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| 2 September to 7 September 2019. 48 kilometers, 20 locks, 1 lifting bridge. |
Monday 2 September. Dampierre-sur-le-Doubs to Colombier-Châtelot. 9
kilometers, 4 locks, 1 lifting bridge. 3 hours, 15 minutes (including a 70
minute delay at the lifting bridge).
Soon after mooring-up in Dampierre a VNF van stopped
and a gentleman hailed us on our way to the baguette dispenser, explaining that
he was the person who would let us through the lifting bridge at
Colombier-Fontaine, four kilometers and two locks ahead of us. We agreed that a
convenient time for him was for us to be at the bridge at nine-fifteen and he
suggested that if we left at about eight-thirty we should arrive at the agreed
time. So we did.
The morning was beautiful and dry and we cast off at
the suggested time, passed through the two locks at a tidy speed, dodging
patches of weed along the way, and arrived at said lifting bridge at
nine-twenty to find not a soul in attendance. Twenty minutes later we call the
VNF central number and ask for service – “Someone will come”. An hour later we
call again and are told the same thing but this time, as Lynn sets off for the
shop in the village, the little white van arrives, bells ring, and the bridge
lifts – in the interim we had plugged into the VNF electricity supply for forty
minutes of battery charge and so were not too disgruntled. As we passed
through, the VNF lady emerged from the control booth and apologized profusely;
her colleague from the day before had not passed on the arrangement – however
we are not sure why it took so long for our phone request to get through.
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| A beautiful canal-side garden. |
We made the next lock just in time to have the lights turn in our favour as there was another boat coming upstream which would have meant a double delay. And guess who it was? Risico, the barge with the abusive woman from our meeting in Baume-les-Dames two weeks ago, so our progress through the lock and along the bief until we passed them, was painfully slow. Neither of us greeted…
We are now back into prop entanglement territory,
and sure enough, in the last lock before Colombier-Châtelot our speed slows and
we know exactly what the problem is so we change plans, decide to stop for the night
at Colombier-Châtelot rather than our intended target of l’Isle-sur-le-Doubs,
do some panel-beating, and allow me some swim time – prop now clear and Elle looking very patchy but nothing a
bit of sanding and painting cannot sort out.
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| Mrs Filler |
Curiously, the other boat on the jetty is the same
Nicols hireboat which was here when we over-nighted six days ago – a strange
way to spend a holiday, or maybe they had just bought the boat, or perhaps they
had broken down. Who knows?
Tuesday 3 September. Colombier-Châtelot
to l’Isle-sur-le-Doubs.
7 kilometers, 3 locks. 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Our best-laid plans of sanding the filler and painting on primer before
departing for l’Isle-sur-le-Doubs were thwarted by a heavy fog which had descended
during the night, leaving the whole boat sopping wet so we eventually untied at
nine and pushed off into lingering wisps.
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| The second bloom about to start. |
On arrival in l’Isle-sur-le-Doubs there was a large barge (Aslaug) and a small ex-hire cruiser tied up alongside the upstream mooring, again dashing hopes of doing some surreptitious sanding so we trotted off to the Intermarche, had a braai, did a big load of laundry and whilst it was washing, enjoyed a cold beer and watched a big funfair being erected in the town rectangle.
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| Upstream mooring. |
Back aboard Elle the port was filling up and by five-thirty
there were seven boats moored along the quay! End of season? We suspect that
the closing of the Meuse might be adding to the traffic on the Canal Rhone au
Rhin as, apart from the Swiss and German boats going upstream, there are a
couple of NL boats heading in the same direction.
The next morning we moved down one lock and about five-hundred meters,
turned Elle around, and moored up outside the Intermarche and then
carted eighty liters of diesel across the road; we could probably have fitted
another forty liters into the tank but it was pretty warm so five-hundred and
sixty liters will just have to do!
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| Downstream mooring opposite the station. |
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| Lovely stone wall. |
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| La Chef. |
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| Sundowners. |
Thursday 5 September. l’Isle-sur-le-Doubs to Grand Crucifix.
24 kilometers, 10 locks. 4 hours.
A cool and slightly wet morning turned into a
stunning day thankfully, making the long cruise more enjoyable, especially as
half the locks were set in our favour.
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| An unusual church roof. |
The only downside once again was the abundance
of weed, initially causing the port engine to slow dramatically and forcing us
to start the starboard side but by the time we arrived at the lock before
Clerval our speed was down to about four kilometers an hour on both engines, so
we tied up at the waiting pontoon and a low visibility inspection revealed great
chunks of vegetation firmly wrapped around both propshafts which were
eventually cut free. In the process one of my Crocs popped off – no problem,
they float like corks but this one seemed to like being under the hull because
no amount of maneuvering could induce it to come to the surface and so,
resigned to having to purchase a new pair, we set the lock into sequence, the red
and green lights came on and, as we began moving forward, the missing shoe
appeared. A very quick reverse and some deft manipulation of a boathook saw
Lynn retrieve the darned thing before the lock doors opened, so all ended well.
Finally we clear our last lock of the day, round a
corner, and there is our ex waiting-pontoon floating gloriously empty of
occupants; with a slight current on our stern we line up our approach and just
as the bow is about to reach the pontoon there is a bump and we come to stop –
grounded! We just can’t understand why as the water all around us looks deep
enough, so it’s an attempted reverse manoeuvre and then, finally, a one-eighty
degree bowthrust frees us and we gingerly float downstream and approach the mooring
from that side where, from our previous visit, we know there is enough depth to
moor up. Once on the pontoon the cause of our grounding and the reason that the
pontoon has been decommissioned as a waiting pontoon became apparent – a huge,
curved tree-stump was lying at right angles to the upstream end of the pontoon
with the root cluster and the opposite end about seventy centimeters from the
surface and the middle lying about a meter down.
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| Right below our bow. |
The rest of the day was spent doing another
propeller inspection and some sanding and primer application.
Friday morning, after the dew has dried off Lynn did
a last bit of painting on the starboard stern scupper and then it was just a
case of waiting for the paint to dry.
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| Filled and primed and awaiting sanding and paintion. |
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| Quite an improvement! |
By mid-morning we had been passed by four cruisers
heading upstream, once again, all German flagged except for one Australian
flagged boat bearing the home port Maasbracht, NL on her stern so they were
obviously Netherlands based and were heading off to their winter base.
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| Autumn leaves. |
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| We cannot source the origin of the name Grand Crucifix but could it have been named after the shape of this rock outcrop? |
Saturday 7 September. Grand Crucifix to Baume-les-Dames. 7 kilometers, 3 locks. 1
hour, 30 minutes.
Stopping briefly after our second lock to sand some primer on the port
scupper in readiness for painting when we arrive in Baume-les-Dames, we enjoy a
gentle and relatively weed-free trip, arriving to find the port deserted of
transiting boats. There are two couples on ‘stern on’ moorings but they look
like they are going to be wintering here and all the other boats are deserted
and wearing their winter garb.
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| To the tune of 'Bird on a wire,' we wait for our last lock of the day. |
With rain forecast for the afternoon, I mentally cast aside any
thoughts of painting the last of the prepared scupper, unload the bikes and we
whizz into the town looking for the crémerie to stock up with a selection of their
stunning cheeses for when friends James and Laurien join us next week but it is
closed for ‘congé annuel’ (annual holiday) so Super-U cheese will have to do.
A few items from the Weldom hardware store and its back to Elle
where Lynn decides, despite the weather forecast, to finish the paintwork –
fortunately, the rain arrived later than expected, giving the paint enough time
to form a decent skin so its looking pretty good at last.
Tomorrow we head off to Deluz for the fitment of our new water pressure
pump (the old one is still working well but not the way it should), and to
collect our additional two new solar panels and a spare shower-pump lift-switch.
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