2012 Centenary Cruise Week 4 Canal de Vosges - Charmes to Corre - Saône

The Canal de Vosges runs for125km from Neuves Maisons, near Nancy, to Corre at the upper navigable limit of the Saône, rising steadily to an height of over 330 metres, with 46 locks. After an excellent meal in Charmes, which did much to lift our spirits, we continued up the locks towards Epinal, a port we were unable to visit when we passed in 2005 as the water was too shallow for the boat we were then in. The Vosges was a textile producing area, and intermittently along the canal there were abandoned mill buildings, as well as attractive towns such as Thaon les Vosges.

At 1630 we arrived at the canal branch leading to Epinal, only to find it closed because of lack of water. There had been no mention of this at any of the preceding locks, or in discussions with VNF staff, or on the VNF web list of closures.. It seems everyone knew – except us! Once again we were forced to pass on, spending the night between locks next to an industrial estate instead of the attractive port we had imagined.

After the storm - Chaumousey Pontoon

As morning broke, so did the weather. Colin had to return to Luxembourg, while despite the wind and showers we decided to push on up the lock flight in search of a more attractive mooring. As the rain cleared, the wind increased further, and manoeuvring a flat bottomed boat into narrow locks became increasingly difficult. Once on the top we encountered gale force gusts which slowed us to under 2km/h and threatened to drive us into the banks and overheat the engine, and so we decided to tie up for a while until the worst was over, moving on to the quieter mooring at Chaumousey in the early evening. The restaurant was closed, and David bashed his nose on his bike. Not our best day.

Stranded at Selles

Now only three days from the Saône, we pushed on through driving rain for the next day and a half, relieved only by another excellent restaurant (Le Moulin de Battembroise at Charmois l'Orgeuilleux), and a lunch at the Auberge de Coney . After weeks of not being able to find anywhere to stop, we were beginning to find it much easier, probably because of the fleets of hire boats based on the canal, like the ones at the historic village of Fontenoy le Chateau where we stopped for the night. Next day - our last - a gentle thirty kilometres and six locks to Corre. As we motored along the beautiful canal, with woodland and marshy edges, we spotted a Great White Egret just before the log moved on to 1000km for the trip. At lunchtime we stopped at Selles, and visited the brasserie just past the swing bridge. While we were there a thunderstorm broke, and unknown to us, 2 km further on a tree fell across the river Coney, bringing down the power lines and cutting the electricity. So it was that after leaving Selles we found ourselves stranded next to an automated lock that was out of action for the next eighteen hours, only a few km from our destination! We ate the last of our food and went to bed.

Corre - On the Saône at last

The following morning as the fog cleared, the lights reappeared on the lock. One hour later we were using the quant pole to reverse De Jonge Jacob into her berth at Corre Marina. Then chicken and chips, pack up the boat, arrange the train home, (with much help from the Swiss Marina owners). After 1027 km and 240 locks we had finally reached the Saône.

The Marina at Corre

AFTERWORD

I know that a few of the readers of this journal are planning to make their own trips in the future, so here are one or two tips I can pass on.

Fuel – was a problem throughout the trip. We only saw working diesel pumps next to the canals on the first and last days of this trip. Usually this meant taking a bike to a garage and transporting fuel in 20 litre containers. Without a bike, or a sack barrow, we would have been stuck.

Maintenance – It was a problem to get repairs done under way. With our 24volt batteries not charging properly we had to make do without bow thruster, autohelm, fridge etc and save current for lighting and the log. The batteries were working when we left, but in the Marina they are not subjected to the loads encountered on a trip without regular shorepower.. Luckily I did have a spare fan belt when it broke.

Services. In Northern France the canals were mainly adapted for large commercial barges. We seldom found facilities for smaller boats (under 35 metres). Very few showers, toilets, electricity, food or fuel. Bollards, if any, were 40 metres apart. After 15 September the few facilities that existed were often closed. Take your chances for shopping, food, fuel, showers etc when you see them. There probably won't be something better round the corner.

Equipment. We made sure we had two large (50cm) round fenders before we left. We could have done with two more, one on each quarter. On the way we lost one smaller fender and another was damaged. We did not use barge boards to avoid them scratching the leeboards, so fenders take a lot of punishment. We also bought a couple of extra 15 metre mooring lines. We bought two folding bikes which were excellent.(Apollo Transition from Halfords). Often moorings are one or two km from shops, villages etc, and bikes allow you to see more of the country. (See also fuel) A couple of large metal stakes and a sledgehammer would have come in useful on occasions for improvised moorings.

Information. Research the web before you go. Times of lock working etc change a good deal. Our books were often out of date and it is hard to find information under way. A French road map also gives you a good idea of sizes of towns.

Internet. We have a French 3G connection which was useful when it worked.

Time. Most things take longer than you think. The whole trip took a week longer than I had estimated. You simply cannot be in a hurry, and mishaps like lock breakdowns, barge traffic delays, power cuts etc just have to be accepted, since there is no alternative.

Overall, a successful and enjoyable voyage. We have learned much more about handling the boat There have been very few breakages and we have been able to get on with maintenance jobs on the way. We now look forward to exploring our new cruising grounds over the next few years.

2012 Centenary Cruise Week Meuse - Mouzon to Charmes

Fog on the Meuse

A quiet mooring

Monday dawns with thick fog. As we move out of Mouzon there is a foredeck watch and a top speed of 3km/h. Over the next hour it burns off to a clear, sunny Autumn day, a chance to do some painting jobs under way. David clears rust spots and repaints at the bow. Nick tackles the brasswork around the saloon door. The Northern section of the Canal de L'Est runs for 270km mostly along the River Meuse (of which we are doing 176km), among woods and farmland with more kingfishers to the km than anywhere I know. Monday night finds us at the Halte Nautique at Dun sur Meuse, with electricity, water and a SHOWER! Luxury. 

Bird spots include. sparrowhawk, stonechat, great grey shrike, red kite and many buzzards. As we follow the ridges to the South, there are more and more graveyards as we approach Verdun. Nick cycles to the memorials of the battles at Verdun in the 1914-18 war. We overnight on the town quay at Verdun. Linda has raspberry beer and we meet yet another eccentric restauranteur in a riverside Pizzeria.

 

Verdun Moorings on the quay

Working the non-automated locks

                                     

         

The locks between Verdun and St Mihiel are not automated and we are accompanied by a lock-keeper who could be our friend Max's twin brother. We found a launderette in St Mihiel, fuelled up from a garage, and said farewell to Nick who was off to London to exchange a berth on Jonge Jacob for a hotel in Park Lane! Progress was slowed by two broken locks the next day. As “Max” said (in French) “that's the way the pot heats up”. As a result we did not reach Troussey, and were stuck next to a cement factory for the night, before leaving the Meuse down a steep flight of locks to Toul. This section was made more stressful by the knowledge that there was a large commercial barge coming up. Luckily we did not meet him on the blind corner, where we hooted twice, very loudly. Here we were joined by an ex-colleague, Colin, for a couple of days, as we moved up the Moselle for a short stretch (broad still waters and wooded edges followed by the industrial wasteland of Neuves Maisons). Still behind on our schedule we raced up the first 15 locks of the Canal des Vosges, only to be trapped at 1800, two locks short of Charmes. Undaunted, we tied to a tree, and walked into town for a shower at a camp site and a real three course meal in town. Now that we are on the Canal des Vosges we have to climb to the summit ahead of us, and we have 260km to go to St Jean de Losne. It is looking more likely that we will stop at Corre, where we reach the Saône in 100hkm, and finish off later in the Autumn. We will have been on the move for four weeks, our VNF pass will run out and other duties are calling.

2012 Centenary Cruise Week 2 Péronne to the Meuse (Mouzon)

After enjoying the sunshine of Péronne we set off once more on Monday with a less encouraging forecast. Half a dozen locks, one tunnel and 45 km brought us to Noyon at the junction of the Canal Latéral à l'Oise. Here the gas ran out. Changing from UK Calor to european gas means changing the pressure regulator, but as luck would have it we were moored next to a garden centre that could provide all we needed by 0930 the next morning.

Tuesday brought cold and rain, and we were stuck at the first lock for over an hour waiting for commercial barges to go through. By 1300 we had completed only 3 locks and 350 metres, so by evening we had completed only 28km, mooring at Guny. The consolation was that we were now in the much smaller and attractive Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne. Suddenly there were kingfisher, heron, buzzard and jay everywhere, and although the weather was still uncertain, we pushed on to the halte nautique at Bourg et Comin (just a pontoon by a field but at least there was free electricity). By this time we were beginning to have some problems with the 24 volt alternator, which meant trying to conserve our service batteries, not using the bow thruster or autohelm, and leaving the fridge off until we could reach mains electricity.

The direct canal route south passes through champagne country and Reims, but repairs to locks in this section meant taking a longer diversion either via Paris or via the Ardennes. Leaving Paris for another trip we set off up the beautiful Canal des Ardennes. The canal is much narrower, winding through dense woodland, climbing into the Ardennes hills, giving a real feeling of isolation. By 1900 we were one lock short of the village of Chateau Porcien when the lock system closed, leaving us tied up alone for the night once more.

A lunchtime halt

The next day was a little brighter and warmer. We stopped at the small town of Rethel for fuel from a garage (transported in 20 litre containers balanced on our bikes) and supermarket provisions. These included a bottle of Champagne to toast (rather belatedly) 500km completed on the trip so far. Evening found us in the Halte Nautique at Attigny, eating at a Pizzeria run by a most peculiar and grumpy couple. This theme, incidentally, was continued by the stroppy waitress in Bourg et Comin and the unhelpful camp site manager in Sedan. In an area which is clearly facing hard times, you might think that tourist income would be welcomed, but we repeatedly found that basic information was not provided and elementary services were closed. French tourism take note, although it must be said that most French people we met were friendly and helpful, and admired our boat.

As the Canal climbs into the Ardennes there is a steep flight of 27 locks in less than 10km, some of them only 100 metres apart. Nick stayed with us for this day so that we could have one crew member ashore to handle lines and activate lock mechanisms. The flight took us over six hours (meeting a commercial barge on the way down at lock 23) but by nightfall we were at the small village of Chémery sur Bar, sharing a beer in a bar straight out of a horror movie, featuring France's last remaining toilet without a seat, a landlady with no teeth and a display of pornographic videos for hire. We did not linger.

After days in the forest we were looking forward to reaching the Meuse, partly because we would finally turn south, and partly because the city of Sedan offered luxuries like showers, electricity, fuel and a meal out. The last few km of the Canal des Ardennes were idyllic: gentle rural scenes of “mists and mellow fruitfulness”, before meeting a lunatic hire boat careering round a blind corner which resulted in the loss of our fresh herb planter. At Sedan, Edwards-May in “Inland Waterways of France” suggests both the town quay and the berths at the camp site which we had used in 2007. Well the town quay was silted up and unusable, and the pontoons in the camp site were closed. Apparently no boats are welcome in Sedan after 15 September, and boats of any size are not welcome at any time (the pontoons being much too light for our 30 tonnes).

Mouzon Boulangerie - note the bikes outside

So it was that our week ended 15km further on at Mouzon, where the halte nautique was also closed, but the electricity was still on, even though the toilets and showers were locked, and the water taps were dry. But the lady in the boulangerie was delightful, and at least our route had turned inexorably south, towards Verdun, the Moselle, and the Saône.

2012 Centenary Cruise Week 1 Woodbridge (Suffolk)to Péronne

After a frantic week of preparation, Nigel Askew and David boarded De Jonge Jacob on Friday 31 August to undertake the sea passage to Dunkerque. The calm Saturday which had been forecast all week was changing, with the shipping forecast offering SW 5-6 for Thames, so we postponed. A flat bottomed boat like ours is not safe at sea (nor insured) in anything over a 4. Sunday showed an improvement SW 4/5, so we were hopeful for the Monday. In the event we both slept through the 0515 shipping forecast but a call to Lynne Askew showed SW veering NW 3 or 4, occasionally 5 at first. Since it was almost calm at 0630 we weighed anchor and set off for Felixstowe Ferry.

Once at sea the promised force 4 arrived, producing an uncomfortable rolling trip past Cork Sand and Roughs Towers, and an even more lumpy sea with wind over tide down Black Deep. The plan had been to pass through Foulgers Gap, a narrow passage through Long Sand, but the building of the London Wind Turbine Array has closed this option, so we were forced to plod on to Fisherman's Gap, a further three miles, before easing away towards the Kent coast. As the tide turned the wind dropped and we had a sunny end to the trip, arriving at Ramsgate at 1900, in time for a Thai meal out and an early night. 51.7 nm run.

Next morning was misty and light and after a cooked breakfast in a cafe, Nigel and David set out along the Ramsgate channel past Goodwin Sand, heading for the shipping lanes. The sea fog had lifted though patches still threatened, and we saw little shipping for the first two lanes. After Sandettié light that all changed, with eight vessels on slightly different courses and speeds all appearing in 20 minutes. No AIS or or radar for us, not even a chart plotter, so it was hand compass bearings every five minutes and a delicate pirouette round a Maersk container ship rather than pass ahead of her. From there it was straight across the sand banks, watching the echo sounder, as the French coast appeared. We made the Dunkerque approach channel opposite the Western Docks, and we were a mile short of the Dunkerque breakwater when the engine overheated, causing an abrupt change of speed and a late entry to the port at 2030.Day's run 48nm.

Dunkerque Harbour

That evening we met Linda off the train, and Nick Brown who was to accompany us on his bike for the next few weeks. The four of us ate on board at about midnight. De Jonge Jacob had performed well at sea, and was now to re-enter fresh water, which is more her natural environment. As an inexperienced crew, Nigel too, has had a challenging experience, which I hope he enjoyed. He set off first thing to return to UK. Many thanks to him for stepping in at the last minute to crew a boat he had hardly seen a week before.

On Wednesday morning we motored over to Trystram Lock, the first of three locks into the French canal system. By 1520 we were through them all, with new provisions on board, heading for Watten, the junction with the main commercial canals. Nick travelled on board with us on this first day, undertaking a training course in rope handling and lock procedure. We saw our first kingfisher of the trip at 1545, and apart from a grounding in a shallow patch avoiding a push-tow (one 250 tonne barge pushing another) arrived at Watten 30km away. 

Watch what's coming out of the locks

Inland, distance is measured in km, not nautical miles, so the log is changed. There is little in the way of facilities in Watten although we found a pizzeria/crèperie. This area is generally industrial and lacking much charm. We saw only three pleasure boats in the next three days, but dozens of barges carrying animal feed, coal,aggregate, fuel, recycled glass and metal. Commercial traffic takes priority and stopping points cater for 40 metre boats, not 15 metre ones. Over the next two days we passed through industrial wasteland, chemical works, factories, closed coal yards around Douai, Lens and Bethune. The economic fortunes of the area are poor at best, worse still in the present climate. Gradually as we moved south the landscape improved – agricultural rather than industrial- and small military cemeteries appeared in the middle of fields that were hell itself in 1915-17. We were on the canalised Escault, where David's grandfather saw action (and won an MC) in 1917, and then on to the Somme itself.

Entering Ruyaulcourt Tunnel 4.3km

 Locks came thick and fast, all designed for the huge commercial barges, as well as the intimidating 4.3km Ruyaulcourt tunnel. This has a one way stretch at each end, with two way traffic for 2km in the middle. The big barges can only alter course by a burst of engine power, one of which forced us into the side with the loss of a fender. No question of going back for it.





By the weekend we had reached Péronne, an historic small town with moving exhibitions about the trenches, and even a band of Highland pipers. De Jonge Jacob has completed 355km from Waldringfield, the sun is still shining (close to 30 degrees on Sunday as I write),and we have a day off. We are on our way.

2008 to 2012 Living in Woodbridge

From June 2008 to September 2012 "De Jonge Jacob" stayed at Robertsons Yard in Woodbridge. Katy and Alex were resident from 2008 to April 2010. Two hard winters living in a tin can persuaded them of the joys of life ashore, and they moved to a cottage in Ipswich.  While their lives moved on - a wedding in July 2011 and a house purchase in May 2012- the boat stayed put.
In 2012 the other two owners David and Linda Cadwallader bought out Katy andAlex's shares in the boat, and plans were made for the next stage of the boat's life in sunny France. The hull was epoxied (waterproofed) in 2011 and new leeboards were made in oak by Robertson's. (See their web site for details). The engine was overhauled, and as August 2012 approached the boat was again made ready for sea....

De Jonge Jacob in 2012. This was her centenary so we made a special flag for the trip