DBA Rally to Diksmuide

On the way back north from the DBA rally in Auxerre, and realising we had plenty of time before winter mooring, we had been going to go up the Ardennes Canal, down the Meuse and on via Charleroi to Diksmuide.

However, we soon learned that Lock 56 on the Meuse was closed (supposedly until 4^th September) so instead we decided to explore the Canal de l’Oise a l’Aisne and the southern side of the closed Sambre a l’Oise, as far as we could up to the closed point.

Lovely lock cottage en route

While on the Oise a L'Aisne, and moored at Pinon, we decided to take the train into Laon, a town/city we had often seen from afar from the A26 motorway. Laon's picturesque old town is situated on the summit of a scarped hill, and stands high above the new town. The haul up the steep hill from the railway station was demanding but its little streets were lovely, the cathedral glorious, and we had a very nice lunch outside a tiny side-street bistro.

Moving on we were pleasantly surprised to find good moorings at Chauny and stocked up at an edge-of-town Lidl for the journey into the unknown! We even managed to buy some lock-side vegetables from an elderly couple selling from their own patch – almost unheard of now on the canals.

Chauny Hotel de VIlle

Excellent mooring at Chauny

Our next mooring was at La Fère – a lovely mooring. Would that we had known, there was a HUGE new Lidl only half a kilometre away and an enormous l‘Eclerc just 500m in the opposite direction!

And now we were into the Canal Sambre à l’Oise proper. But it was Sunday and we realised that we would only be able to get through a couple of locks as all the ones further upstream were closed on Sundays. Why so? Well it became clear later that afternoon as we passed two péniches moored abreast and waiting for Monday to take on gravel. They need the locks downstream to be available 7 days a week, but not the ones upstream of the gravel yard. (However, on our return journey, and to our surprise, we discovered a péniche above Lock 28 waiting for grain loading, so the canal is not completely unused.)

However, the closure was fine for us as we had earmarked our possible mooring from the DBA’s moorings guide, just downstream of the first closed lock (No 33 if you are following this in Fluviacarte!!) This did not prevent a long one-sided but cheerful ‘conversation’ from the VNF éclusier all about the fact that the locks were closed on Sunday and an almost unintelligible explanation of where we could moor for the night. On reflection, we think it was possibly where we did in fact moor, but his verbal description and strange hand signals had left us in some doubt! It was a lovely rural spot, a good long quay with small ring holders set into it that would once have held proper mooring rings but now only two full rings were left. The remaining ring holders were enough to get a shackle or rope through and as there was NO other traffic, all was well. We spent the rest of the afternoon cycling 20kms along the excellent towpath, just to see what was what.

The only downside of the mooring was a generator at the downstream end, pumping water into the nearby lake for some reason, which appeared to be set for 24 hour running. We moved as far along the quay as we could and had a fairly peaceful night – even a little sun filtered through the trees allowing for drinks on deck.

The next day we set off and the first lock worked fine, but we soon learned that there is a VERY long delay between pressing the button on the telecommand and anything actually happening at the lock!

The next lock simply would not respond. We tried VHF10 and no response. We rang the number we had taken note of on all previous locks – no response. So we managed to get near enough the bank for Louise to get off (no mooring bollards of course) with her phone to see if there was a different number on the lockside. There was, and the VNF eclusier said he would see to it “toute suite”. 10 minutes later Louise was back on board and the lock was operating.

The next lock also failed to operate on the telecommand signal but we had the right telephone number now and again 10 minutes later we were going through.

Finally we got to Origny-Sainte-Benoît, the head of navigation and there was a plethora of places to moor.

We chose the silo quay mooring as the bollards were well spaced for us and the quay at a good height. 

Another fantastic mooring - until 10pm that is!

There is a huge sugar beet refinery and a malting operation in Origny together with a chemical works and sewage farm, so it’s all a bit industrial but there are a couple of restaurants (one being refurbished) a bakery and a Carrefour Express, so not entirely remote from civilisation.

All was quiet until about 10pm at night when the cooling fan for the grain silo started up right outside the boat. Oh bother! But never mind; the weather was still pretty cool and inclement so close the portholes and block it all out.

The forecast for the following day was for cloud but no rain with a bit of sunshine later, so we packed a picnic and set off for the closed section, on our bikes. The overcast sky was a blessing as we had a very long day ahead up-hill-and-down-dale, although we hadn’t realised this when we set off: the ‘towpath’ only stretches for one more pound, after which it was unsuitable for bikes and it was necessary to use the local roads and ‘find’ the subsequent locks!

Actually the next three locks above Origny ARE operational and there was a VNF working boat above the first of them to prove it, but the VNF éclusier when asked, refused to let us go any further in the boat. How mean is that? He had nothing else to deal with! We haven’t seen a single other plaisance boat up here since we started.

So, bikes it was, and we inspected every lock up to Vadencourt and the two aqueducts which we understood are not usable because of instability. In fact, they have been entirely de-watered and the water from the pounds above is led through two large-bore pipes. We made notes and took copious pictures of all there was to see.  Here are a couple.

Sad sight - a dry canal bed

'The canal' !!!!

It has to be said, it is a lovely canal – a little straight perhaps on the southern side of the closure, but very rural and very tranquil. None of the villages en route are actually on the CANAL. They are all to one side or the other, mostly on the river Oise itself. Most have suffered the depopulation that so many villages in France suffer from but Vadencourt was quite nice, charming even, in a slightly dusty way!! It even had a small Proxi supermarket, post office and bar.

There was a bit of weed to contend here and there but we didn’t find it a major problem and it seemed to be confined to certain biefs.

So all in all, a worthwhile exercise we think and a surprise for some of the locals who have not seen a barge up as far as Origny for years!

So to our European boating readers, we’d say, why not try to include it in your cruising plans? The due date for re-opening is now said to be 2020, but that date has changed many times and we feel it would show real interest if more boats and barges made the short deviation – it could easily be done in only 2 days if you literally wanted to ‘tick the box’ but the canal does offer a very pleasant longer sojourn and is surprisingly deep and wide throughout.

After all, USE IT OR LOSE IT, as they say!

We had a long chat with a professional bargee when we got back to La Fère, all in rapid French (his, not ours!) about the state of the Nation and the number of unemployed who just took state benefits and spent their days fishing!! etc. etc. (Great fun, if a little mind-boggling trying to keep up.)

Then we headed off to revisit St Quentin, last seen 8 years ago.

Lovely St Quentin - Grand Place

It seems so  much better now, with good moorings adjacent to the VNF depot – a kilometre upstream from the 'port' which has poor ratings. We stopped at the island mooring at the junction with the now-

closed Somme short-cut both on the way to St Quentin and on the way back. 

Idylllic island mooring

But in the night Louise was woken by the sound of tiny feet on the deck and after having investigated from the wheelhouse and seen nothing, she went to the loo, only to find a large rat on the shore staring in through the porthole! Thank goodness there is no way into our actual living quarters, so long as they keep their distance, good luck to them – or so says Alex. Louise thinks differently!

We wended our way south and west eventually back onto the Canal du Nord for our route back to Diksmuid for our winter mooring. (We have done the Riqueval Tunnel north of St Quentin once before and as far as we are concerned, never again, thank you! Hence the long way round.)

The sapeurs-pompiers on a training day!  In the lock!

A few days later we were heading up the Canal du Nord lock flight toward the summit when we noticed PASSE LAGOM was showing up on the AIS few locks ahead of us. We couldn't contact Nils and Torild on Channel 10 on the radio so had to call mutual friends by phone to alert them to our presence behind. We ended up both moored at one of our favourite moorings at what we call the Bois be Vaux before the tunnel itself. A jolly evening ensued but while they decided to stay on the next day, our itchy feet persuaded us to motor on.

Passe Lagom's Nils and Torild wave us off

We had time to spare though and had decided to take a couple of diversions; the first up the Scarpe Superiore to have a look at the town of Arras.

The first lock presented a problem as we didn't have the requisite remote, so we turned RICCALL and headed back to the lock on the main line where you are supposed to pick it up! (We didn't see any info to alert us to that.) They saw us coming and had it ready as Louise mounted the steps, but not before the éclusier had given her a quick tour of the control tower with all its monitors and bird's eye views.

We only had to call the engineers a couple of times over the next few days to get the locks going as we travelled up to Arras. We moored at the last possible place for us (and for everyone else as the canal is closed to all traffic upstream) opposite the kayak centre and cycled the rest of the way into Arras town and what a treat!  We think the two main squares (one in particular) are some of the very best we have ever seen in France.   See what you think.

Lovely Arras Grand Place

Alex went up the tower for magnificent views over the town while Louse enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine and watched the wedding parties emerging from the town hall. Great fun!

Wedding balloons

The port you can't get to in Arras - what a shame!

The next day as we prepared to turn round to re-trace our steps a dog-walker warned us that there was a shopping trolley under the water just where we wanted to make our turn. Good info: we fished it out with the boathook so it didn't get caught up in our propeller.

Our next detour was to Lens. The first mooring on this dead-end canal is one that we have used once before to get off the Canal du Nord highway. It's not so very peaceful though, as the wash from the big boys going past the end makes the mooring staging surge, and of course the boat too. This time we stopped about half way to Lens on a good quiet mooring beside a pleasant park. We knew that the end of the canal was a no-go area so we cycled the rest of the way into Lens and found it decidedly forgettable! To cap it all ,when we finally sussed out the true 'head of navigation' it was within the purlieus of a chemical works and Alex had to talk the gate guard into letting him in for just a second to take one photo of the head of navigation!

The end of the line in Lens

When we got back to the boat, and needing only half an hour for a leisurely lunch in the all-too-rare sunshine, we discovered that the strimming squad were out in full force attacking the grass right next to the boat! 

The strimmers at work - no peace for our lunch!

Louise's entreaties fell on deaf ears, and now that it was no longer peaceful we beat a hasty retreat back to the Canal du Nord main line. We spend the night in another favourite mooring - the Gare d'Eau near the junction with the Dunkirk-Escaut Waterway.

Then we headed north to Dunkirk, took a detour through the first lock onto the Lys for a quiet night's mooring then back onto the main drag for a rather long slog into Dunkirk.

The following days we had trouble with locks and bridges that needed engineering help to operate but finally got to Veurne, where we arranged to leave the barge for a week while we returned to England.

One night on this lovely free mooring then into the port.

Lovely Veurne - a good city to spend tine in

This gave Diksmuid time to ready itself to actually receive its winter-moorers! The problem was, it turned out, that the refurbishment/replacement of the floating pontoons had taken longer than anticipated and there really had been NOWHERE to put RICCALL!

When we returned from England we had another lovely night at Finetelle before finally mooring up on the new pontoon in Diksmuid.

So, with apologies, this blog has been very delayed in its production, mainly due to our efforts on the house in Kent, but here it finally is!!!

Our stats for this year are:

2024.4 kms      292 locks    39 bridges    7 tunnels

Summer DBA Rally and other bits!

We finally got back to Cambrai on Whit Saturday. The Channel Tunnel 'waiting to board' car park had been absolutely packed, but we found a nice grassy area signed 'Picnic' where we parked and did indeed have a picnic lunch in warm sunshine along with a million other cars.

We left Cambrai on the Sunday and were surprised how few commercial boats were showing up on our computer AIS screen, and really began to think maybe the locks were closed yet again! Then Alex noticed that the radio aerial was not pointing up into the sky as it should be and suddenly, all the commercials appeared on the screen, but even then not so very many on the go.

This meant that when we reached the start of the Canal du Nord we were the only boat around.

The first lock at Arleux was ready and waiting and so were all the rest to the very top of the flight. We did the whole flight in 3¼ hours but the best bit was from Marquion to the top, which took only 2 hours 5 minutes! That must be a record! Every lock was open and waiting but we had a moment of 'worry' when we could see on the AIS a commercial coming down towards us. Would they hold the lock for us or turn it round for the commercial? A close run thing – but they kept it in our favour, so the poor commercial had a 10 minute wait.

And so our first night was at one of our favourite moorings above Ecluse Graincourt No 7, on top of the world in peace and seclusion, with sunshine thrown in.

We were on a bit of a mission of course, as the trip to the UK had rather taken longer than expected and we were heading for the DBA Rally in Auxerre, but still, when we met a lovely Dutch couple, Anita and Peter on their barge BARRACUDA at St-Christ-Briost, we exchanged drinks, viewings and gossip, then again the next night at Noyon. 

BARRACUDA at St Christ-Briost

Their barge, newly built, with every gizmo you could think of was SO different from RICCALL that we viewed each other's barge with amazement! The steering position on BARRACUDA was like something out of the Starship Enterprise, complete with captain's chair on runners to move it towards the myriad of controls (360º bow thruster, autopilot, front and rear remote viewing cameras with 22” VDU screen, trolling valve, front and rear spud poles, multiple navigation aids, lever controlled hydraulic steering etc, etc). And they had managed to get 3 double bedrooms into their 22m of barge as well as lounge, kitchen-diner and an outside seating and dining area which could be raised or lowered (to cover it) at the touch of a button!

However, Peter did say that he was amazed how roomy RICCALL was when you looked at her size from the outside, and was generally very complimentary, which was nice as he has spent the last 15 years running a boatyard, building and repairing barges, including his own.

We spent a long day, for us - 68kms and 4 locks - and finally got to Pontoise, where we spent another pleasant night on the town quay – another of our favourite moorings.

Further on, and up the Seine at Bougival, we came across ANTHONIA and our friends, Jeremy and Carol, also on their way to the rally. An impromptu drinks and supper ensued and all agreed to make an early start to cross Paris the following morning. All went well, with each of us taking hundreds of pics  -

Approaching the La Defense business district of Paris

ANTHONIA in the distance, dwarfed by the Eiffel Tower!

and thankfully 'our' mooring at the Seine-Marne junction was available as usual, for us to breast up. Carol suggested a meal out in a local French brasserie which was just great.

Our favourite Parisian mooring, opposite the Chinese exuberance!

Watching the river cruise ships turn - great spectator sport

ANTHONIA left the next morning while we stayed to do more painting as the quay was at an ideal height.

Removing the masking tape is a tricky job when the paint is still tacky

We caught up with ANTHONIA and ESME when we reached Melun where they were both already moored and we stopped early for the day as the wind was becoming unbearable. The wind kept us moored for the whole of the next day as well - we just don't do windy cruising.

We all met up again at Sens - ESME, ANTHONIA, AURIGNY and several other barges which we got to know once arrived in Auxerre. But we had a laugh as we approached the mooring because Peter on Aurigny had told us there was plenty of room to moor but the barge Sabrina of London obviously did not know this. We had overtaken them in the lock (they were kept waiting and had moored at the back so we had to moor ahead of them) and when we were released we did our normal speed 8kph and they came rushing past at about 12kph to take what might be the last mooring spot. John apologised later saying they wanted to catch the market, but that evening over drinks one of their guests admitted they had actually been more worried about the moorings!

Rich man's country cottage on the upper Seine . . .

. . . but there's still commercial activity to contend with

Verrry tight fit

ANTONIA  and AURIGNY had an earlier arrival time at Auxerre, as did the other barges so they left before us and ESME and RICCALL brought up the rear sharing the locks and moorings up to Auxerre.

We arrived at the last lock just up river from Auxerre at the appointed time to be greeted by the rally organiser, John Best, who showed us to the mooring position allocated to us. This was the first in line after the lock but we had to moor well out from the quay with our biggest tyres under the boat as it was very shallow. However, the advantages were that we had no boat moored outside us, we weren't right in the thick of the action (some might think that a downside, but not us!), we were closer to the town and well away from the children's playground and public outdoor swimming pool.

The rally itself was a great success with a trip to a 'cave' (wine cellar), wine tasting and buffet lunch on the first day, boules competition, champagne reception and dinner on the second day, boat race and evening BBQ in the Auxerre Port de Plaisance on the third day. It was all very sociable and we got to look round several other barges and several sets of people looked round RICCALL- some of them prospective barge purchasers who were gathering information and asking questions.

Thirty barges and 120 attendees - quite a rally!

Jeremy of ANTHONIA winning the boat race

Here's a link to the official rally video if you're interested:

https://vimeo.com/223883595

 

But on the way to this event we had had two failures: the LED UV steriliser unit started showing a RED light instead of a GREEN one, and the PV panel controller went phut! and stopped working. Pearl Aqua were very concerned that the Aquisense unit had failed so soon and agreed to send a replacement asap to Auxerre to wait for our arrival. And the suppliers of the PV controller said they would do the same. Both parcels arrived as promised and were waiting at the Port de Plaisance when we arrived, so that was a great relief. Alex installed both units in double quick time but while the steriliser was fine, the new PV controller failed after about an hour! We asked the supplier to send another one express delivery and we would wait where we were until it got to us.

After the rally our next destination was Reims, where we had arranged to leave the barge for a couple of weeks while we returned to the UK for Louise's son Robert's wedding to Amy. (Note to children – why organise these things during the cruising season? So thoughtless!!) So we were to retrace our steps to Paris, then up the Marne to Conde and turn left for Reims.

On our way to Paris we were joined by our old friend Derran, who was to spend a few days with us. After some confusion as to exactly WHERE we were waiting for him (Derran doesn't have a sat-nav in his car which would have helped with our position coordinates) we finally got him on board.

Onward and our favourite mooring in Paris was again available and we had supper in the same bistro as 3 weeks previously – again perfect.

Louise and Derran at the Isles des Meldeuses 

Well I never - a glass of wine (or more) to end the day!

Lovely Meaux mooring again

At Lagny Derran caught the train back to collect his car but at Meaux and Isle les Meldeuses he cycled back, which apparently made for some interesting route-finding, despite taking our reserve sat-nav with him!!

When it came time for him to leave, he gave us a lift up to Cambrai where our own car had been left, because we had worked out that the journey to collect it from Reims would be extremely tricky, (4 to 6 hours with 3 changes of train), whereas collecting it from anywhere on the Marne, from Reims, was much easier.

By the time he left, Derran was becoming quite a useful extra crew-member – steering, throwing ropes and helping to moor and un-moor. It was lovely to have him with us, but we also appreciate being just 'a deux', which we then would be for the rest of the summer.

A few days later, we arrived at Vandieres, our 9½ out of 10 mooring, where we planned to spend a couple of nights. It's a beautiful, peaceful spot with a panoramic view of the champagne vineyards covering the valley hillside.

When we arrived we were delighted to see a couple of peacocks on the staging by the mooring, 

"Hey, this looks interesting!"

but you can have too much of a good thing, and by the time they had come on board several times and tried to eat Louise's flowers we decided enough was enough, 

"We were hoping for a ride . . ."

"This is a good perch"

so discouraged them by zealous use of the deck-wash hose and eventually they got the message.

We were now within a couple of days of Reims and our next UK return.

Winter in Bruges and Kent and setting sail

We have been thinking during the winter that our readers, if any still remain, must be getting pretty fed-up with our cruising tales, and thought perhaps it was time to stop writing this blog. But in the end, we decided to continue, if only to allow us to look back on our experiences ourselves in later years!! So here we go . . .

We have spent most of this winter in the UK trying to get the new house in Hawkinge into some sort of liveable shape, not the least of which involved re-attaching an end wall, rebuilding the chimney on said wall, taking out one set of ‘cupboard’ stairs and the associated fireplace and chimney breast, in order to install a proper flight of stairs.

Re-attaching the end wall!

The old stairs and fireplace

The new stairs

We then abandoned the house, unpainted and in some rooms unplastered, to return to Bruges and set off for more mayhem, this time in dry dock, on RICCALL.

As we mentioned last year, the tunnel over the prop was going to have to be removed and after much research, we booked in with de Schroef, near Zelzate, just over the border into Holland. All went surprisingly well; the tunnel has now been largely removed and RICCALL is handling much better. Also on the plus side, the prop walk is still much reduced.

Much reduced prop tunnel

We returned to Bruges for a week then set off for this year’s cruising season proper!

Three days at Diksmuid (our venue for this coming winter’s mooring) then a night at Ypres with attendance at the obligatory ‘Last Post’ service of remembrance. A lovely cycle ride around the old fortifications, soup and fries in the square then set sail for a night at one of our favourite moorings at Fintele on the River IJzer on our way to the Belgian/French border west of Veurne.

Ypres Museum

The Last Post ceremony - every night at 8pm

We spent two nights in Dunkirk enjoying the peaceful mooring above the Jeu de Mail Lock and having a good look round the town, including watching a basinée at Tristram Lock of a very large ship.

At Aire-sur-la-Lys on the Dunkirk-Escaut Waterway we turned left onto the old River Lys and rang the lockkeeper. This was a Saturday and the lock keeper informed us that the locks were closed at weekends until the 1^st of May. We decided to wait rather than take the shorter and much busier commercial route on the main waterway but this would miss Lille altogether. In the meantime we looked at the town of Aire for two days, but scored on the first afternoon by joining an already started tour of the ‘tour’ - the town’s ancient watchtower; all in French so a bit hard to understand but the view from the top and the bells, the bells were great.

The Ascenseur des Fontinettes

The Bells!  The Bells!

The oldest building in Aire-sur-la-Lys

We rang the éclusier on Monday morning and at first were told it would now be Tuesday before we could pass through the locks! However, with a little persuasion 2 o’clock was offered. So at last we were off again.

The Lys was lovely and peaceful with not another boat in sight till we reached Armentieres Lock 

Lovely mooring on the Lys

where we were held up by a tiny bateau école coming up through the lock! Never mind, we got through eventually and moored up for a peaceful night just below the lock on the left bank before the redundant railway bridge – a good spot which we had used once before.

The next day it was onto the Canal de La Basse Deule after a short delay to allow a fully laden péniche to cross our bows. Thank goodness for AIS – makes these junctions so much easier and safer to navigate. And at last into the Bras de la Citadelle in Lille- another all-time favourite where we can have a nice meal at the canal-side restaurant and free wifi as well. On no you can’t!!! The restaurant is closed for refurbishment! The maitre d’ apologises but says the restaurant just along the way will be good. We think he probably owns that one too, but we did give it a try and it was fine but sadly no wifi. So the next day we cycled to SFR to try and find out why our latest pay-as-you-go voucher didn’t work. Apparently we had been sold the wrong one by the local tabac, and we should return there to exchange it! Will they swap it? Yes, they did! Amazing!

Our first stop out of Lille was in the Gare d’Eau at the junction with the Dunkerque-Escaut Waterway. This is a huge, always empty boat park 400m long by 50m wide with bollards all down one side and an entrance at each end. The first time we were here we found that the edge had silted up a bit so Alex went along the whole 400m with the barge pole testing the depth. About three quarters of the way along he found a good 20m stretch with 1.4m depth right to the edge. So we moored there and painted the relevant bollards white. Subsequently we just head for that spot and we moor up in splendid isolation in this lovely place.

There has never been another boat in it but you get glimpses of the big boys as they pass on the main canal behind the bushes and trees. There are no facilities and the nearest shops are about 3 kms away but the path is used occasionally by dogwalkers and cyclists.

We trundled on heading for the Canal du Nord and eventually a fortnight’s mooring in Reims while we returned to the UK for a pre-wedding ‘meet the other parents’ lunch on the Wirral, doctors and dentists etc.

However, once we arrived at Arleux, the first lock on the Canal du Nord, we discovered that there was a closure for the WHOLE weekend ahead, including Bank Holiday Monday! Three whole days! We could still make Reims but we hate hurry so a different plan had to be conceived.

Eventually, after contact with several friends and Ports de Plaisances, Bob Marsland rang to say Cambrai would be able to take us. (Thanks so much for that Bob). So we diverted to Cambrai to leave the boat there for our UK trip. From Cambrai to Auxerre, our destination for the DBA rally in mid June, we’d go via the shorter route via Pontoise and Paris, instead of the more scenic route via Reims. Perfect.

We brought the car over from Bruges; three trains - first one late by 10 minutes, with an 8 minute changeover, but they delayed the connecting outgoing train. How sensible is that? - the advantage of a nationalised system. As we know well, in the UK the outgoing train leaves regardless, probably run by a competing company!

And here we are now back at Cambrai in a lovely mooring with our UK visits very successfully completed.

Safe haven in Cambrai

Last blog of 2016

So finally, we are writing our last blog of the year.

It has been a fraught few months since we last published a blog, hence the rather long delay in writing this one!

We ended our last blog at a nice Marrekrite mooring close to a town called Joure.

Rubbish collection at a FREE mooring place

From there we spent a few days in the commercial harbour in Drachten – empty and free including electricity - while we waited for a day fine enough to take the wheelhouse roof off to pass under 3 low bridges on the next leg of our journey.

Drachten - another free, and empty mooring

Eventually the day dawned bright and dry and we cruised up to the first bridge, tied up to a rather rickety private mooring and lowered the roof. The people in the house opposite were fascinated and amazed and gave us the universal thumbs-up gesture.

We spent a couple of nights in Groningen on a good free mooring on the canal to the south east approach.

Groningen railway station - magnificent

We had fun going through the town with all the lift bridges and had to wait ages at one of them, while a long museumbrug ‘raft’ powered by an outboard at each end came through: the front outboard acting as their ‘bow thruster’!

Strange craft

We headed north through the Hoge Zuidval up as far as the Lauwwersoog inland lake, which is about as far north you can get in Holland and had a windy lunch stop on the edge of a jachthaven there. We decided, though, not to spend the night in this extremely uncomfortable spot, cost notwithstanding, and found a good sheltered mooring on an island further south.

Lauwwersoog - windy lunch spot

Lovely Zoutcamp

When we got to Dokkum we decided to stay on the chargeable town quay and pay. Unfortunately, we said our boat was 18m and were charged for ‘18m and more’, rather than ‘17.99m and less’ – a stiff €24, rather than €11.70. We thought that was a bit mean, so we only stayed the one night, but Dokkum was a nice place and well worth the lengthy diversion north - 3 pictures follow.

At Leeuwarden we had been told by our friends George and Suzanna Snijder that we would be able to use the historic harbour and to contact Robert the harbourmaster for permission. A great mooring for €5 a night and the young lady in the barge behind us let us plug into her electricity supply after some sweet talk by Alex.

Leeuwarden bridge and leaning tower

We stayed for 4 nights! We took the train back to Vreeswijk to pick up the car which we dropped off at SRF in Harlingen. Leeuwarden is a nice town with interesting things to do and see. On one of our days there the town was holding a festival all along the side of the canal with shows and live performances everywhere. And great fun!

Outdoor performance artistes at the Festival - brilliant!

At last the weather had cheered up and we found an idyllic mooring in the country for our last night before heading to SRF for the lift out.

Harlingen tall ships

The lift went without a hitch and after jet washing her hull RICCALL was lowered gently onto her supports for the rest of the work to begin.

Gentle manoeuvring

We had decided, among other things, that we ought to get the TRIVW certification for RICCALL because although this is generally only required for boats over 20m, there is a caveat that shorter boats whose overall dimensions (in metres) when multiplied together come to over 100, would also need the TRIVW. Ours comes to 126 so even though it’s probably unlikely that we would ever be questioned about it, we decided to get the certificate, because at this stage older ships have less onerous demands on them provided the certificate is gained before the end of 2018. Thereafter, all ships requiring certification will have to comply fully, so if RICCALL was found to need the TRIVW after 2019 she wouldn’t be able to comply and would probably have to be scrapped.

We contacted Peter Voerman who can carry out the necessary surveys and issue a TRIVW certificate.

We also asked SRF for a quote for modifying the stern to reduce our severe prop walk and also to make the rudder a bit more efficient.

The quote for this work seemed acceptable, and involved cutting out the vertical support for the skeg, reinforcing said skeg with horizontal bars on either side, creating a quarter tunnel over the propeller and adding a bit to the front edge of the rudder.

While all that was going on, Peter Voerman turned up to do the hull survey and certification.

He found a couple of rivets that needed welding and said that the turn of the bilge on the port side would need to be overplated at some point in the next 3 to 4 years. We decided to have it done there and then as we had confidence in SRF and then wouldn’t have to worry about it for the rest of our lives!

Peter mentioned a couple of other minor things to do on the hull and a few acquisitions to allow him to give us the TRIVW (reflective life-ring, 150mm high ENI number installed on the rear of the wheelhouse, 3 x 6kg fire extinguishers, ‘no flame’ signs near fuel fillers, ‘wear ear protectors’ in engine room etc etc – so nothing too onerous. Hopefully then, when we have sent him the photographic evidence of all those things, we will have our TRIVW certification. Whoopee!

Over the next couple for weeks SRF carried out all the work over the prop and on the rudder while Alex and Louise stripped off the paint on the saloon roof and repainted it all with two pack epoxy. Alex also replaced the water pump on the engine and repacked the stern gland packing (SRF refurbished the prop shaft bearings as well.)

What SRF did

We joined our chums, Paul and Diane, for 3 nights in an Airbnb flat in Harlingen, to give us some respite from boat-yard living (good suggestion P and D) and entertained Mary and Martin and George and Suzannah for supper on board one evening.

SRF painted the underside and we did from the waterline up to deck level. One of the other joys of the strap lift-out came when RICCALL was put back in the straps, lifted and the places that had been on the supports could be painted as well before she went back in the water.

Now we had the return trip to our mooring in Bruges to tackle and complete, within a couple of weeks or so.

This is so unlike our usual style, as it meant long days and very brief stops for lunch, if any.

As we reversed out of the straps at SRF Alex immediately noticed that the prop walk had all but disappeared but in due course when we got into the shallower canals we discovered the downsides of the prop tunnel. Basically, in shallow water, the prop was being starved of water creating cavitation and the need for many more revs from the engine to create the same stopping, starting and turning effects compared to before the tunnel was fitted.

At one particularly sharp bend we ended up on the ‘wrong’ side of the canal at the bottom of somebody’s garden because we just couldn’t make the turn. The houseowner who was in the garden doing a bit of weeding, was somewhat surprised but we explained that we had just had work done and it was taking some getting used to the change!

At another point we accidentally missed a sign marking a village canal bypass which had been made, and found ourselves going right through the middle of the village. A sign indicated we were too big to pass and we were given conflicting advice as to whether we could get through or not. Finally a woman barge owner came out to us and said yes we definitely could, but the bridge keeper would accompany us. So, very, very slowly with about a foot clearance on either side, we made our way along the sinuous canal through the village with the bridge keeper giving us encouragement and advice. We ended up with a bit of vegetation on the decks but avoided contact all the way through. A bit tense, with the mods to the steering to cope with.

A bit tight through Warga!

Then we were back on familiar territory, travelling back through Ozzenzijl and Blokzijl and then another night on Eekt Island and on round the back of Flevoland Island, eventually through the southern end of the Markemeer and into Muiden. After another long day we moored at the lock in Vreeswijk.

Sailing tjalks

We decided to give the Biesbosch another chance on our route south and, armed with a chart the rescue police had given us 8 years ago, an up to date chart of the area AND our PC Navigo we set off on the prescribed route, checking charts and depth readings as we went. All went well for the first hour then Woomph! we went aground. Fortunately we were going very slowly so were able to reverse off and try a different course further towards where we hoped the deeper channel was, but no, aground again. So Alex said ‘Right, that’s it: we go right back to where we started and take the longer route which we know is OK because we did it 8 years ago’. One of the beauties of PC Navigo is that it shows you where you have been as well as where to go, so we were able to retrace our route along exactly the same track as we had used coming in. Even so, we touched bottom a couple of times on the way back (maybe the very small tide was on the way out!) but got over no trouble.

A peaceful mooring - the night before we went aground!!

So then we were into the Volkerak and moored for the night at Steenbergsche Vliet, on a ‘no mooring’ sign, but who cares? Just Antwerp and the Scheldt River to contend with now before an easy trip along the Ghent bypass canal and on into Flandriahaven in Bruges.

Antwerp docks are amazing but we had the usual tense wait with another 9 ships at the Royersluis before getting out onto a choppy Sea Scheldt.

We overnighted at Dendermonde where the lock keeper again gave us the incorrect time to leave the following day! but we sussed it out ourslves with the help of Dick and Lynne on SUZANNA who were moored behind us and were going to be travelling with us the next day.

However, we were informed by the lockkeeper when we got to the lock that the river upstream had been ‘closed’ for dredging and we would have to wait for another hour or so. This meant that when it finally reopened there were about 12 barges queued up also trying to go upriver, so one by one we had to let them pass us as we all headed for Ghent.

The que;u;e behind us up the Scheldt!

Once arrived at Bruges, harbourmaster Patrick tried to moor us at the very end of the moorings close to where we had been last winter but this time alonside the quay. Not enough depth! So we ended up swapping places with Laura Marie - a much shallower-draughted boat - and mooring outside Anthonia. A nice spot and Jeremy and Carol are lovely neighbours.

So what did we do in 2016? 1691 Kilometres 101 locks 199 bridges