Canal du Loing – Haut Seine – Yonne River: Moret-sur-Loing - Pont-sur-Yonne – Sens – Villeneuve-sur-Yonne.

8 May to 13 May 2019.  74 kilometers, 14 locks.

Wednesday 8 May to Friday 10 May. Moret-sur-Loing to Pont-sur-Yonne. 44.4 kilometers, 7 locks, 9 hours 5 minutes (lots of delays at locks waiting for commercials).

Despite strong winds and lots of rain being forecast, Wednesday turned into quite a benign day allowing us to do a bit of walking through the pretty town

A typical Moret road.

The Town Hall

The 16thC gallery of a house which belonged to the finance minister
of King Francois I

The portal on the other side of town.

The 'other side' of town.

including watching the somber and rather moving 8 May (VE Day) commemoration ceremony in the town square.

The band leading the ceremony.

Some of the crowd.

The head of the Seine-et-Marne Department who made a short speech after his wreath laying.

Saluting the playing of the Last Post and La Marseillaise

Then it was back to Elle doing some fiddling on the boat including having Ian test our Port Engine glow-plugs and finding that two were defective; these were replaced with two which I had bought near Kortrijk years ago and had given to Ian as they were the wrong size. After cleaning all the contacts, Ian asked Lynn to try the engine and, after a short glow-plug warmup, presto! We have a running engine again – hopefully, it will start when it is a really cold morning but at least the problem has been solved.

The day ended with the Carters joining us for a fine Thai coconut curry Lynn creation.

Thursday morning greeted with the sound of rain thrumming on the hatches and Elle straining at her lines as a robust westerly wind pumps against our starboard beam. And so it continues throughout the morning, occasionally lightening up before more horrendous weather resumes.

But we have an appointment at the small garage to collect our glow-plugs so shortly before midday I don full wet-weather gear, jump onto the bike and, with ever brightening skies, ride head-on into the wind to storm-debris strewn St Mammes to collect our precious package which was duly waiting on the counter. Back on the bike in bright sunshine but into a wind which had clocked 180 degrees we set off back to port, arriving with totally dry oilles but with perspiration-soaked clothing. Disrobing my plastic outer layer we spot Sian, brolly clutched in hand, departing Njord for a walk into town – and it starts raining again.

Ian replaces two of the cobbled plugs with the new, we have a braai under the dodger to avoid the wind and wet, and basically retire for the day.

With the weather forecast to be fine on Friday but worsening later and being bad on Saturday, a collective decision is made to leave by eight thirty and do the long haul up the Yonne with its dreaded sloping, robust locks, to Pont-sur-Yonne. But first, being inspired my Sian’s blog of her walk around Moret, I set off just after seven to see what can be seen.

Common magpie.

A homeowner not impressed with a dog-walker leaving
his dogs-do outside their front door!

Another portal to the river bank.

Stunning old Moret.

Replacing the old forged ones with new concrete bollards - why?

The early 20th Century home of France's historical
buildings inspector and the curator of Fontainebleau.

Returning down a now familiar road I bump into Sian heading to the boulangerie and on arriving back at the port, a bright and cheery Ian says that they will be ready to leave as soon as Sian returns at eight. Breaking this news to a fast-asleep Lynn was ominous but in record time, lines are cast and we trundle down the last stretch of the Loing to the junction with the Seine, turn right, collect Oldtimer into our little convoy

Heading down to the end of the Loing.

The confluence of the Loire and the Seine.

Oldtimer joining the convoy.

Our first Seine commercial underway.

and, despite traveling counter-current, are soon at our first lock – a humongous one with space for the three of us and plenty more. Then it is a couple of kilos before turning to the right onto the Yonne

Turning onto the Yonne at Montereau--Fault-Yonne

Napoleon still guarding the bridge and pointing which way we should go.

Captain Don.

Oldtimer and Njord

and our first sloping lock…

It must be understood that we are in the company of Don and Ian, both Master Mariners with many years experience on boats and ships of all shapes and sizes and both of whom have done the ‘up’ trip on the Yonne before. By comparison, we are complete novices and have only done the sloping Yonne locks on a ‘downhill’ run once before – a totally different kettle of boiled shrimp!

So Ian goes in first, the lady lockie takes his bow and stern lines and places them on a single bollard amidships thus creating a perfect pendulum situation. And then to compound matters, she insists that we tie our thirteen meters/fourteen tons up against Njords nine meters/eight tons – this is not looking good. With Oldtimer safely ensconced at the back of the lock, Madame Lockkeeper opens the gates with a vengeance and Njord and Elle engage in a dance of potential destruction. Eventually, the lock fills, the doors open and we exit followed by Njord who promptly does a U-turn so as to be at the back of the convoy and consequently to be in the calmer waters at the back of the next lock.

And so on we go, Elle leading, Oldtimer (sixteen meters/twenty-four tons) next and ‘little’ Njord bringing up the rear.

Cruising up the broad, green river, Lynn and I share thoughts about Alan and Marianne’s experiences last year on Dea Latis where they ran aground, had to be towed off and had an awful experience in one of the locks where they snapped a line and damaged their boat quite badly. As we round the bend at PK93 about a kilometer before the Port Renard lock we run aground, probably in exactly the same place as Alan and Marianne had. Engines slow ahead, bow thruster wiggling but to no avail until we both end up sitting on the pulpit to raise the stern and slowly we move back into the channel. And the cruising guide even has this silted up section marked on it - stupid!

Another easy (straight sided) lock and then we are off to our last sloping lock of the day, a deep one at 3.36 meters but fortunately one with a floating pontoon which rises as the lock fills. It turns out that the pontoon is tiny and we figure that at most, two boats can raft up against it. Not knowing what our cruising companions are going to do, we are moved to the front of the lock, hand our line to the lockie, look back to see Oldtimer and Njord safely ensconced against the little pontoon at the back of the lock. Too late to ask to be moved back to calmer waters, the lock operation begins with a huge inward rush. Suffice to say that we took a few knocks, did a 180-degree spin, the lockie cast off our overextended line but threw it into the water at the stern of the boat - yes, the very place where propellers eat ropes which, fortunately, they did not.

Another 180 degree turn (this time under our own power), the lock gates gratefully opened and away we went with the adrenaline coursing – maybe we should have nabbed the pontoon first and let the others sort out the ‘deep-end’ but I think that would have been rude!

A photo of our tablet screen showing our Boat Beacon track gyrations in the lock.

One more big, straight sided lock and by five pm we were tied up at Pont-sur-Yonne as it started to rain and blow. An interesting day…but at least Port Engine is working like a dream!

The two unserviced pontoons at Pont-sur-Yonne were exactly as we remembered them: A dilapidated little yacht at one end and an even more dilapidated, wooden classic cruiser at the other but with an addition in the form of an ex-hireboat, permanent liveaboard.

Pont-sur-Yonne pontoon.

Lynn and I decided to brave the conditions and wandered into the village for a look-see and to buy some necessaries. Late in the afternoon, there was a break in the weather and the dueling petanque competition, suspended at the very same venue last year, recommenced.

Let the games begin!

Magnets on strings.

To cut to the quick, on the verge of absolutely decimating the Carters, the weather intervened (much to their relief) and, with the scores on one set all and 6 all in games, a draw was declared. Lucky buggers!

Saturday 11 May to Sunday12 May. Pont-sur-Yonne to Sens. 12 kilometers, 2 locks, 2 hours 10 minutes.

The next day was clear and cold and, after meandering through the early Sunday market,

The ancient bridge finally destroyed in WWII

we set sail for Sens, arriving at the newly renovated quay with, as yet, a single bourne carrying four electricity and water outlets (another is in the process of being equipped) but with uncomfortably widely spaced bollards especially for boats shorter than ten meters.

Same wreck as last year but a little less visible.

From left: Oldtimer, Jazz, Elle, Njord.

A commercial passes while hydraulically lowering his wheelhouse...

...to get under the bridge.

The town seems to have changed since last year; still dominated by its magnificent cathedral and adjacent market square, still steeped in antiquity, still lovely, but with many more shops standing vacant and ‘Gaullish-French’ people seemingly in the definite minority.

Men left, ladies right.

Middle-Age houses.

There was a Sunday service in progress.

Burgundian roof tiles reserved for 'official' buildings.

The covered market in the main square.

Town Hall

One of its doors.

Outdoor market in the square.

Inside the covered market

Unusual door handles.

Monday 13 May. Sens to Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. 17 kilometers, 4 locks, 3 hours, 20 minutes.

Unusually for us, we decided on an after lunch start, having arranged service at our first lock for one-thirty. Trailing Njord we heard a commercial calling into the lock advising that they would like service “…in fifteen minutes.” – and they were going in the opposite direction to us! Ian put his foot down, Sian called the lock and as we rounded the corner we saw the lock gates reopening in our favour. That saved a forty-minute wait (the commercials, fitting exactly into the locks, take an age to line up, enter and leave) and after that, it was plain sailing with pontoons in all the locks allowing us to raft up against Njord and rise in comfort without having to fight any incoming deluges.

A new Sens development.

Njord at speed.

The barrages are pumping.

A commercial loading sand.

Attached to pontoons at the last lock before Villeneuve-sur-Yonne

Villeneuve is now a ‘pay’ port - €10 for mooring (any size boat) and €5 for electricity (no water available). Tying up options are difficult as you are not allowed to secure to the very large ‘bollards’ lining the quay and have to make use of the infrequent and widely spaced (20 meters apart) iron rings set into the quayside. Apparently, the small, ‘members only’ marina opposite is going to be enlarged and full facilities will be available. But the very nice man said that, as we were not plugged into electricity and that the ‘pay for mooring’ decision was new, we could stay the night for free.