Barge Date:  29-06-2017

Further south on the Canal St. Quentin

We continue south through the canal and pass a number of small villages. In some cases, we want to stop and explore but there is no easy mooring site. We are looking for interesting villages that might have a grocery store and a place to eat, but for the most part we are disappointed. Many of these villages are now commuter towns and they don't even have a bread store.

We are able to moor at a lock that will give us access to an old abbey. We tie up and walk to the

abbey and we are the first visitors for the day. The abbey of Vaucelles goes back to the 12th century

(1145). It was abandoned by the Cistercian monks after the French revolution and fell into disrepair. Fortunately restoration work started in 1971; the abbey features beautiful fruit and flower gardens and offers a location for events. The abbey had a library in 1760 of 40,000 volumes and manuscripts. During the revolution all the books were transferred to Cambrai for safe keeping.    All were destroyed by the 2 world wars.

The countryside that we are passing through next is gently rolling hills but normally decorated with wheat and potato plantings. This time of year, it is a pleasant sight. I am surprised at the large size of

the fields thinking that in Europe these would be smaller. It is these hills that will necessitate our travel through a very long tunnel (over 5 kms long!) that is coming up soon. We can view the area with Google Earth but it does not tell you the elevation contours so the picture looks rather flat when in fact there is a large obstruction for a canal which necessitates tunnels.

Along the way, we have to turn in our lock control and receive another type. It is much larger and you would think it would be more sophisticated.  Maybe. It occasionally "talks" to us. Regardless, it works well for us but does fail once; a lock door fails to close as we are tied up inside the lock.  We try the interphone above the lock (no answer), the phone number we have listed in a book (no answer), and finally the main number for lock programming. Eventually, someone shows up to get the lock working (took 15 minutes).

We have been given a phone number to arrange our transit through the tunnels as these are one-way-traffic-only areas and you must depart with a group of boats going in the same direction. Our transit will be around 9:30 the following morning, we hope. Marianne makes the call but has to leave a message and we do not receive a confirming call. So we are up early the next day to travel through several more locks to arrive at the assembly area.

In front of us are two commercial barges (one loaded, one not) and a cruiser boat from Holland. The captain is German and his two crew are Americans from California. We will meet with them later in the day.

Travel through the tunnel is done with the use of a tug. Through the tunnel, a heavy chain has been laid on the bottom of the canal and the tug uses the chain to pull itself forward. Everyone ties up to the boat in front of them.  We are last so nothing on our stern.  When all preparations are made ready, the tug powers up and we begin the process. There has been almost no instruction for this process but it turns out to be easy.

The total time through the tunnel is two hours; 5,670 meters (3.5 miles). All engines are off and there is little noise in the tunnel. The tunnel lights create a white line through the middle of the water and it makes it appear we are on a roadway. One must still steer the boat but there are some instances when you can take your hands off and everybody is going straight. But this does not last long. Pay attention and don't drag your boat on the wall. As we progress slowly, the temperature cools down.

The tunnel goes back to the days of Napoleon.  He dedicated the tunnel but then thought someone was attempting to kill him so he ran his horse through the entire length to "get away."  Original power was human; 6-8 people pulling.  The trip took about 18 hours.  Then they tried horses, various engines, electric and now the tug that might be diesel.

As we exit, our rope is cast off from the boat in front of us, we retrieve it and begin the travel to the next small tunnel (1,097 meters). All of this area is one-way traffic and we are not able to stop because there will not be room for boats coming in the opposite direction in an hour or so.

The next tunnel has no tug so we power through with our engine. It is much shorter and does not present any problems for us. The one-way condition continues for a short time and we begin to look for a town where we can pull over and hopefully purchase groceries as we are running low on food. We make our stop at a small town (Lesdins) where the Dutch boat has also pulled over and tied up.

We explore the town a bit and find a few stores open and are able to buy some meat and groceries. We see the American couple touring the town on their bikes and when we all return to our boats we invite them to our boat for some refreshments and conversation.

Norbert is German, an engineer, married to a Dutch lady and they live in Holland. He taught engineering for most of his professional life and is now retired. Mike and Christina are from the San Francisco area and have done a lot of sailing in their time. They have been on boats all around the world and are enjoying their retirement. Mike is a physician and Stephanie has had her own businesses dealing with food and wine and she has also worked at a culinary school. We have a fun time talking about anything that comes to mind. They depart early in the morning and we may see them again or we may not. They are traveling to Paris where Mike and Christina will depart and Norbert's wife will arrive from Holland.

Our next destination is the city of St Quentin. We know there is a marina in town but it does not offer

much in the way of services so I elect to drive our stakes into the ground near a bridge that connects the two parts of the city. We locate a grocery store and restock our pantry. We will be here for several days to explore and do other things.

Barge Date: 25-06-2017

Moving on


All this waiting for the residence permit makes me forget to do the blog. So let me catch up as fast as I can.

I have been able to work on the mast, it has a number of coats of varnish and I was anxious to get it vertical. So I attached the hardware, got the flags out and we're looking really good.

In the early hours of a previous evening, a Dutch boat approached us at the Ath marina, looked to be passing by and then slowed down and called out "Is this Rouge Corsair?". Our barge has distinctive colors and it is not easy to forget so we think this is someone that knew the previous owners. As it turns out, the Dutch couple on this boat had looked and almost purchased our barge last year, just before we did. "Oh, so you are the 'Dutch couple' we had heard of", we say. Small world. They choose to tie up with us and in fact we spend the next several days with them or traveling with them. They are Guust and Ria from Holland in their new steel cruiser.

We finally see the captain of the marina and he arranges to turn the water on for us. There was good pressure so I used the opportunity to hose down the boat. We then filled the new water tanks underneath our bed for the first time. Everything is looking good and dry. This was not the case when I attempted to install and add water a number of weeks ago.

We have been out walking the town any number of times and I think we have seen everything but spied a two wheeled cart for groceries in a store and purchased same. We saw that Barrie had a cart  and with that you are able to load up heavy items that you would not want to carry. A useful addition to the boat. We are going to be leaving Ath and Silk Purse so invite Barry to dinner at a nice restaurant on the Square. He and Carol have been a great help to us and getting our project off the ground. They will be staying mostly in Belgium this year while we are headed south to France.

We leave Ath with Guust and Ria and share the same locks going up the hill to Ladeuze. We both tie up and get settled in. The next day we all want to do the remaining 14 locks back down the other side of the hill. We both agree to moor at the marina in Peruwelz. But when we arrive there is disappointment. The restaurant is closed and the space for the Dutch boat is not as promised. They moor at a different marina just a short walk west.

The following day, Guust and Ria want to be bold and make a long run to the next town south into France, Valenciennes. We tell them that we will go a little slower and will take 2 days. We both leave the following morning with them ahead of us by about an hour. But we quickly catch up because the next lock on this waterway is for some reason closed this Sunday (Guust let us know by phone). Some say it is low-water but we really don't know. We have to tie up in a precarious location at this lock and receive some good assistance from Guust and Ria. They host us for an afternoon snack in the shade.

The Dutch want to stay a full day at the lock but we elect to pass through Monday morning, wanting to head into France for the first time. We have no destination in mind for today but in fact we end up quite a ways into France, all the way to Valenciennes.

And of course along the way we had some excitement. Two times we nearly were hung up. The first is at a lock. We are hovering to wait our turn in the lock and the boat is about 12 feet from a steel wall. Nothing to indicate that this should be a problem as it is very near the lock and where you would typically tie up to wait. But, as I am leaving to enter the lock I can hear what is most likely stones hitting the bottom of the boat. From here on out it is my mistake; instead of adding thrust I should have just coasted off this area. When you accelerate, the stern drops into the water and in this case, I drop the rear end into junk and when I hear the noise, I add further thrust thinking I need to get the boat off whatever it is on. I should've just coasted.

The second near grounding occurred further up the canal. We saw an interesting church steeple and it happened that there was a nicely painted ladder at the canal so I turned the boat around and was preparing to bring it alongside the ladder. As I approach parallel with the wall, the boat begins to tip to port. This shouldn't be happening. There is no noise so I think I am on dirt but I don't want to stay here any more so I am able to drive it forward and off the dirt and bank. So much for an interesting church steeple. And I may be gun shy now for what lies under the water near a nicely painted ladder

We stop for the night in Valenciennes, a nice French city but with a lot of car traffic. We were hoping for a good mooring site but finding none, we finally pulled alongside a wall and I drive in long spikes to secure the boat. We are, unfortunately, on a busy waterway and when commercial barges pass, we move quite a bit but are secure to the wall and have good fenders on the boat. We passed through many locks today and traveled for nearly 10 hours. Not what we intended to do this morning.

We take a short walk this evening which turns out to be a long walk. We started out in a direction where we thought we would find stores but that was not the case. So using the phone and Google Maps we navigate to the center of town. It has been damn hot here in Europe for the last two weeks and the only thing that is saving us is ice cream.

From Marianne: In Valenciennes we eat our first buckwheat crepes in a small restaurant near the tourism office. We find the one church (Notre Dame) which has a beautiful steeple but the church itself is not accessible, completely fenced in and surrounded by scaffolding. We walk to the parc de Rhonelle, a nice peaceful area where you can watch ducks swimming in a pond. A mother duck is constantly calling to her ducklings who follow her, more or less, some from quite a distance. Large fish are seen lurking just below the surface.

When we return to the boat we quickly discover that both toilets are on the fritz. They will not take in water from the canal. Since they both share the same intake line, I assume that I have something in the line where it enters the boat. So with tools in hand, I remove the wall to get access to the inlet and with the use of a heavy wire, I am able to clear the inlet pipe. The culprit, just a lot of seed pods accumulating on the water between the boat and the wall. I think I am ready for the next toilet escapade. I am an expert now.

We are moving along and our next segment of travel will take us to Cambrai. This segment of the trip allows us to begin using some canal technology. We come to the first (dual) lock that is automated. Here's how it works: We are given a clicker (actually vended out of a machine) that we will use to tell the lock that we approach what to do. Basically, you announce your arrival at the lock by pushing a

button on the clicker; it knows which side of the lock you are on and whether you need to go up or down. You know you have the system's attention when the lights at the lock change from red to red and green, meaning get ready. Sometimes this takes several clickings on our part. We are going uphill in this segment and we can see the water in the lock being dumped so we can enter. One must be prepared in these locks because there is no human intervention. The water can come in quickly and you must be securely tied. In our case, we choose to tie just the bow of the boat and will use the engine and prop to push the boat against the line which will cause the boat to be parallel with the lock wall. It works real well. Once you are tied up, you push another button, the doors behind you close,  and the water is released into the lock, you rise up, and when the system senses that you are at the correct level, the water stops and the exit doors open.

We arrive in Cambrai and tie up to stakes just beyond the lock and just at the entrance to the marina. We have gotten into the habit of keeping some stakes and sledge hammer on deck for when you need to make excursions ashore.  You never want to enter something like this marina without knowing if you can get out. So with some quick stake driving and rope tying we jump off the boat to examine the marina. We are able to flag down a gentleman who has a boat there and, as it turns out, John and Carol are from the UK and happy to help us. The two of them actually live on their boat here in the marina and have been doing so for many years. So we get back on our barge, enter the marina, and with their help we  secure the boat to a stone wall. There should be no trouble exiting when we want to.

We immediately begin to explore the city and will be doing so for the next three days. Again, it is hot and ice cream comes to the rescue (if you get sick of me talking about ice cream, let me know). The walk to the center of town is a push and we will be doing this maybe five times. The town is nice but

Another gun store in, ah yea, France.

nothing special in my mind. There are things to do and we do them and get a sense of the lay of the town. The city has long deep roots and is mentioned already in the 3rd century.

During our stay, we are joined on the boat by a new Belgian friend that we spoke about in a previous post. Sihame has traveled from Belgium to Cambrai to spend a day or two on the boat with us. She is full of energy and stories and she enjoys speaking English as this helps her in her work as a teacher for young students in an immersion program. We have some things planned and we take her into town to explore the fortified caves underneath the old citadel. The program was interesting but all you saw was an arched walkway underground. The citadel and these tunnels were part of the work of Charles V, a local land baron (emperor, actually, of Spain, the Netherlands and a few other holdings), circa 1540. He imported Italians to do all the stonework as they were experts in building fortified tunnels at that time. This allowed the town to hold off 4 out of 5 invaders but finally Louis XIV made a siege on the town and for some reason was able to force a surrender after just two weeks. There is about 13 km worth of tunnels to explore; they hope to open up more of this area for people to see how the citadel was defended.

Marianne has found a store that sells used DVDs and she purchases 10 for the boat. Always looking for a bargain. In the evening, we take Sihame to dinner but first we look over a nearby festival being held by the local Portuguese community. They have a big party once a year and are barbecuing, among other things, sardines. It smells really good. But we choose to go to a nearby French restaurant, Le Petit Chef, which we are told is very good and that is in fact true.

The next day, after checking out a market held next to the marina, Sihame departs around lunchtime

and we prepare the boat to travel further south. Our goal is to pass eight locks and tie up somewhere. And we do. We are still using the clicker and it is working well with all the locks we have come to today. So here we are, tied up, in a remote area with just bikers and walkers using the towpath. Using this time to catch up on this blog. Going forward, I hope to stay more current with my postings.



Soon to come:  a 5km long tunnel.  Should be fun.


Don't forget Marianne's Facebook page about this trip. Search Facebook for Barge Adventure.

Barge Date: 13-06-2017

Tournai, Belgium

Killing time waiting for the resident permit so we took a train to Tournai to visit.  I had been there several times and passed through on the barge once but never had the time to look around much.

So here are some pictures and some comments.

 

Only in America.  Oops, sorry, wrong country.

Guns and ice cream. A good combination. Can't remember what Marianne ate.

Barge Date:  12-06-2017

Ath, Belgium

The morning, after our chocolate mousse affair, both the Dutch boat Le Marron and Lionel d'Antan are prepared to depart. We are going in opposite directions. Silk Purse is again confounded by the winds and chooses to stay moored. Their type of boat, a Dutch Tjalk, is very sensitive to the winds so Barrie, the captain, has to be cautious. They will come the next day, or perhaps not. Carole needs to catch a train in Ath and will have to get there one way or another.

This next section of the canal going to Ath will all be in locks that lower us. This means we can enter the lock, drop an end loop of rope over a bollard at both ends to secure ourselves and watch the water drop. When you are lowered in a lock, there is concern about ropes catching on the concrete or in a large crack. It is not unheard of for a boat to hang up on a rope and have to cut the rope in order to release the boat. This is why all boats have sharp cutting tools readily available to cut away the rope in this type of emergency. Because the drop in these locks is not great, we choose to put an end loop over the bollard so that there is just the one line to deal with both at the fore and aft of the boat. This method does not allow for a rope to be hung up.

In locks with drops greater than, let's say 3 meters, the method of securing the boat has one rope looped around the lock bollard with then 2 ends coming down from the bollard which you have to use to secure the boat. One end is locked to a boat bollard and the other end is let out as you drop. If all goes well and you get to the bottom of the drop you can simply pull one end of the rope and it will go around the lock bollard and drop down to you. But I think you can see what happens if one of those lines gets caught in a crack. With the end of the line secured to the boat bollard then you are going to be hung up. We hear stories about this but I think it does not happen often. Pay attention.

During our trip to Ath, we managed to upset several fishermen who objected to our loitering as we were waiting for a bridge to open, or perhaps it was the smoke of our diesel engine. Marianne tried to explain to them and apologized. She chose not to translate their swearing and irate replies.

From Marianne: Tim would like to say that our trip that morning was uneventful but that was not exactly the case. The weather as we approached each lock varied between sun and blue skies, and pelting rain, strong winds and threatening dark clouds. As we approach a lock, I have to walk to the front of the boat and be ready with hook and rope to reach for a bollard. I made sure to walk carefully

because it can get slippery in case of rain. We had 6 locks and quite a few bridges to get through. At one lock, the wind was strong and there was no protection from trees, only open fields. Pushed hard by the winds, Lionel d'Antan banged into the lock wall on the port side and then a little on the starboard side. Made me wonder whether we should have stayed one more day in Ladeuze. At one point, the wind picked up again and the arm on our hoist at the front of the boat pointed to starboard. Tim asked me to go and straighten it. I had done this once before with no problem. This time, it is raining again and, because of the wind, the arm on the hoist won't stay put. In fact, it starts rotating like a crazed windmill. It should have been secured with a rope before departure (I will reflect later) but neither one of us thought of it. I try to figure how to attach the arm to a rope but I cannot reach the metal loops at the top of the arm, so I hang onto the hoist arm as the wind tries to make it turn. And we are getting close to a lock.

Finally I have to let go of the hoist to concentrate on placing my loop onto a bollard in the lock, which is what needs to be done first before Tim can throw his loop at the back of the boat. Once Tim is done with this, he comes over and attaches a rope to one of the metal hoops high up on the renegade hoist. Finally! 

I have several opportunities to learn how to flip a rope loop off a bollard that is 6 to 9 feet above you. It takes some practice. I manage it once eventually, by standing further away on the boat but in a direct line, letting the rope slacken quite a bit, and then swinging it from the side.
Through the last bridge and we can see the wall that we need to tie up to. This was a piece of cake and we managed to be near an electric outlet as well.

The town of Ath has approximately 26,000 residents. The town has the typical layout that you expect

in Europe; streets going in all directions and a central square that serves as the nexus for what goes on in town. We frequent the square as it has a good number of eating establishments with chairs and tables outside in the sunny weather.

The city is one of several towns around the world that have a festival of giants. The characters, made of paper mache, wicker and fabric, cavort   in the streets during the festival. There are a number of other towns in southern Belgium and northern France that have giant festivals as well as towns in Portugal, Haiti, and Senegal. These festivals of giants go back many centuries and in the case of Ath, to 1481 and earlier. Originally, there was a religious connection but since 1819 it has been centered around tradition and Belgian nationalism.  We visit the museum for the Giants and see how the costumes are built and carried.

The weather has still been too windy for Silk Purse, so Barrie and Carole take a bus into Ath so Carole can catch a train to Brussels and then the Eurostar to the UK where she will house and dog sit for several days. The following day, after a stormy night, I bike up the hill to Silk Purse to help Barrie bring her down without Carole. This is my first opportunity to be at the front of a boat and be

responsible for setting the forward line. Silk Purse sits very high in the water and this makes the work easy. The only problem is the rain; I got very wet halfway through the bike ride and it is somewhat damp on the trip down to Ath.

Back in Antoing, we purchased wood for a mast. Now I have the time to get it ready. I first travel to a home supply store, something like Lowe's or Home Depot, and purchase needed supplies such as varnish, brushes and some hardware pieces that will be used to hang flags. I bike out of town to the store and it only takes about 15 minutes to get there. With the supplies on hand, I am able to route some edges on the mast and begin to put a number of coats of varnish on the wood. We should have it mounted and stepped in the next couple of days. Pictures to follow.

We have been in town for several days and it is not our want to stay here too long but we are loitering

Click to enlarge

in the hopes that the city people back in Brussels will move quickly regarding my permis de sejour (staying permit). It does not seem like they are in a hurry so we are making plans to leave at the end of this week. We don't have any specific destination in mind, so we are picking a city to head towards and are using our navigation system to select the best route to it. The town is Saint-Valery-sur-Somme, France, which is on the Atlantic Ocean. Here is

a picture of the route as presented by the navigation software as well as a summary of what we will be encountering. Of course every plan changes as soon as you leave the dock. We have no reason to rush during the trip and we don't have any ETA to be concerned with. It would be nice if we could wrap up this permit thing before we leave but I am not holding my breath.

Barge Date: 06-06-2017

The Blaton-Ath Canal and learning the ropes

Our next stop is the town of Beloeil. Marianne visited this small town and its castle when she was just a young girl. The owners of this castle are cousins of the owners of the castle in Antoing. I guess money runs in the family. In order to get to this town, we will travel down the large commercial waterway and turn north into the Blaton-Ath canal. This is a small canal that has a good number of locks and today we will be passing through 10 of them. Quite the introduction to canal travel for Marianne.

As we make our turn into the canal, Marianne uses the radio to contact the canal workers. For this canal we get 2 employees that will follow us through most of today's locks and bridges. For the most part, these locks are manually operated. This means that the workers are cranking and turning to get the doors of the lock open and to operate the flow of water. I am told that there are up to three teams working this canal. As they finish with one lock they race ahead (or catch up) on a motorbike and a car to prepare for our entry into the next lock. Seems to work very well.

As we approach the first lock, we note that there is a rental boat already in and forward of us. My job

is to enter safely and not to crush the other boat. We do this just fine with the help of the lock workers. But as we leave the lock we are instructed to pull ahead so that we are the first boat to enter the following locks. This is fine with me as I think it is safer.

We successfully handle the following locks and at about 12:30 we are told it is lunchtime and the workers will be absent for 30 to 45 minutes. So we use this time to eat our lunch as well.

The workers return and we proceed up through the canal locks. All the locks are lift locks till we get to number 11 where the next 10 locks will lower us off the hill to Ath. We want to tie up in the town of Beloeil but we are not sure what facilities will be there. A new team of workers are now with us (they are slower than the first team and not as helpful) and as we pass through a lift bridge and Marianne asks where we can moor, we are told that we can tie up anywhere but that most boats moor on the starboard side where it is shady; however it is totally brush and trees on that side, and nowhere to get off, so we decide to use the port side, the towpath side.

As we proceed forward and get closer to the next lock, we realize there is nothing to tie the boat to on this side either, although our book indicated a pontoon. We were not ready for this as we need to have stakes ready to pound in the ground and they are forward in the hold and not quickly available. We are getting close to the lock with the rental boat right behind us. We do some

scrambling, Tim jumping off the boat and asking Marianne to quickly go to the back, coil the ropes and throw them to him. Marianne finds that the ropes are heavier than she thought and they end up in the water; she retrieves them and tries again with the same results (note from Marianne: wet ropes are even heavier). At this point the boat is drifting further away from shore. Tim rushes back to the front and manages to jump aboard. Fortunately at this point, the lock keepers are walking on the path to open the lock for the rental boat (hovering behind our drifting boat) and with their help we get the boat secure and pound in 5 stakes. We tie up and take a breather.

We review the trip and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. This size of canal will be very

typical of the waters we will see in France which we hope to visit very soon. But for now we walk off to the town in search of ice cream. The castle has a nice restaurant and we go there and get a little refreshment.

We return to the boat, check that the lines are still secure, and have a slow evening meal and rest up.

There is no boat traffic at all on this canal. Other than the rental boat, we have seen no one else. Tomorrow while we are at the castle, the Silk Purse will pass by and they intend to moor several kilometers north. I wonder if there is more traffic during the summer months.

The next day, the sun comes out early and we are off to visit the castle. Just a short note about Belgian weather: The last week and a half has been nearly perfect. Might I say just a bit too hot. This is very unusual for this portion of Europe but we are not complaining. There has been very little rain this spring in Europe and we are hearing reports that some canals do not have enough water. For the time being, this is not a concern for us.

The castle is quite impressive. There are moats around the buildings, and green gardens

extending out into the countryside. Quite large. In the castle, there are many large rooms adorned with many portraits. Not all are family members of the owners but rather people they have met over the hundreds of years of occupation in this castle. We see a good number of fancy gifts that the czar of Russia or Marie Antoinette has given family members, for example.

The library in the castle is quite exquisite. Thousands of books, many with gold leaf and leather covers. I wonder if these have been with the family for hundreds of years or rather if they have been

purchased to line the shelves. We see a lot of the classics and other rather mundane titles as well.

We are taken out onto the grounds of the castle on a wagon pulled by a diesel tractor. At the far end of the lake we jump off and walk back examining the various plantings along the way. Not a lot of flower gardens but rather sections done up with trees, border plants, and ponds. A lot to take care of and a lot of trimming to be done but we saw no one at these tasks.

On exiting the castle we had to stop once again for some ice cream.

At the entrance to the castle grounds, there is a small business selling oil paintings. We make a visit and Marianne asks if the man has any paintings by her family members. At this time no, he says, but he has sold some in the past and certainly knows the name.

Back at the boat we see that the Silk Purse has stopped for a brief visit and has left her calling card. I take my bike and travel down the towpath to their boat for a visit. Tomorrow we will travel to this location as the Silk Purse makes its way to the town of Ath.

But the next morning we learn that the Silk Purse does not want to travel because of higher winds. So we move up the canal and moor just in front of them. Later in the day, a smaller cruiser, Le Marron,  comes through the lock and ties up for the evening. It is flying the Dutch flag. So as is the custom we meet with them and invite them on board in the evening for some Belgian chocolate mousse that Marianne makes. We are joined by the Silk Purse and we spent the evening talking about many different things. Very enjoyable. Robert and Coby are off to France so we may see them again.

However the next day brings very strong gusts of winds and rain and no one wants to travel so we all remain at this location with water and electric and will depart when the weather permits, hopefully tomorrow.

Barge Date: 04-06-2017

Playing Catch-up

OK.  I am way behind with this post so everything will be short so we can move to the present.

* Fly to Atlanta; find Marianne in baggage claim. Next morning we return to the airport to take train to downtown. Off at a stop almost next door to the Belgian Consulate. Get visa but told that when I register in the town of my brother-in-law that they could put a kabosh on everything. I am surprised.

* Fly to Belgium; rent a car and visit family for a day. Travel to Antoing for Marianne’s first look at the boat.

* Pick up needed batteries in Tournai; heavy. Barrie and Carole need a fan belt and buy two. With help from Barrie, the new batteries are installed. Fan belts do not fit. We see a bakery named Boulangerie d'Antan and stop to purchase a baguette that we will eat aboard Lionel d'Antan. How appropriate.

* Return fan belts and get another. Travel to Mons to visit the Ikea store. Do not find a suitable mattress for our single bed but buy some other items for the boat. Return the rental car in Tournai. Fan belt does not fit.

* Do chores on boat and Marianne gets to know her way around. Visit the castle in the town. Nice

tour by a good, informative guide (in French). Have dinner with the Grants at La Madonna, a very nice Italian place (only 2 restaurants in town). Good desserts.

* Marianne locates the correct fan belt by phone and I ride to Tournai to get them. They fit. Barrie is happy as they can again run their generator.

* Take train to Brussels to visit town hall to “register.” If you are new to a town, this is a formality. For me, a new adventure. Seems to be going well with Philippe taking the lead with the clerk (in French). Starts to go south when supervisor butts in. Discussion switches to Dutch but Philippe and Marianne can understand, and Philippe starts speaking with them in Dutch. After showing Marianne's Belgian ID card and Tim's passport with his visa, things settle down. Now we must wait for several days until police come to Philippe’s house to make sure it is as we say. Stay tuned. I think they are still not comfortable with this because Marianne and I leave on different dates that are weeks apart. In any case, I will have to come back at least once after the police inspection.

* We met a young lady during our train trip and invite her to the boat. She had been an exchange student in the US (in Olympia, WA) and now teaches English in an immersion class at two elementary schools in and near Tournai. She comes to the boat and we have a nice visit. Hope to see her again.

* For Marianne’s first trip we head west using 2 locks to tie up in the town of Peruwelz. Her first lock passing and did very well. Probably the same feeling I had the first time I did it. These locks were very big but everything worked. Tied up beautifully. Take on water and hook-up for electric. We spend 2 days here.

* Had very nice visits with several other boat people in Antoing and Peruwelz.  This is one of the nice things about this boat travel; always meeting new people or running into people you have already met.

* See next post for the continuation of story as this post quickly catches us up to the present time.

Note from Marianne: If you want to see a lot more pictures and are on Facebook, look for and "Like" my special page entitled "Barge Adventure". If you "like" it, you will get to see the pictures and receive reminders of when the blog is updated.