Working in Boom.

We departed Ghent for Boom on the morning of Friday 31^st August. We had planned to leave the morning before but heavy winds and threatening skies made us stay one more day. The Captain of the moorings where we were, advised us on the tides we would expect in the Boven Zeeschelde river and suggested we leave Ghent at 0800 hrs to catch the tidal run. We were going to make it a two day trip with a stop somewhere so we could arrive in Boom about midday Sunday.

As we departed Ghent this was a typical scene along the canals.

We stopped at a closed storm lock at the exit of the canalised Schelde river and the sluismaster was called to open it. He did, and when Peter tried to restart Matilda – nothing happened! The starter on the 11 litre Henschel diesel did nothing - no buzz, no click, nothing. Some rapid checks and the starter motor had to come out and be dismantled. The fault was found, a screw had come adrift and a wire was loose in the control circuit. Back together and the motor started – we had fortunately lost less than an hour. We would still make the tide.

On to the Boven Zeeschelde and through the last lock on the river before the open sea at Antwerp. In a short time we were travelling at twelve kilometres an hour as the effects of the tide were felt – our normal canal speed is a maximum of nine.

Around a bend and this excavator and barge loomed. Dredging deposits of mud in the river is a continuous operation as the authorities keep the river navigable. The mud was being offloaded onto the bank not far away where it would probably be used as top dressing on the local farm land.

We were close to the local airport but this old 707 didn’t land here, it was in a scrap metal yard.

We chose to spend the night on the Dender canal and turned off the Boven Zeeschelde through the Sluis Dender. The sluismaster looked at us in disbelief when we said what we were doing. He said we wouldn’t find a mooring and would be kept awake by the traffic on this heavily used commercial canal.

Two kilometres further on, we found this idyllic mooring where we eventually stayed for two nights. Strange though, the heavy commercial traffic must have gone another way!  We can only surmise that we interrupted the sluismaster doing something more interesting than his job. The only traffic we saw was a nice English couple on their cruiser who shared the mooring with us on Saturday night.

We were close to the town of Dendermonde which we visited. The town has a history that goes back to ancient times. It is known in Belgium for the saga of the Bayard Steed. The story goes that for years, Aymon, lord of Dendermonde, had lived in disagreement with his lord, Charlemagne. The four sons of Aymon continue the fight and can count on the loyal services of their horse, Ros Beiaard (Bayard). After years of war and fighting Charlemagne delivers an ultimatum: Peace in exchange for Bayard. The faithful horse is drowned at the confluence of the rivers Dender and Scheldt. Every ten years Bayard comes alive and the horse and its four riders hold their triumphal procession through the town. We missed the parade….. by eight years so there are no pictures to go with the story. Sorry.

We visited a compact museum in the town that had a wonderful display in a beautiful old building.

 The town church, dating from the thirteenth century has some very dramatic features.

Sunday, and we moved on. The Boven Zeeschelde river is wide and now very tidal. There are many spots where ferries are used to connect one bank to the other

This one is almost full. Is this cycling team taking a short cut?

The river is spanned by some great bridges. This one carries two railway tracks and can open – by rising to the vertical, to let large ships through. The scale gives the clearance from the river surface to the underside of the bridge – 10 metres.

We soon entered the Rupel river and after about 5 kilometres upstream, arrived at our destination and moored against Marintec’s pontoon. The dry-dock had three boats in it and we were told that we would go in the following Friday, on the high tide.

Things were nice and quiet until Friday and we did the scenic thing around the town. Boom is the historic centre of the Flemish brick, tile and clay pipe industry and the area around us has many old brick pits and factories utilising the clay from them. The builders amongst us know of the Marseille tile pattern – Boom produced tiles in the Flemish pattern which were used throughout France and the low countries.

 This deserted factory was set up as a museum for the industry.

 

Once again there is evidence of military action during the wars. This Sherman tank commemorating the allied liberation of this area.

 Friday came and suddenly we were at the outside of all these ships on the pontoon. Since then, our lives has been interrupted by moments of intense activity day or night as we take Matilda out of the dock while other ships come and go, or tie up on the pontoon. Because of her small size, Matilda is always on the outside.

 

 Matilda is out there somewhere!

We have had a number of night time cruises. 

Every movement in the dock means that the "chairs" have to be positioned to take the weight of the ship they support. They must be placed with precision and set with a laser level.

In the dock we were set a spot at the entrance that meant that we were first out and last in when ships left. In this picture, the “chairs” on the left of the dock have been set for a ship 85 metres long.

Finally the heavy work has been finished on Matilda and our painting of the hull completed. We have more painting to do on board that can be done as we go along. A technician is servicing the central heating boiler and when that is finished we are off again. We have been here a month and are now heading back to Nancy for winter.

There will be more to tell, so - keep in touch.