18.0°C outside overnight minimum. Really hot and sticky overnight. Grey overcast all morning so it was a bit cooler until lunchtime when the sun came out to scorch us again. Nick and Diana went shopping in Marolles and brought Mike a loaf back. We set off at 10.15 a.m. after Mike had a struggle to get a mooring pin out of a rotten tree stump, it gave up in the end and we got our stake back. Utopia-XL (45m boat, possibly) came slowly downriver, which made a nice change as most seem to be going as fast as they dare. N.D.L.II (péniche) was being unloaded by JCB and they were tipping dredgings on to the bank. The crew waved. Mike said we’d seen them pass on the Yonne. Olse, a loaded péniche went past heading downriver. At KP59 we passed a gravel loading site where a 700 tonner called Viator was being loaded and a 958 tonne pan called Blageon was also being loaded while its partner Apron was moored on the opposite bank waiting to be loaded.
As we wondered where the tug was a chopped big barge (just the stern end and wheelhouse) called Megeve came downriver. I went in to vacuum the carpet while it was still cool (still sweated buckets doing it!) and Suzy (47.5m x 5.3m, 445 tonnes), an empty barge with a lady steerer overtook us. Mike called me to take photos of the derelict end of the old canal section. At the pont de Roselle, Emile V from Cercy-la-Tour (we think not!! Max size on the Nivernais at that point is 38m) a 1,000 tonne+ empty tanker barge went past heading downriver. Noted the gravel pits which were still in use and marked off the ones which were now closed down. Loaded péniche Serna came downriver having just left the lock, La Grand Bosse (2.78m), we hung back and waited for an 80m empty tanker called Irina (also from Cercy, but had never been there) to pass us and go into the lock, its skipper calling us to follow him into the chamber. Must be a sister boat to Emile V, Irina’s dimensions were 80m long by 9.5m wide 1,475 tonnes. Charley took the right side and we went left, plenty of room in the chamber, which was 180m long, but we stayed on the first bollards after the gates. We were right below the keeper’s cabin and his window was open so he probably heard me going yuk when I put my rope on his disgustingly muddy bollards. Noticed the tanker didn’t put a rope off and went right up the top end.
The incoming water made fountains in front of his bows. The keeper wished us bon appetit as we left, but wouldn’t answer Nick when he called him on VHF. Strange. Followed Irina round the first of the big bends and then saw no more of him. No more straightening of the river channel had taken place although our guide showed a proposed route when the guide was published in 1990. Passed some lovely wooden chalets on the right before Vieux Mouy, then a big bank of water lilies on the apex of the bend and several startled moorhens racing across them at top speed. At Vieux Mouy there was an old silo quay then a new silo with mooring steigers for big boats where they were already unloading grain from lorries – the first of this year’s harvest.
As we went into Bray a loaded pusher pair of péniches, Verijp and Lypver came downstream and Irina was just setting off from the car park quay. Nick went to have a look at the pontoon. It was still full of boats. We winded and moored next to another old silo quay by a factory making breeze blocks which had a most unusual spiral loader. The quay had some nasty dents where big chunks of concrete were missing – looked like the big boats had been winding by resting their bows on the low quay, obviously sometimes not too gently! Nick went to the downstream end of the quay as he was worried in case anyone could get at his solar panels from off the silo loading gantry area. Mike took photos so I packed all the gear away and made lunch. He came back after having had a look inside the old silo which was full of pigeons. I told him to have a good wash, pigeons are rats with wings! After lunch I gave Mike a hand to unload the bike off the roof and he went to collect the car from Cannes-Ecluses.
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