Yonne, Seine and Canal du Loing

Barge Date:  06-25-2022

We continued to make our progress down the Yonne River as we stopped at two smaller towns along the way. Pont-sur-Yonne is not a classic looking French village but it had more to offer in terms of retail than it was given credit for at the tourism office in Sens.

You have to look to find what is there. Fortunately we were able to locate a tavern that was serving ice cream and this we enjoyed while looking over the town square. There were several pastry shops and we bought our daily supply. We stayed overnight and in the morning we were on our way to Montereau-Fault-Yonne.

Montereau is our gateway to the Seine River. While we tried to find something interesting in this town we came up with close to zero. We walked a good number of streets again hoping to find a source for ice cream and we failed. But a good number of commercial barges were working the water.

 Notice the beehives in front of this mural.

Back on the boat I addressed a problem that had cropped up in the last several days. The engine temperature had been running higher than normal and I suspected all the wrong things. Was the river water much warmer this year than in previous times? Did I have enough coolant in the heat exchanger that keeps the engine cool? Finally, was the water pump working as it should or should I replace the impeller as I normally do at the beginning of each year? It was none of these.

We take water from the canal or river to cool the engine. There is an exchanger that keeps separate the water from the canal and the coolant around the engine. This is something to look at on a regular basis but I have never had a problem with debris getting into the water take-up hole which is on the bottom side of the boat. This is something that I look for with each start of the engine; throw your head over the port side and look for the water coming out of the engine room. Water was coming out each day but certainly not in the quantity that it should, and this restrictive flow caused the engine to overheat. I used a stick and the water hose to clear this area and it immediately solved the problem.

On the Seine we only needed to pass through one very large lock before we would made our escape on to the Canal de Loing. While the lock could handle a variety of very large boats we were the sole occupant and we traveled unaccosted on this river.

On the Loing the scale of everything returns to our normal. From the beginning there were live aboard barges and boats crowding both sides of the canal. We were moving along at a fairly slow pace taking in the view of these boats when all of a sudden our boat rose up in the middle and there was a sound of collision from underneath. I stopped the prop as soon as I could and turned my head to see what might be now behind us. While we don’t know what it was it was certainly yellow and I have to think it was made of metal. Later in the day we went to the video (hey Jim, it was like Warner Wolf saying “let’s go to video tape”). Yep, yellow, but we have no idea what it was. We could only see it from the stern camera and it soon faded from view. Perhaps the size of a large car hood and there was a large opening surrounded by yellow. We notified the capitainerie when we stopped.

We are tied up just before the first lock on this canal and we walked into town for lunch. A couple that is traveling ahead of us suggested a particular restaurant (La dame du lac) and we wanted to give it a try. Seemed like it was being operated by three young men trying to make a mark in the restaurant business and the meal and dessert were very, very good. I had Steak Tartare.

The town, Moret-sur-Loing, is along a quiet stream but in town they have a small dam and the remnants of an old mill. There is a bridge over the stream at this point and it was a good spot to take some pictures.

Back on the boat I tackled the last remaining problem and as you might guess it had to do with the toilets. You thought we were not going to have any problems in that category this year and you are wrong. But I knew what the problem was likely to be and using the quick access doors that I had put in place several years ago I was able to run a pipe cleaner through the hose that brings water into the boat. 20 minutes and the problem was solved. 

We have remained in this port for a second night and did make a trip back into town for a meal at another restaurant. This also was very good. It has been raining slightly all day long so any thoughts of doing more sanding or painting on the boat was put to rest. I’ve been reading and watching woodworking videos. Tomorrow morning we will leave going up the stream on this canal for about 20 km. Standby for more good news.

Surprisingly, there were 3 Belgian  registered boats tied up all together. The biggest gathering of Belgians I’ve seen in a long time.