catch up and gossip about life the universe and everything, and what's been happening in our respective worlds. 

Bill and Lynn decide to come up to Nidri with us, as I offer a mercy mission  up to Lefkas in the car to get them a new sail batten.   

A shopping trip or three later...   not to mention lots of booze (well for Bill at least).. quite a good reunion.