Peruwelz to Bar le Duc and return

 

We now have a ‘port-attach’, a home port, at Peruwelz, just across the northern French border into Belgium. We had been looking for a permanent base in the north of France or Belgium for some time, having failed to achieve it at Cambrai – our preferred place.

We spent the winter in Valenciennes and they would have offered us a place there, but getting I and out of the mooring was very difficult with the current that can flow there.

Peronne near Tournai offered us a place in theory when we asked but when we got there by car to confirm, they said that the boat which was going to vacate the very space they had in mind for us, had decided not to leave so there was no place for us after all!

So we drove straight along the canal to Peruwelz, and by sheer luck several of the ‘staff’ were present and the upshot was that a place was offered for us there. We returned to the barge still in Valenciennes in early April and set off the next day for our new mooring in Peruwelz. We had an easy day of it and moored up that evening on the quay allocated to us, in our new annual port. We celebrated with a meal in the restaurant at the port.

We started off our cruising season this year with the intention of doing the Doubs via Besancon to the Rhine and down to Strasbourg, returning via Nancy and the Meuse.

However!! We had to return to the UK for a week for a variety of reasons, including to repair the driver’s window on the car which had stuck in the open position. Then, Alex noticed the crown on his implant was loose. WOT? AGAIN! Yes, the same one that had given all the trouble near Den Bosch last year and been tightened twice by his own dentist over the winter.

So we contacted DFDS and they were able to offer us a day return for £45 and the dentist could tighten it again on that very day. So that’s what we did.

Finally we set off cruising on May 7^th – quite late for us. All went well (apart from the torrential rain storms and cold temperatures)

Ready for the next downpour!

till we got near to Vitry le Francois on the Champagne et Bourgogne Canal when the oil pressure light and alarm came on on the dashboard. But the oil pressure was fine on both gauges so Alex disconnected it and carried on. Then other strange readings started to crop up and when Alex finally checked the water level in the engine cooling system he found it well down.

He looked under the engine but initially saw no water there so he assumed the worst and decided the keel cooling must be leaking. This made us decide to change our plan and head back north via the Marne au Rhin and the Meuse.

Several things then came to light. First there was water under the engine (Alex just hadn't looked properly). Second, the leak was from the water pump (replaced less than 6 years ago) not the keel cooling. Third Alex had forgotten that he had amalgamated the oil light and buzzer with water over-temperature sensor when he got the ESTRIN Certificate in 2021 hence the warning light and buzzer. And Fourth, he had somehow transposed the oil and water temperature senders to the respective displays. (IN fact they had been incorrect for 20 odd years but as they are normally within a few degrees of each other it had never come to light.)

We got to Bar le Duc where we had arranged to meet up with Mary and Martin who were bringing with them a replacement water pump!

That all went well and Alex fitted the new pump the next day and we all celebrated by having an excellent meal out in a restaurant in the High Town.

Bar le Duc High Town

Bar le Duc High Town

Our plan had been to return north after Mary and Martin’s visit via the Meuse, but this was scuppered by the VNF who had closed the Meuse just where we would have joined it and in addition had lowered some of the pounds 20 kms beyond Bar le Duc by more than we could cope with.

So, thinking we’d be OK to give Mary and Martin a couple of days’ cruise 10 kms and ten locks upstream to Ligny en Barrois and back again, we set off. But, even here the levels were down and we struggled to make headway, but couldn't give up because there was nowhere to turn round till we got to a particular mooring where the canal gave us the necessary width. Even then, it took an hour to carry out the ‘demi tour’ in the mud, silt and weeds. We ‘moored’ for the night 3 metres from the shore as close as we could get, with one mooring line only over a bollard kindly put there by a passing walker (somewhat bemused to be asked to do this!).

Interesting mooring

Next day of course, the same thing in reverse back to Bar le Duc. But good company and good crack makes up for such problems.

M and M left to catch the train for their onward journey into Germany to visit other family members and we set off to retrace our steps to Vitry and return to Peruwelz via the same route already travelled, but we had run out of other options.

We also realised that if we did not hang about too much we could make it back to Peruwelz, and our car, in time to get back home for Will’s 50^th birthday bash and the following weekend Charles and Genevieve's wedding celebration, thus avoiding having to find a short term mooring and catching trains back to pick up the car (and the whole thing in reverse afterwards).

So it was a fairly full-on journey back, the last few days of which were in the heatwave.

Yet again - another heatwave

We were so glad to have electricity on tap when we got home to Peruwelz so we could run the air con without running the genny. And it has been soooooooo hot, the air con has ben been on virtually 24 hours a day since.

We have seen far fewer private boats again this year which is both strange and depressing as it means the VNF is less wiling to maintain the remainder canals (ie the ones with almost no commercial traffic).

Points of interest on an otherwise fairly uneventful season so far would be in order of occurrence:

We were roundly castigated for being on the mooring at Fresnes lock which another barge, Kalibel, wanted when it arrived at 6 o'clock. We offered to help them moor up on the quay behind but were told they had 22 years of boating and needed no help, then they cocked up the mooring well and truly!

The next day they rushed off at 9.15 and we followed at a more leisurely pace at 10 o'clock. And there they were 45 minutes later stuck at the first lock saying that there was no reply on VHF 18 and no answer on the phone line. Alex immediately contacted the next lock on VHF 22, explained the situation and within a few minutes we were all into the lock. 22 years?!!

We spent a night moored alongside BANDRA with Ray and Rachel and had a lovely fish pie with them for supper.

We were joined at our next mooring at Denain by an 86m x 10m barge which arrived travelling backwards up the canal towards us. We suggested we’d be happy to move but the captain said no, he could get in fine, and then he was going to be doubled by his mate and colleague on another barge. OK so far. But then the mate, on a 110m x 12m barge, arrived virtually trapping us in as there was a cruiser behind us. But next morning the cruiser made an early start and we were able to simply reverse out.

Spot the RICCALL

We decided an early stop at Vic sur Aisne and had lunch at the local bar/restaurant. Far too much food (as always) but a good meal and half went into the doggy bag in Louise’s handbag, enough for a whole lunch the next day

And the couple from the small boat ahead said that now the fishermen had left there was room for us with free water and leccy ahead of them. Maria and Harry on BAT YAM came for drinks – a very nice couple.

We admired all the new moorings being created at Reims but as yet there appeared nowhere designated for barges

Too small for us

so carried on past Sillery to Beaumont sur Vesle where there is a VNF depot and large basin. In the past we have never dared to cross to the quay, being uncertain of available depth. This time it was getting late and we decided to give it a go. It was absolutely fine and we moored up easily. While there, a young woman on a bike stopped to chat. She was English (called Louise) and was cycling from Geneva to Littlehampton via Calais!! What an adventure!

Intrepid cyclist Louise

At Conde we met Nats and Andy on EBENHAEZER, a boat that we have often seen pictured in the DBA magazine but we had never met before. They too came for drinks on RICCALL and we hope to meet up again for a return match.

On the return journey we passed through Soissons, mooring on the quay opposite the visitor moorings - free and perfect for us, and stayed an extra day to visit the market which had been so brilliant some years ago.  Well, the moorings had been upgraded, but the market was sadly going in the opposite direction!  We did a walking tour of the town and came across an impressive war memorial away from the main town streets which we hadn't seen before.  Quite something.

Soissons war memorial

We also came across an interesting boat called FALKE.  When speaking to its captain, we discovered that it had been a German patrol boat with a top speed of 24 kmh!  

FALKE

We moored at Peronnes ‘Car Wash mooring’ as we call it in the hope of finding a bit of shade and there was some to start with, but as the sun moved round we sadly lost most of it. However, in the middle of the night Alex heard some sort of commotion between the side of the boat and the quay. Eventually he went out investigate. There was something down there! He got the barge pole and started poking to try and move it down the boat and away. It fought back biting the barge pole! Eventually after much encouragement with the pole it emerged at the front of the boat and turned out to be a coypu!

Over the next few days we had an easy run through Hensies Lock onto the Pomeroeul Conde Canal. As we approached the lock we could see on the AIS that we were being caught up by a commercial KARIN. We could hear the lock keeper trying to contact KARIN on Channel 20 multiple times and then on Channel 10. No reply to any of it so we entered the lock, the gates closed and up we went. Poor old KARIN left out in the cold, as it were. but worse was to come for KARIN because as we exited the lock the lights turned to double red behind us – the lock was ‘en panne’. We could then see KARIN heading back the way it had come to take the long way round through the double locks at Peronne a good 4 to 6 hour round trip! It certainly pays to keep your radios in good working order, and switched ON!

!!!

Mining subsidence?

A long wait for VNF to get this bridge open

Interesting mooring at Revigny 

Another crack at the weed

Vreeswijk to Valenciennes

We set off from Vreeswijk Historic Harbour (leaving our car in a side street)

  Vreeswijk  mooring       

having first checked with the lockkeeper that we had time to get through his lock before the water levels made it impossible. (This lock only operates when the tidal river and canal level are equal - 2 hours either side of high water)

We had to be out of the harbour before 11 am and we were at the lock by just after 10am so that was good. It’s not easy exiting the historic harbour as there are two bridges which have to be opened – one road bridge and one pedestrian bridge operated by a ‘civvy’ who is alerted by the harbourmaster.

We crossed the Lek and stopped at Meerkerk for the night. We’d hoped to stay at the lock on the south side of the Mass for the next night but having made us wait for the lock for about 15 minutes the lockkeeper said, ‘No you can’t’ so that was that!

We trundled on for half an hour or so trying to spot a pontoon where we had stopped for the night in 2016. Suddenly we saw it, though it looked quite unlike we remembered, but there was now a sign saying only with permission and a phone number. A quick call and yes, it was OK and no charge. Phew – the next possibility was hours further on.  Reaching Den Bosch we were joined by a VERY fancy yacht!  At night lit up like a Xmas tree.

When we reached the north side of Den Bosch Alex noticed that his newly-fitted implant crown was coming loose. Bloody Hell! The emergency dental hospital said they couldn’t deal with implants so that was no good. Four dentists all asked if Alex was a registered client and if not they couldn’t help, but the fifth one asked for details of the implant and offered an appointment at 10.30 the next morning. Result! A 45 minute cycle ride and 10 minutes in the dentist’s chair and the crown was fixed again. €80 for the repair and a tip of €20 for Yolande the receptionist/practice manager for being so kind and helpful, and getting Alex a timely appointment; and we were on our way again.

A couple of days later we had to divert from our planned route yet again as the lock beyond Weert was out of order.

In due course we arrived at Maastricht and after a rather speedy arrival at the wall for the first night (exciting the couple on their small boat which we just missed)

we moved on to St Pieter’s basin, one of our favourite moorings,

 but, you’ve guessed it, the crown on Alex's implant was beginning to come loose again!

An email to the practice in Den Bosch got an answer from Jackie rather than Yolande and she was not nearly so accommodating. After several email exchanges however, things suddenly changed and an appointment later that day was offered and accepted. Alex decided this time though to give up on the crown, just go back to the ‘healing cap’ and deal with the problem with his own dentist when back in the UK.

We decided that as Den Bosch was half way back to Utrecht near Vreeswijk, we would carry on and collect our car after the dental appointment that afternoon. This all worked out fine but it meant that we didn’t get back to the barge until after 8 pm. We left the car in a free car park close by and spotted this rather lovely tree in a local garden.

We spent another day at St Pieter’s then headed slowly south, stopping overnight at the darse (commercial harbour) at Harcourt for a quick nosey round the moorings at the lock on the little parallel canal, then on to fuel up at Neptunia in Liege.

                                                            Amazing statue in Liege canalside.

Alex missed his footing when swinging onto the steps of the fuel barge to pay the bill and managed to crack a rib as he swung back against the hull.  (Wot, again?!!!)

We had to wait for hours to pass through the Amsin lock as only the old lock was operating, and that on only one sluice gate and there were lots of large commercials taking priority. But later it gradually became obvious that whatever problem had slowed up our passage had become a complete closure as suddenly there were no more barges of any sort coming up behind us.

We spent a night at the nice mooring at Amay then on to Huy wall where we had a long chat with the captain of barge LIBRIA, owned by a South African couple who obviously had a lot of money to be able to employ, full time, a captain/handyman.

At Namur we moored just up the Sambre which was OK but we might have been better on the Meuse just before the junction as the Sambre became very busy with both pleasure and commercial boats – probably the backlog from Amsin Lock, now fixed?

We decided to pass through Charleroi and carry on up the Sambre a couple of kilometres to Marchiennes and moor there for the night. The only problem was that it was full of boats there for a festival on that weekend. We passed through, turned round and headed back through the assembled throng to the only mooring left about 50m downstream of the gaggle of boats. No sooner had we tied up than one of the old guys organising the festival came down and invited us to join in the following day. How kind, but we explained that we had a bit of a time pressure and would be moving on.

The quay at Soudromont was taken up with a huge commercial and also a new Neptunia fuel barge! This is quite an innovation as finding fuel on-line is often tricky. But unfortunately no room for us this time, so we moored up on the new commercial quay at Pont de Manage.

On our way to the Strepy-Thieu lift we passed the biggest fishing competition we have ever seen – we counted 90 fishermen!!

We spent the night at Mons at our favourite mooring next to the car park next to the swimming pool.

Later in the day a campervan turned up and we got talking to the lady owner. 

                                                                  The lady in the van!

We invited her for aperos and soon discovered that she was ‘born again’ and on a sort of pilgrimage to ‘find herself’.  

Alex caught the train back to Maastricht to collect the car and leave it at Mons Grand Large. He had worked out that this was the best way to achieve moving the car along as the trains from Valenciennes to Maastricht didn’t link up time-wise and it would take all day.

At the Pommeroel-Conde Canal quay we awoke to thick fog! And had to wait till 11.45 before we could see enough to set off safely.

Thereafter we had an easy day to Valenciennes at which point everything turned belly-up.

Alex underestimated the flow down into the port and although we had told the Capitaine that we were coming in, she failed both to move a boat moored in ‘our’ place, and to explain where we were supposed to be mooring. She also tried to insist we turned round before mooring up, which would normally be our preferred plan, but the flow was just too great.

We spent about half an hour trying our damnedest fighting the current and trying to get a line onto anything that might help stop our forward momentum. Eventually we got a line onto a lamp post and then miraculously, the flow eased off and we nosed into a temporary spot which was going to be occupied by another barge in due course.

This occasional flow is created by the weir at the end of the moorings which controls the level of the canal, so sometimes it is open to reduce the level and sometimes it is closed when the level is low enough. So the speed of the flow in the port is very variable and unpredictable, and a trap for the unwary, as we found out. Strangely, the flow can sometimes even be upstream if the weir is closed and the adjacent lock is being filled.

The arrangement for water and electricity in Valenciennes is by a card which is loaded with litres or units by the Capitaine and then off-loaded onto the borne chosen. What was not explained, was that only 30 units would be transferred when the button was pressed (we had assumed the whole amount would be transferred). Each subsequent press transfers another 30 units. Thus our electricity ran out after 30 units while we were away and on our return the power was off and our domestic batteries were down to 16v – probably terminal. AGAIN!!!

Totals stats for the season:

1674.85 kms

100 locks

149 bridges (lift or slide aside)