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

Namur to Holland Meres

Blog 123 Namur to Holland Meres

Sorry folks! It’s been a long time since we wrote our last blog and we have met so many people and discussed so often what we’ve all been doing during that time that we actually thought we had posted another blog!!!!

So here goes, to make amends. We left Namur with a kind donation of a map of our next section from Sean and Lynne on ELLE but we failed to get their contact details. Do get in touch S and L so we can return it!

We made good progress down the fast flowing Meuse but after a couple of locks we came up against a long queue of commercials waiting at the next lock. Suddenly a voice came over the radio on Channel 10 saying “RICCALL come forward to the front of the queue; you can go in with the next commercial in front of me”. This came from the captain of a commercial who had assessed the situation. So up we went and just as we were about to enter the lock we got the red light. Wot! Again? The lockkeeper didn’t think we could fit in with the other boats. Actually, there was plenty of room but we waited and went with SINBAD and Captain Hank (who had called us forward) on the next lockage.

We arrived at Lanaye lock a few kilometres before Maastricht and turned into the Meer just downstream (Waterrecreatiecentrummere!!!!) We had been told of a little mooring behind the island and with some trepidation nosed our way round, keeping a watchful eye on the depth meter. All was well and it was so nice and peaceful we spent 2 nights there – unable to get off to go anywhere, but so quiet and delightful with just the occasional passing rowing boat.

We had contacted our friends Jeroen and Anja of DA CAPO II

who we had moored with 8 years before and who had been so kind to us. They said there were just upstream of the John F Kennedybrug in Maastricht, but we missed their turning and had to turn upstream to get back to them. It took ages against the strong current going nearly flat out, but we made it into their quiet and calm mooring and moored on their 39m barge.

A lovely couple of days’ catch-up with them and one of their delightful now-grown-up daughters Marijn (unfortunately Janne was away) then a late start for Maasbracht.

(More borrowed maps for our travels – thanks J and A.) 

The view from our mooring on Da Capo II - the Mastricht Treaty building

Another lakeside mooring that night but the level dropped overnight so a bit aground in the morning - but no problem pulling away and off.

Toasting our success at getting this mooring on meres right!!

A few days later we arrived at the Niewesluis Shijndal. An 80m commercial was moored up on the ‘sport wachtplatts’ (mooring for pleasure craft) and a 110m waiting for the 135m lock on the commercial side opposite. We moored behind him as we couldn’t see any mooring bollards for sport boats. We were gearing up to ask the lockkeeper if we could use the lock with the 110m when a 125m container carrier MISIKO arrived behind us followed by another 85m barge. MISIKO just kept coming on and on, and the two boatmen on the front told us to move (never mind that we could have gone in with the 110m barge in front) “Go to the other side, there ARE bollards” they said. We still couldn’t see any, but we just had to move as this behemoth kept coming closer and closer. So we started our move across the canal, but at that moment the lock gates opened and THREE barges started to emerge. Alex made a quick decision and in the face of the emerging barges swung RICCALL in a circle under full power to the opposite side facing back the way we had come, then we both frantically tried to secure our 80 tonne barge to tiny pins 20mm in diameter and 100mm high with a minimal taper towards the bottom, most of which had been broken off!

MISIKO - our bete noir!!

So we just stayed there until everything had calmed down and all the barges had gone, then asked the lockkeeper if we could just moor for the night at the very front end of the commercial mooring. “No problem” he said, so we did. (He had clearly seen the mayhem of our dismissal from the left bank to the right and took pity on us!)

We got to ‘S Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) where we were due to meet up with Alice and Bea coming for a long weekend, and finally met Michael and Susan of NAUTILUS who had been there for a few days (vet visits for their lurcher Elvis).

It was a great mooring but a shame about the weather which has been pretty variable ever since we started out this season and that weekend was no different.





However we managed to catch an hour or so of sunshine on Sunday morning for a trip through the canal tunnels UNDER the city of Den Bosch with A and B, a visit to the cathedral statues and then into a café just as the heavens opened.

Bea enjoys the experience

Lock 0 in Den Bosch only opens 3 times a week at 3 o’clock in the afternoons, and of the 4 lift bridges on the section only the first, into the lock, is raised. The one out of the lock is only 3.4m clearance when down and the other ones are a bit higher. So it was going to be roof off for us to go through and that would depend on the weather.

And then at 2.30pm the sky cleared, the sun came out and we said right, we’ll go for it. Our new friends on NAUTILUS have a fixed height of 3.4m so they were going to ‘test the water’ as it were and come into the lock too, the low bridge being on exit.

NAUTILUS in Lock 0

Well it was no problem for us and as we went under the bridge Alex used his measure and thought it was more than 3.4m so radio’ed that info to Michael. They decided to give it a go and got through with 20mm to spare – pretty close.

Underneath Den Bosch's amazing railway and road bridges

From the lock it’s about 2kms to the next mooring and we could see a black cloud coming towards us. Could we make it before the heavens opened again? Alex gave it full speed ahead quickly onto the mooring, full reverse to stop, the front rope missed the bollard but Alice jumped off and popped it on, then the back rope, then we managed to get the roof back on. It settled into position just as the first drops of rain began to fall and before another absolute deluge!

Alice and Bea left on the Tuesday and we set off again the next day. The first hurdle would be the Egelen Sluis just before entering the fearsome Maas (Dutch for Meuse). In we went with no problem alongside an 85m barge on our right and a cruiser in front of us. Then as the gates started to open to let us all out the 85m engaged his propeller and just sat pushing against his front rope while the gates opened fully. We are not sure why he did this but it set up quite a circulation of water in the lock. Then he left and the cruiser left and we started to leave – ropes off, kick the back end off, bit of reverse to pull the front end off, then a VERY loud bang from the back of the boat. Alex dashed out to see what had happened. The steering ram and the rudder had become disconnected. Blimy!! Back to the radio, warn the lockkeeper, try and rope a bollard. No chance. Riccall was being spun round in the lock by the whirlpool set up by the commercial. Well, that was lucky really because we ended up on the opposite wall facing the other way and Louise just managed to get a rope on at the front and with a touch of reverse the prop walk brought the back end in and Alex could rope a bollard at the rear!! Phew!!

So now it was all out to fit the emergency steering. It’s so long since we did this that everything that had to be moved was jammed, and in the meantime a HUGE pusher and dumb barge had gingerly entered the lock (having been advised of our problem by the lockkeeper) and the lock was filling back up.

Finally, just as the gates opened again, we had the emergency tiller set up and with Louise on the throttle and Alex on the tiller we set off back out of the lock behind the pusher and his cargo.

“Just give it a quick burst of power”, said Alex, with the tiller set at about 45^o to get us pointing the right way – whooommf, Alex was catapulted across the deck by the force of the tiller. We had no idea what the back forces were like as we had only ever used the emergency tiller once before when being towed with no engine. So it was, “Easy on the power Louise” and hang onto the tiller for dear life Alex!

It turned out that the clamp bolts had come loose and the end bolt had sheared so Alex fixed it during the afternoon and we returned to Den Bosch for another night and a short ‘road or river test’ of the steering before going out onto the raging torrent of the Maas (only about 3kph actually as it turned out).

Whilst at Woudrichem Historic Harbour on the Maas

Snuggling up against some REALLY old ships
in the historic harbour at Woudrichem

we had heard from Nicci and Peter that there was the possibility of a good mooring in the historic barge port of Vreeswijk, a couple of days’ cruise away.

Vreeswijk historic harbour

And sure enough, we were welcomed by Dick the Havenmeester and slipped into the mooring space vacated by Jeremy and Carol on ANTHONIA.

We decided that perhaps a trip back to the UK would be useful to tick a few more boxes vis a vis our move south. As it happened Nicci and Peter were also returning to the UK and could give us a lift as far as Bruges where our car was parked. So that was excellent and thanks very much to them for that.

About 10 days back in the UK, a trip north to check on the Newton Aycliffe house and to bring another load of stuff down to Hawkinge, the usual appointments with doctor, dentist and hairdressers, then back to France on the 14^th. We were hoping to do a quick shop in a French Lidl for the stuff they don’t stock in Holland – but we hadn’t clocked that it was JULY 14^th - Bastille Day in France - and everything, but everything was tight shut.

Back at Vreeswijk we stayed another few days (aware that we needed to leave before the Historic Boat Event coming up) for some socialising (including a lovely surprise visit from our Dutch friends George and Suzannah in their campervan – who we’d met in Dordrecht 8 years before on their tjalk AEOLUS: they had just got married after more than 15 years together) and a couple of evenings with John and Hilary of ISKRA who had moored in the adjacent port while we were away, then headed north again and onto the lovely, winding Vecht.

Lovely weather for our Vecht trip too

There we came across NAUTILUS again and had yet another boozy time catching up! It’s no fun this boating, but someone has to do it!

A couple of days later, we were out onto the southern end of the Markermeer which feels like being at sea without the swell, which it is, I suppose, but it’s quite hard at first to spot the buoyed channel. PC Navigo helps of course, but quite often seems to guide us to the wrong side of some of the buoys!

We risked going into Almere Haven for lunch and managed to moor up on a super quay next to a huge party boat called SUCCES.

It was so nice there that we asked to stay the night hoping against hope that the party boat wasn’t operating that night!! It wasn’t, and our mooring was fine with the Havenmeester.

Since then we have used an excellent ex-industrial quay and two or three island moorings on our way to our present position which is a canal-side ‘ligplatts’ – a boat mooring place provided and often free – just south of a lovely town called Blokzijl.

From here it’s onwards into Friesland proper and then to our lift-out in Harlingen for our hull check and repaint. More of that later.

Bruges to Namur (via Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide!)

We left Bruges and spent a few days cruising close to Calais via Nieuwpoort and Oudenburg to Veurne, 

Nieuwpoort Sluizencomplex Ganzefoot

Waiting in the 'Goose's Foot' basin 

Dick Whittington?

and then on to the French border on the Dunkirk Canal where there was just enough width to turn round. 

At the French border - 2 metres of Riccall is in France!

We spent the night there under the watchful eyes of the adjacent road police who were protecting the border from the hordes of ISIS terrorists flowing in from France! Back to Veurne for a night, then up to Fintele on the Ijzer river where we spent a couple of nights on what must be a 9¾/10 mooring (electricity only €3 a night, no mooring costs) quiet, peaceful, middle of beautiful country. 

Leaving Fintele mooring

 After that we went to Diksmuid on the Ijzer River which was also a very good town mooring and which gave us the chance to spend a week in a pleasant town at a very reasonable rate and have Paul and Diane to stay.  We climbed the AVV-VVK memorial tower museum (All for Flanders, Flanders for Christ) which was a very interesting morning's work.

What is this seal doing here?

Eventually, we got back to Flandria to leave the boat for a week while we sorted out the final stages of purchase of the new house in Hawkinge.

This turned into a month as there was so much to sort out (as there always is).so we didn't get away for this year's cruising until the 3^rd of June – a very late start for us.

We are heading for Friesland this year and amazingly that is still the plan! Louise hates tidal rivers so 'we' decided to go the long way round via Tournai, Mons, Charleroi, Namur, Maastricht etc rather than down the Scheldte to Antwerp then via Kreekrak Sluizen and the Volkerak.

The advantage of this current route however, is that as far as Namur we know the rivers, canals and moorings well, and also it gives us a chance possibly to catch up with old friends in Maastricht when we pass through.

However, we seem to have been beset by misunderstandings on this route. We spent a noisy night upstream of Kain Lock in Tournai and in the morning asked the lockkeeper if we could follow a commercial through the one-way system when the lights turned green. Our impression was that he said Yes! And as we followed CENTURIAN, albeit a little further behind than we would have liked, the lights turned red on us. Had they just turned them red too soon or what? We decided to keep going, but half way through the system we saw a woman gesticulating wildly from the bankside and waving a piece of paper at us, so we pulled up as she indicated: she said we should NOT have followed the first boat.

Now, there is NOWHERE in Tournai where it gives any indication as to how one should contact anyone to ask for permission to travel through the one-way system. We had assumed the lockkeeper was the guy in charge. We were wrong. The piece of paper showed us the correct VHF number and telephone number to use for said permission! But there is nowhere on the canal side that gives the correct channel number to use. Our computer program PC Navigo makes no mention of the one-way system at all so how is anyone supposed to know? The lockkeeper made no mention of the correct procedure either. Well, we stopped, the female bridge keeper gave us the paper with the instructions for future reference, and we carried on, expecting a fine to be extracted at some stage, but at the time of writing, not yet. This delay just meant the boats waiting at the other end of the one-way system had to wait a further 10 minutes while Mrs Bridge Keeper said her piece!!

Later that same day, after getting fuel at Antoing, we were negotiating the two Peronnes locks. The first one was no problem, but for the second we had a long wait while a commercial descended. As we waited, another professional came up behind both us and the other pleasure boat waiting with us.

We heard the lockkeeper telling the commercial that there were two plaisances in front of him, then a short time later a long and unintelligible instruction. So when the lights turned green, we set off and at the very last minute were red-lighted. Emergency Stop! Back off, get in the way of the commercial, get out of the way, let the commercial in first then follow in behind, and slip our way alongside him to the front of the lock to moor up: exactly where we would have been if we had gone in first! We know that it is generally the rule to defer to commercials of course, but in this case it would have been so much easier , quicker and safer to have done the opposite. Anyway, the other plaisance followed us, moored up and up we all went. The lady capitaine of the commercial was obviously still furious when the gates opened as she took off like a rocket under full power. Hubby gave Alex an apologetic wave and a raised eyebrow!

Finally we got to our very favourite mooring – the Pommeroeul Canal Basin and moored up easily. RIVAL and JOHANNA were already there and Brett and John gave us a hand and a chat as we moored up, but at that very moment the heavens opened and we all retreated to our respective shelters.

The next day the crews of both boats were nowhere to be seen when we popped round to say hello, so after lunch we decided to cast off and get ahead of a very slow-moving commercial and at that very moment everybody returned! Oh well, so be it, we'll catch up in Bruges this winter if not before.

Weird No 1

A couple of nights later we were in our old haunt Seneffe for a peaceful night and a catch up with Arthur and Patrick.

At Marchienne Lock, just before the outskirts of Charleroi we moored up at the end of the lock moorings for a fairly quiet night with not too many commercials/trains/aeroplanes/cars! And in the morning it happened again! We asked if we could follow a commercial into the lock and got no reply – as usual. So we watched the lights and when the big boy was in they stayed on green, so we started to follow: then at the last minute the éclusier came out of his office and waved his hands at us in an indeterminate manner which we couldn't interpret. And then the lights went red! Not enough room for us apparently, so we had to back off and moor up again. Actually we had forgotten that this lock and subsequent ones are shorter than most of the others around this area – only 86m long instead of 120m as we should have known by this time. But why not contact us on the radio?  We checked it was working and that's what it's there for!

Charleroi - don't you just LOVE it?!

Shitty Charleroi lived up to its nickname in no uncertain terms with clouds of rusty dust emanating from all the scrap loading at the start, and again as we waited for the Marcinelle Lock, where suddenly our first ever Havenmeesters Martine and Pierre turned up on their boat NANCY, who we hadn't seen for eight years!!! Much kissing and catch-up ensued. They have finally retired and were setting off on their cruiser for the South of France and the Midi.

Once released from this dreadful lock, as we travelled through the centre of Charleroi, we went under a bridge and heard a sharp bang on the wheelhouse roof. Alex immediately thought someone had taken a pot-shot at us but when we looked back we saw that under a tarpaulin cover they were sandblasting the bridge above. Obviously a large chunk had fallen on the roof and in addition the whole of the rest of the boat was covered in a layer of sand and grit.

We finally moored at Auvelais Lock where there is often an exchange of a few commercials, that night being no exception. Usually though once the commercials have come and gone, it is pretty quiet, but this time the commercial behind us had been abandoned and had left his genny running! - a continuous gentle drone in the background and a plume of blue smoke from the tired old engine all night and into the following day. Was this going to go on ALL weekend? We think it probably did.

We spent an hour or so brushing the whole boat down to get rid of the gritty sandblasting stuff, then the heavens opened again so the rest of the job was done by the rain.

So we have made it down to Namur, a city we have visited before by boat and car. But this time we made a special point of investigating the Citadel, high on its promontory above the confluence of the Rivers Sambre and Meuse. What a place and what views! 

View from the Citadel - spot the Riccall

'Ludus Pro Patria'

'Victorian' hotel at the very top

It's the most amazingly interesting complex – chateau, forge, barracks, with fortified walls on all sides. And all of it soaring above the town. Some of it is well-preserved but some of it is quite definitely NOT. There is a dilapidated outdoor auditorium at the top of the hill, just below a beautiful and well-preserved hotel. The auditorium had obviously just played host to an outdoor concert of some kind and the clean-up operation was in full swing while there were various makeshift sets being built for the next outdoor play, with actors rehearsing for 'Les Namur Medievals' in July. The whole thing made for a couple of hours of great interest.

When we got back to RICCALL we were sitting in the wheelhouse when suddenly a couple tapped on the window and said, “What luck! We have been reading your Riccallrambling blog for 3 years or more, but never expected to actually meet up. Do come for a coffee in the morning if you have time”.

So we went along for a coffee and a good chat with Sean and Lynn on their cruiser ELLE. They are from South Africa and spend about 3 months at a time cruising in Europe. They are heading up the Meuse, which will be hard going as it's flowing so strongly at the moment (easy for us going downstream though) so thank you both very much for coffee, chat and following our blog! (And a last-minute dash along the quay by Sean to give us a chart of the Maas – so kind.)

But hey! Two more readers!

Weird No 2.  It's just amazing what you see on these rivers.

So what do we make of our first 2 weeks or so cruising? Well, we've certainly entertained, if that's the word, several lockkeepers and one or two fellow boaters with our difficulty interpreting SILENCE!!!! We have discovered that interpreting French is one thing, Belgian quite another, but SILENCE???!!! Impossible!