Barge Date:  09-08-2017

Big Change In Everything

The idea now is to retrace our steps out of the Somme to head east to the Canal des Ardennes which links up to the River Meuse in Belgium. Some of this is a repeat area for us so we can travel fast and don't stay too long in any town.

Several events along the way that got the crew excited:  back on the Canal du Nord, we entered a lock and wanted to use our hook to secure to a ladder. While we were heading for the second ladder in the long lock, the lock keeper closed the doors and the water came in too soon for us.  A little concern, but with some ramming of the engine, we got the job done.

Heading into new territory on the Canal de l'Oise a l'Aisne, we found locks that have some problems, at least for us newcomers.  The poles that need to be lifted to start the proper next step (the back doors closing after we are safely tied up) are at the far end of the lock, not, as we would expect, somewhere near the middle. This means that going east, the poles are near the front of the boat (will be at the stern going west on our return).  So we need to get forward towards the front doors in order to reach them.  Problems can happen.

But also, and I don't remember the specifics, with the first lock, we are being lifted and some good number of meters, and we fail to anticipate the difficulty of removing the rope from an in-the-wall bollard and expect to be able to get it off and recovered.  The water comes in fast and we can't  remove — and soon can't even see — the loop. This is a good rope and like hell I am going to leave it behind. Then the doors open and the system expects us to leave.  Not me.  How to get the water lowered again?  I place my hand in front of the magic eye beam and it thinks we have departed and somehow the water exits and we drop down and know how to place the rope correctly this time, keeping the loop on the boat's bollard.  But the system does not want to refill and, to complicate matters, another boat approaches the lock from behind us. In fact this boat may have been the one that triggered the lowering of the water. Fortunately, it is not a commercial. We signal to them that we have a problem, push the assistance button and maybe that does it as we finally rise and escape.

There was a time when all locks had a lock house and someone living there and working the lock. There was pride in how the facilities looked.  Nowadays, many small locks are automatic and the houses are vacant.  But on this section of the canal someone has taken the effort to make things look nice again.

We are tied up for a day or two and we see again an elderly man on a paddle board going in our direction.  There is a tunnel ahead and he asks if he might hitch a ride as the water people don't want him in the tunnel on the board.  But with the upcoming bad news (see further down), we are unable to help him out.

We are beginning to hear rumbles about problems east on the French portion of the Meuse. There has been very little rainfall this year in Europe and some canals are dependent on lakes high up to feed the canals during the summer. There is little water in the French section and we receive word that we will not be able to take this route into Belgium.

There is an alternative canal but it to has problems at several locations and it is closed until 2020. Our only recourse is to head back and retrace the route we have taken from the time that Marianne came on the boat. This is a great disappointment because these canals tend to be larger and busy with commercials and Marianne doesn't like this. Also, we have seen this section and don't have any interest in seeing it again. But we have no choice and we head back. We want to be near Namur for the September wedding of our niece.

During our layover in Chauny, we arrange for fuel to be delivered to the boat. Better prices this way. The truck pulls up right beside us and pumps in 500 liters of diesel. This will get us through the year.

In the town of Jussy we pick up a new crew member. Our nephew Max will be joining us for a period of time. We want to see if we can make him into a deckhand and a barge helmsman. He picks up the work quickly and helps Marianne forward on the deck with the ropes. We stop at a number of towns we have already visited but it gives us an excuse to find a restaurant or a place for ice cream. We hope Max is enjoying himself.

Marianne's brother has told her about a French TV program on Alienor of Aquitaine, another in her old family line and the namesake of our own daughter. So while in St Quentin, we all hunker down in the salon and do a little history.  Windows are open and a marine cat has walked the deck and gives us a look through the window until we ask it to leave.

We get to go through the long tunnels again and I was able to get some interesting shots of the tug that will pull us.  Then a walk up the hill to a town museum that highlights the history of these tunnels.

Being the first boat behind the tug starts with the big iron.  Today that was us.  Five or six smaller boats behind us.  There is plenty of room in the tunnel but the tug for some reason takes the east way, up against the tow path.  OK for him and would have been OK for us, the number one boat, but he does not drop the pull chain in the middle of the waterway.  He can do this by moving an arm so that the chain is not in the middle of the tug but rather in the middle of the channel.  It took me half the trip to figure out I was not steering properly to make my passage easier because of the tug's sloppy work.

Lionel ready to be first behind tug.

On our return to Cambrai we move into the marina hoping to get electric, but all the sockets (3) are taken. They tell us that they are upgrading this marina but probably we will never be back. On the second day, a boat leaves and we grab the electric.

It is here that Max will depart and he is taking with him my number one crew mate. Marianne will be going to Brussels for a period of time and I hope to see her again before she departs for Thomasville.

Crew when not chained to oars. What is the world coming to?

Previous to this time, I had placed an ad for crew to bring the boat back from the Meuse to Diksmuide. To my surprise, I received a number of replies within the first 24 hours. Several from people that have a good bit of experience on the European canals. A couple from Australia who have been thinking hard about getting a barge in Europe responded and asked if they could have this experience to see if this is something they want to do. So I agreed to this and they will be flying north soon to meet me some time during the first week of September.

With Marianne and Max jumping ship, did I want to take the barge by myself further east through Belgium? I went back to the people that wanted to join me for the final leg of this year's adventure and I have an Australian gentleman coming over from the UK who will join me for the next week to move the boat to the area of Namur.

Bruce has been doing canal trips like this for about five years and will come aboard with a lot more experience than I. So it will be interesting and I will for the first time be able to work the ropes at the front end of the boat. I have told people how to do it, but I have never done it myself so I will see if I know what I have been talking about.


Sorry for the lack of pictures.  Marianne has lots on the FB site.  Search for "Barge Adventure".

Barge Date: 02-08-2017

Leaving the Somme

Not wanting to miss the canal that we could not see by boat, we decided to take a train to Abbeville but were interrupted with this thought when another boater said it is much nicer to go all the way to Saint-Valery-sur-Somme on the Atlantic. One must take a small gauge railroad to get there but because of a delayed train from Amiens, we got a late start. St Valery is very much a summer place for tourists. Marianne wanted to see some sites that have ties to her family that crossed a little channel to take over England. Worth a return trip and stay. There are 2 other towns connected by this small railroad that should be visited.

I would like to stay at this hotel some day.

Marianne with monument to her family's war making.

We were needed back in Brussels for my resident permit and we took the train from Amiens. The short story with the permit people is that I must again return after important papers are prepared. I have been given a secret number that will make it all work next time.

While there and being hosted once again by our wonderful Belgian family, we took a trip with Monique and Maxime to see the castle of Gaasbeek. The castle was of interest but even better for me were the gardens. The gardeners specialize in training plants and trees to be things they normally are not. Shapes, hedges, borders. People come from all over the world to learn this process. Time is a factor. This garden was started about 20 years ago and they have just opened it to the public.

Back to the boat, we began our exit from the Somme. We had been warned by the lock workers that several days earlier a car had been driven into the canal and to be careful at a particular location . We saw one very wet VW.

We were looking forward to getting back to the marina at Cappy as our new energy efficient refrigerator had arrived. The captain had stored it in his garage and we quickly retrieved it and swapped out the old for the new. While it is a bit smaller, it does seem to use less electricity. That's the point of the purchase. We also swapped out our nearly empty LP tanks so now we are filled up.

Now headed east.

 Barge Date: 30-07-2017

On the Somme and back again

 Forgive the formatting.  Google is the problem.


I know, some of you think that I have gone away (Mark, Guy)What is happening with the blog? I am behind again and I don't know why but let me try to catch up as quickly as I can.  This will be a bit long but you don’t want to stop too soon and miss something.

From Amiens we wanted to go east to the small village of Long. As we headed that way, we still thought that we could not get all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. So we were going to make the best of it. We had been told by a lock worker that the tie up near the lock in Long was a bit tricky but that he would be there to assist. He told us that there was space available for us (In his words, "not the best space, but not the worst either").

Along the way, we noticed several weirs in the canal with signs warning of "violent current". These are locations where excess water is taken from the canal and diverted downstream or to the lower part of the canal. Traveling past them had never been a problem. The sign before Long warned of "Danger d'aspiration" which, translated literally, means "beware of being sucked in".

In Long, there is a beautiful castle that can be viewed as you enter the town. It is just up the hill from

the canal and you can see large greenhouses filled with flowers and well landscaped gardens and lawns that come right down to the canal. Very impressive.

But just as you are passing the castle, you go under a bridge and there is a left turn in the canal that leads immediately to mooring space on the left, the lock straight ahead, and one of those sucking weirs off to your right. If we had planned it better, gone a little slower and stayed to the left bank, looked at Google Earth, and thought everything out a day before we would not have gotten sucked to the weir. As it was, I was to the right in an attempt to see around the corner and to know whether there was space. By the time I had done this, I had lost control. Apparently, this happens quite regularly at this location and perhaps it is a bit of fun for the lock workers. I don't know. But I do know that we were pulled to our starboard and up against the protective guard rail that keeps innocent barge owners from going over the falls.

I wish I could say let's go to the video but that's not possible. We attempted to back up and move to the port side but these old boats just don't want to go backwards. Finally, the lock worker who said he

was going to help us showed up.  

The only solution was to stop the water from going into the weir. This must be a simple matter because in five minutes we were able to move the boat and throw some lines to the shore where several volunteers roped us in. One of them was the owner of a boat tied up at this location. He said the same thing happened to him several days earlier and he knew it was not a pleasant experience, so he wanted to help us. A little bit of excitement for the people on the shore and maybe a little bit of learning on our part. 

Apart from the castle and a church, there is not much to the town of Long but there are some interesting stories that we find as we visit. There is a commemorative marker for a British soldier that risked his life to move a tank that was stalled on the bridge thus preventing the Allies from taking the town from the Germans. This British soldier somehow was able to get the tank off the bridge but he died while doing this. The town has this marker to remember him. 

There is a nice restaurant in this town that overlooks our mooring location and you may see it in some of the pictures. We had lunch, then ice cream, and then dinner there and it was all good. It would appear that a young couple own this restaurant and do most of the work. The lady taking our orders and seeing to all of our needs as well as many other tables was somehow able to do most everything herself. I don't know who is in the kitchen but I suspect it is just her husband. If you are in Long, we can recommend this restaurant. Its name is Le Comptoir Bleu. 

We visited the castle and it was interesting and enjoyable. I may not recall all the details but it was built in the 1700s, has gone through several owners and sat empty for 25 years. It was purchased and restored in 1964 and then bought 17 years ago by the present owner, a real estate agent, who put a lot of money into it. When he and his wife purchased it,  there was not a single flowering plant on the property. Through his work and with 4 gardeners, the place looks very nice. From the outside, the castle looks grand and large but it is a bit deceptive. 

This is a very swanky pigeon coop from the inside.

Once you are inside, you realize that from front to back there is just one room in depth. We took the tour of the castle (no pictures allowed inside unfortunately) and enjoyed seeing the results of the restoration work that has been needed to bring the rooms back to life. The castle was purchased in 2000 without a single piece of furniture, except for a piano and an automaton (piano player) that the purchasers insisted on keeping. The couple that own the estate live here but we did not see the rooms that they occupy. I particularly like the greenhouses and their location down the slope towards the canal.
  
When our visit was done, we successfully passed the weir to go through the lock so that we could make a U-turn and head back towards Amiens. We stayed one night at our regular mooring site and did some errands in town.