Half way to Nancy

There are a number of very informative documents published by the VNF who control the French waterways. One – called the Carte des Chomages should be read by everyone planning a trip on the canals and rivers. It is an important document and amongst other things, lists the planned maintenance and subsequent closures of canals and ecluses (locks).

We have found out the importance of reading this document the hard way. We are on the canal de la Meuse and arrived at ecluse 34 - l’Alma on the 24^th October, to find the power down and the ecluse shut. Marg went ashore and found out from two workmen that the canal is closed from here to almost the Moselle River. Yes, we checked the document and, yes it was planned.

All we could do is go back to Mouzon where we had spent the previous night and wait until the 15^th November when the section opens again.

This quaint building dated 1749 was a dovecote attached to the abbey. It is now the town tourist information bureau.

Our story does not really start here, we left Boom after a most enlightening stay. The shipyard worked on Matilda, surveying the hull for integrity and thickness - adding some extra plating as needed and replacing an old and leaking fuel tank with one almost twice its capacity. It had to be built in place in the engine room.

We learned a lot about handling Matilda as well. Being on a tidal river and moving often to accommodate the comings and goings of other vessels, we became more precise with our manoeuvring. Steve and Alison will recall us trying to turn Matilda in a running river, it's now a piece of cake to turn the old girl in her own length. 360 degrees if needed.

On Friday, 12^th October we left Marintec in Boom, on the start of our return to Nancy. We left the Rupel river, into the Brussels-Schelde canal and away. Belgium is a fairly small country and we found the canals and waterways extensive but very commercial. Old structures interspersed with modern facilities with equipment to rapidly handle bulk products such as stone, gravel, scrap metal and rubbish as well as containers.

These are pressed cubes of scrap aluminium.

We came to Brussels and passed through without seeing anything worth a mention. We know Brussels has some beautiful areas, well worth seeing but they are not on the canals. It was only when we were out in the country that the attractive scenery returned.

We were now in the Brussels-Charleroi canal and found some more interesting structures.

This is the inside of Ecluse Ittre. It is 90 metres long, 12 metres wide and 14 metres deep. 15 million litres of water every time it empties.

The next structure was a completely different lift. The Plane Incline de Ronquiers.

This one has two lifts like bath tubs. They run on wheels up an inclined plane.

The inclined plane is nearly 1.5 kilometres long and lifts a barge 67.5 metres. And it basically uses no water.

We were approaching another heavily industrialised town when we saw a small ship we recognised. “Tara” with Jackie and Bob on board passed, going North. They were on their way to a winter mooring in Bruges, Belgium. We are not sure of their route but hope they were going via Mons thus avoiding the tidal rivers we used.

We passed through Charleroi and on to the Sambre Canal.

Massive steel mills and other heavy industry lined the banks and the canal was full of working ships.

This one passed us just as we were about to start one morning – she was going backwards. The canal was too narrow for her to turn around. We were committed to following her for almost an hour – 5 kilometres – until she backed into an area where she would load cargo.

We eventually moved out of industrial areas and arrived at Namur. Here the Sambre Canal branches off the Meuse River. We passed quickly but it will be worth a return visit another day.

The countryside became prettier and prettier

We moored in Dinant for a night. Dinant is famous for a number of things. Home of Adolf Saxe who apparently inspired these plastic things on the town bridge by inventing what we know as a Saxaphone which he patented in1846.

That great military engineer, Vauban had a hand in the design of the massive fort overlooking the town in the 17^th century.

We made a quick trip to the fort and realised why it was there. A great vantage point with view up and down the river.

Some would say the most important thing to come out of Dinant is:

Leffe beer has been brewed in an abbey on the outskirts of Dinant on and off since the 12^th century and a museum in a local hotel bears witness to the process.

Leffe is currently brewed by Interbrew (Inbev) in their Stella Artois brewery in Leuven, Belgium.

Next morning, off and further into the Meuse valley. The mists turned to fog and we were reminded of the changeable autumn weather.

This house, in one village bought to mind the song “If I were a rich man” and Peter has had an earworm ever since.

A few kilometres before we crossed into France we passed another ship we know. Nilaya with Kevin and Isabel was moored at a small village. Nilaya is a small hotel barge and they had just fare-welled their last guests for the season. They were relaxing before heading to Ghent for the winter. Matilda spent last winter in Nancy moored alongside Nilaya.

 Mouzon is a lovely little town that has already shut for winter. We are moored near the centre of the town but as the “season” has finished all facilities are shut down and no one can (or will) do anything. We are ok, the generator charges our batteries every day and our water supply of about 3000 litres should last us to Nancy. A very welcome 400 litres of red diesel acquired in Boom will come in handy. Thank you Harmonie.

The town is the centre of a busy felt manufacturing industry which has dwindled but is still the major employer. The little town museum says that more than 90% of the wool used here came from Australia.We will have things to do preparing Matilda for winter and might do some touring in the surrounding country. The towns of Sedan and Verdun are close and both very historic.

There will be more to tell soon so we will keep in touch.

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.