Tuesday 22nd June 2010 Sens to Pont-sur-Yonne. 10.8 kms and 2 locks.

Sunny, warm with a slight breeze. Summer returns at last! Puebla went past heading downhill, empty, so we set off half an hour later at 10.45 a.m. following Charley down to lock 10 St Martin (1.93m). Dornecy (the time-share we last saw heading off on two weeks holiday from Auxerre) came up the lock then we went down. There was a vertical wall on the weir side which was lucky because a LeBoat with a Swiss crew had just come roaring downriver to join us. The hireboat overtook as we left the lock and set off like a rocket downriver. Below the lock there was a group of fishermen, waving and lifting trouser legs - thumbing a ride!! Oooh-la-la, too hairy!! We caught up with the LeBoat above lock 11 Villeperrot (1.86m) waiting for a commercial to come up. I made a cuppa. A 750 tonner (we think, there were no dimensions on the boat that we could spot) Maritime from Conflans, left the lock and we all went in. 

No pontoon and both walls were sloping so the hireboat and Charley went on the right and had the breeze keeping them off the wall and we had the left hand wall, put our centre rope round a bollard and stood with boat shafts at each end to keep the boat off the slope. The lock keeper, a very large rotund bloke, started the lock emptying and went indoors. Mike said we ought to complain to VNF about lock keepers doing that, he’s the only one with access to a stop button in case of emergency. It was 12.31 p.m. as we left the lock and wished the keeper bon apetit, one minute into his lunchtime! 4.5 kms to Pont-sur-Yonne. The hireboat was off like a shot. We followed Charley downriver. When we arrived at Pont-sur-Yonne the hireboat and a British cruiser from Chicester had got most of the pontoon. Charley took the downstream end and we moored alongside. Lunch. Mike wanted to watch the French game (they’re going to lose to South Africa and get sent home) and I put the laptop on to do the log, photos, etc. Left moving the car until the next day. No Internet again!!

Monday 21st June 2010 Villeneuve to Sens. 17 kms and 4 locks

Grey clouds, cold wind, very few glimpses of sunshine. Set off at ten as the keeper on duty opened the gates on lock 6 Villeneuve (1.75m). Both walls were sloping and there were two pontoons at the bottom end left hand side. We straddled the two pontoons and Charley came alongside. As we left the lock we spotted the hatchbacks of two cars sticking up out of the water! Where did they come from? There was no road alongside, so they must have floated downriver and sunk there. As we ran down the 5.5 kms reach it was decidedly cold so I put my windproof waterproof jacket on. There were two VNF vans on the lockside at lock 7 Etigny (1.46m) when we arrived. 

We’d heard someone chatting on channel eight, it must have been them. Both lock walls were sloping and this time we only had one pontoon to tie to. Overtook Charley in the chamber and the swirling water took both of us away from the pontoon. Got it sorted and moored side by side. Chatted as we descended slowly. Mike asked the keeper if there was uphill traffic and he said yes. Shortly after we passed Anja, a tjalk we’d seen heading uphill when we were at Laroche. Must be another time share plodding up and down the river with different crews every couple of weeks. 4.5 kms to lock 8 Rossoy (1.79m) both sides sloping and only one pontoon. This time Charley tied on the pontoon and we went alongside. Left the lock at 12.10 p.m. and said we’d see the next keeper after 1.30 p.m. when his lunch break finished. 

We set off to do the 4.7 kms reach slowly then spotted a new silo quay so we tied up for lunch. The concrete capping over steel piling was cabin height and extended not quite far enough down to stop the gunnels going under so Mike deployed tyres while I made sandwiches. Set off again at 1.15 p.m. noting there was another new commercial quay named Port de Gron with a 2.5m high quay wall (empty and not much used by the look of it) at KP62. We arrived at lock 9 St Bond (1.61m) around 1.40 p.m. tied on the single pontoon in the sloping sided chamber and Charley came alongside. The keeper was resident and came out from his back garden to work the lock. He had a white dog with clipped ears that looked a lot like Peter’s dog Mini and I was going to ask if she was an American bulldog but he opened the gates and disappeared into the lock office to phone ahead to say we were staying a few days in Sens, so I had no chance to ask him. A large pram fronted steel boat called Canaola went uphill as we arrived in the suburbs of Sens. 

A hotel boat called Savoir Faire was moored at the downstream end of the quay, then Lara then a yacht and after a gap there was a French Tarpon cruiser from Chalon-sur-Saone. Charley went in the gap and we tried to get in but the gap wasn’t quite long enough. Nick asked the guy behind to move back a bit but he wouldn’t and his ropes were across Charley’s stern. We gave up and went to look at the moorings opposite, on the island. Charley was having trouble with the lack of mooring bollards and said they would move out and we could go on the inside, which we did – with an audience. Connected up to the electric and then had a cuppa. Gave Mike a hand to get the fizzer off just as a lockful of downhill boats arrived and most of them (LeBoats) moored downstream of the hotel boat but one moored at the uphill end and started running several cables out to the electricity post.

There were only a few of the eight sockets working so Mike said to watch out we might get unplugged. He went off to get the car and I did the log then checked the Internet which we were expecting to be 2G until we get beyond Pont-sur-Yonne - but it was blue! 3G+!! Just as it was getting dark there was a clattering on the roof (which was just slightly higher then the top of the quay). Mike went out. A bunch of youths were sitting on the park bench opposite the boat, drinking beer and one was right alongside the boat, looking very intently at our solar panels. He asked Mike about hiring boats, in very rough French. Mike was not happy, Nick was not happy either. The music was getting louder from the café bars by the bridge and that was going to go on all night as Midsummer’s Day is the French day of music. We decided to move. Untied quietly and followed Charley downriver and moored to an old silo quay, just opposite but slightly upstream of Evans Marine. It was a beautiful evening with clear skies and bright stars. We knocked pegs in next to a long line of silent railway wagons and stood outside chatting until midnight. 

Sunday 20th June 2010 Villeneuve Day off – more rain.

5.9°C overnight! (He was right to put the central heating on!) Grey, lots of clouds, cold wind and occasional showers. Mike went to get a loaf, spoke to a cheery baker on the way in and found two ignorant rude female shop assistants in the boulangerie. The horses came past with young riders on their way back to the expo tents. Then back to the chores. Mike scrubbed the hull where rubbish had collected between the boat and bank. He booked the lock for ten the next day with the keeper when he came to work the lock for someone else. I did some work on Ancestry, although it was EDGE on 236 kb/s it worked almost as fast as 3G. 

Saturday 19th June 2010 Joigny to Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. 20 kms 3 locks

Rain in the night, still raining when the alarm clock woke Mike at eight. Snored on until nine. An empty pusher pair went upriver. The rain had stopped so we set off  at 10.45 a.m. intending to look at the quay in the old river at Cézy and if that was no good we’d carry on to Villeneuve. Followed Charley down river and on to the 2.5 kms canal section. Nick called on the radio to say there was a bumper boat coming through the flood lock. We hung back and waited for him to come through the bridge, which he did very slowly hugging the bank on our left, one person on the bows with a pole, plus headlight and fairylights on. Mike told them in English that they’d got their lights on and they switched them off, so they must have been Brits. Turned out they’d already been on the bottom by going too close to the bank when they let Charley go first through the flood lock gates, we saw the mud all churned up when we went through. The first bit of the canal was twisty and we said we were glad we hadn’t met a push-tow there. 

Lock 3 St Aubin (3.10m) was empty and the bottom gates open so we stooged around in a cold and gusty north wind waiting while two Locaboats came up. The chamber walls were both sloping and there were two pontoons on rails in the bottom end left hand corner. Charley went on the one nearest the wall and we tied on the one behind them, overhanging it at both ends. Mike asked me to put our long rope from the stern around a bollard on the bank to keep us from going forward as the lock emptied and also keep some of the weight off the pontoon. As the lock emptied it became apparent that the stone steps that Mike was going to go up to retrieve our long rope were very badly eroded and covered in slimy silt. Not a good idea to try and climb that. He called the keeper on VHF before the lock was completely empty and asked him if he would detach the rope for us. He told us that during the winter when the navigation is closed they run water through the lock to prevent a build up of silt in the canal and the running water had badly eroded the steps. We had noted in other sloping sided locks they had built new sets of steps made from expanded metal, but not in this one. 

It was 12.15 p.m. as we left the lock and turned left running up the river towards Cézy. As we turned a narrowboat came upriver. It was Oxford Blue again. The crew waved. The quay was a short stone one with bollards and picnic tables and two lads fishing. We motored on towards an old suspension bridge and passed another quay, this one had an ornate fence along it and a beautiful château behind it. Took photos as we turned to run back downriver. Decided that as the sun had just come out we’d carry on down to Villeneuve. 4.9 kms of tree lined river to the next lock, so we ran downriver slowly to be there when the keeper returned from his lunch break at 1.30 p.m. We arrived a few minutes early and tied on the wall on the left, Charley came alongside. The keeper, a man in his thirties, arrived in a car and opened the gates for us. 

Both walls were vertical so we threw ropes around bollards on the right hand wall and slowly descended 1.94m. Paddles were still the old up and over lever type, manually operated, but the gates were press button electrically operated. The keeper told us there was a fishing contest before Villevallier and that the next keeper had two locks to look after. 4.6 kms of winding river to the next lock. The fishermen had packed up and were having lunch in a large marquee. A Locaboat was moored under the bridge at Villvallier also having lunch. We followed Charley slowly down to lock 5 Armeau (1.58m), another lock with sloping sides. The keeper was a chatty middle aged bloke. There had been two pontoons, but now one was broken and out on the bank, so we passed Charley in the lock and tied to the little pontoon and Charley came alongside. This time Mike put the long rope out, he doubled it back to the boat and as it happens this time the steps were good and not damaged. The lock keeper wanted to know if we were staying in Villeneuve and how long for, as he had to work both locks. We said we were having Sunday off and he said he would be passing so he would call and ask us when we’re going to continue. A new British replica Dutch Barge called Mallard was on its way to the lock as we left it. 

Another 5 kms of river, past an old sandpit and we arrived in Villeneuve. French cruiser Lara was moored on the quay and Charley moored upstream of them, then Nick changed his mind and moved downstream as there was a car park right alongside. We were winding and came bows to bows with Charley and tied up. Mike checked the satellite and said we wouldn’t get a picture so we went where Charley had just come from, behind Lara. A small expo was in progress by the lock and kids were having rides on little ponies along the quay. A small girl aged about four tried to jump over a low chain between concrete bollards at the end of the car park next to the boat. She missed, tangled her feet in the chain and did a complete somersault landing on the back of her head on the gravely tarmac. Waaaah!!! First aid! Water and cotton wool to clean the graze and a bonbon to take her mind off it. Mike chatted with a British bloke who was with his wife (French) and the girl’s parents (all also French) and they asked the usual questions. Gave Mike a hand to unload the fizzer down a plank and he went to get the car from Joigny. I put the inverter on in the engine room and did the log. He returned as it started to throw down with rain. He told me that as he was tying the ropes to secure the moped in the back of the car when a Frenchman came out of the posh hotel, paused, and then asked him if he was cleaning his moped! Er, no! He didn’t know what else to say, why should the guy think he was cleaning it in the back of the car?  That ranks alongside “Do you collect spiders?” (when he was photographing one) as one of the crassest comments yet. It started getting chilly - 11°C outside around eight p.m. - so Mike lit the Refleks but turned it off before we went to bed. 

Friday 18th June 2010 Joigny Another day off.

Overcast, then sun out until mid evening. Got on with chores including defrosting the ‘fridge and cooking dinner. Mike sanded rusty bits on the roof and painted them with minium gris, later he did more painting. After lunch we went out in the car. First into Joigny to post the map to Rob and Pam, then to Bricomarché for paint, a sharp DIY knife and some clamps. They had a lovely blue budgie in the pets section, I could have taken him home, Mike was not keen. Got a few groceries in Intermarché as Mike said Carrefour in Sens was too far to go (35 kms). Mike went to look for a hydrometer in Roady – they had none – while I started the shopping. Back home with the groceries and I packed the stuff away. Mike went to La Poste again with a package for Glyn containing two packets of Knorr asparagus soup we’d just got for him as he said there was none to be had in the UK. Mike watched the UK v Algeria football match. 

Thursday 17th June 2010 Joigny Day off - bad weather expected

Grey overcast morning, showers getting more frequent and heavier later. The neighbours went shopping at Intermarché by bike again. Lunch. Between showers Mike put some minium gris on bare patches on the roof and some filler in the metal ring on the roof. He copied a section of the IGN map of Frejus to send to Rob to show him where the floods had been and I wrote a note to go with it and a VNF map ready to post next day. Helen phoned. Floan had unloaded in Deinze, they were back in Gent and got their post so George had had his birthday card (a few weeks late!) They had already freighted again for Reims with the Pedros. Mike watched the French v Mexico football match. They lost!!