Wednesday 25th, August 2010 Herry. Day off.

Cloudy with sunny spells and a few drops of rain. Mike painted the port side front deck and the side step. I looked for WiFi signal boosters and found a site that described how to make low cost DIY antennas for better reception of WiFi. We went out for a ride in the car. There was sign board on the mooring which said there was a “must-see” at Beaucaire (a local village) a bateau-lavoir! So we went to find it. It was nothing more than a renovated lavoir (washing place for clothes) in a local stream! Nothing to do with boats at all. We went on north into Pouilly-sur-Loire to cross the Loire and had a drive through the countryside northeast of the town. Mike chose the route and Lucy (SatNav) was on, so he just picked the side roads – and we found ourselves on a farm track, for miles! Twice! We found our way into Suilly-la-Tour and went to Donzy via little villages then back to La Charité-sur-Loire crossing the river back to Herry. Gentle rolling farmland, now mostly devoid of crops except maize and sunflowers, with some very ancient houses in small hamlets – lots of which were falling into disrepair. Just our boat and Charley on the moorings. A hireboat with loads of noisy kids that had moored behind us at Sury arrived and moored towards the lock.

Tuesday 24th August 2010 Sury-sur-Loire to Herry. 33 kms 6 locks.

Houards lock 36

Very heavy rain in the night, followed by a cooler, sunny day with grey clouds, turning to white ones and a light breeze. Mike went by car to Belleville for some bread and I got on with the last few chores. He found a lady in distress – a student trying to start her moped. He said it was so badly flooded petrol was running out of the exhaust. He helped get it started for her – then the exhaust pipe fell off! She was in a panic as she had to get to Cosne, so spanners out and fixed it back on. We set off at ten after Mike refilled the water tank and reeled the electricity cable in. All the hire boats had gone (we’d had two behind us and three in front overnight) leaving just the ex-Rive-de-France cruiser, Gipsy, on the quay. An ex-hireboat Bermuda was moored by a house next to the gendarmerie a little further down the canal. A converted péniche called Andanto from Gent was moored by the silo quay in Léré and two ex-hireboat cruisers were moored before the hut with the electricity sockets and taps in Léré (we presumed they no longer worked). When we arrived at the first lock,

Weather cats!!

 36 Houards (1.90m) there was a hireboat in the lock about to go up but the blonde lady keeper reopened one bottom end gate for us, so we went in (a tight fit) and she filled the lock. The hireboat had a gaggle of Italians on board – at least I think they were Italian as some spoke French, especially a red-haired lady who seemed to be constantly on the ‘phone. I got off and opened a top end gate for our chatty lady keeper who asked if we’d come up a lock today – no, we set off from Sury. She said it was a nice spot and I said yes, and it even had free WiFi which was faster than my Bouygues. She asked if we wanted to buy any wine and I had to say no, the cupboards were full. 3.9 kms to the next. We followed the hireboat which was steering all over the place but soon disappeared into the distance. It was already in the next lock, 35 Peseau (2.30m) when we arrived. The resident keeper, a man in his thirties, asked if we wanted vegetables, no thanks, eggs – yes, a dozen. He came back with nine 

Silo at Les Fouchards

little multi-coloured eggs and charged me 2€. A British replica DB called Amity and a small French cruiser were waiting above the lock to go down. The hireboat we’d locked with went for the bank, we thought they were stopping early for lunch, then bounced off with engine at full throttle! A van full of VNF men went past waving as they did so! A Dutch cruiser went past heading downhill as we passed the silos at Les Fouchards. The hireboat had tied up for lunch below the lock, 34 Bannay (3m), so we did likewise. At 1.00 p.m. I walked up to the lock with my locking rope and Mike took the boat into the lock. The elderly gent in charge of the lock spent most of his time on the phone or in his posh new wooden lock cabin with a curly roof. It was a tight fit in the lock as the bollards the hireboat was tied to were set further back than the previous lock, so we had less space behind them. One hireboat was waiting to go down as we set off on the 9.5 kms pound. The hireboat crew stopped by the picnic tables after the first bridge.

Old house at Les Fouchards

A large Dutch Barge moored at Bannay was just starting to untie ropes as we passed them. They followed behind us for a short way. It was a boat called Morgenster which had tried to moor the day before at Sury and Mike had heard the woman shout that there were only two mooring posts left, not enough for them, so they had continued. (They have no mooring pins and hammer?) We were already doing 7 kph – 1 kph faster than they were officially permitted to go as they were obviously over twenty tonnes, but they wanted to overtake. The woman was on the bows and asked Mike if he would move further over so they could overtake. He replied that he wasn’t moving over any further (they had three quarters of the canal, which was getting narrower and had lots of bends) as we would be on the bottom and added they should be OK as long as their steerer could steer! He came past at full throttle with blue smoke curling over his cabin roof and water washing the towpath. Mike was 

Mairie (town hall) at Bannay

right in not moving over any further as the passing boat pulled about two feet of water from the canal edges. I steered and Mike took photos! No signs of Barley at St Satur and nobody else moored in the wide section beyond the silos so we continued. The DB gradually disappeared. Mike slowed off so he would be well clear of the next lock by the time we got there. A small DB called Final went past heading downhill with a for sale notice on its roof. A large motor yacht was catching up fast. It came past, Fandango from Porthmadoc, and the skipper said hope you don’t mind us overtaking. Mike said no, not at all, see you at the next lock. He got a strange look. The look was explained very shortly after as the yacht pulled into the last mooring  on the quay at Ménétréol. That’s OK, we weren’t stopping. Hotel boat Hirondelle and a hireboat filled the rest of the space on the quay which was right next to a busy road. Morgenster was still in lock 33 Thauvenay (3.6m) when we got there and we could see a péniche called Elizabeth right above the lock. 

Barn-door type floodgates. St Thibault

A young student lad emptied the lock for us and we went up. Mike asked if the pound below remained full of water during November and December. Immediately he replied “There is no navigation allowed then”. Mike asked the question again and he said “Yes, it stayed full”. (That’s interesting, because they seem to drain every pound that has no “approved” mooring). An elderly man came by car to chat to the youngster and helped him open the top end gates. The péniche above the lock was a hotel boat we’d see earlier at Chatillon, it was moored 2m out from the bank with its passerelle out for its passengers to get on and off. A long row of bicycles stood beside it. 5.2 kms to the next lock and it was starting to get hotter. A hireboat was coming down in La Grange 32 (1.8m). The keeper, a man in his thirties, closed the left hand bottom end gate before we were in the lock! Unusual. He must have been in a hurry. He indicated that he needed both top end gates opened so I opened one for him while he did the other. 5 kms to the next lock. 

Trimming Sancerre vines

We passed Morgenster moored on the quay at Champlais, with just one other boat - a Dawncraft cruiser called Dixie - moored at the uphill end. The steerer was moving ropes on his deck, when we passed he looked the other way! A loaded Dutch péniche called Anti-Lope went past heading downhill with two boats behind it, the first was a Dawncraft going like a train to overtake the loaded boat but making hard work of it as he was causing so much wash he was having trouble steering it (can’t tell them that if they slowed down the boat would go quicker and would be easier to steer) and bounced off the bank, fortunately the far bank! He was followed by a large hireboat. A British yacht called Saradon was coming down in lock 31 Prée (2.10m). Another student lad worked the lock for us. Told him we were stopping at Herry. A couple on a large motorcycle stopped on the lock side to have a good look at the boat. Another LeBoat was on its way down to the lock; we decided we were going for the bridge as we were closer to it than they were – it slowed off to wait - another one that had been travelling down the cut in a series of S-bends. Moored at Herry in front of Barley at around 6.30 p.m. Two hireboats were moored nearer the lock. We chatted with the neighbours as we tied up. I gave Mike a hand to get the bike off the roof and he went to get the car. Later Mike had a look at Jupiter using his binoculars and saw four of its moons.

Monday 23rd August 2010 Sury-sur-Loire. Day off

Grey overcast with rain expected (which arrived late afternoon). The neighbours moved on to get shopping at St Satur and pick up their post at Herry. The two Dutch boats that we assumed were here for the rest of the summer also left, but heading downhill. We bowhauled the boat down the empty mooring to get the best spot for WiFi – with the bows level with the transmitter. Even that close it was still only 30>60% signal strength. Never mind it’s 36 Mb/ps instead of Bouygues feeble 54 Kb/ps. Got on with the jobs. Mike filtered the dregs of diesel out of the Refleks day tank then put new draft excluder strips down the doors. An ex-hireboat (Rive de France) arrived and moored in the middle of the space uphill of us. Soon after a DB arrived and attempted in front of the cruiser but gave up and continued. The LeBoat that was following the DB also carried on uphill. After lunch Mike went to get some ice cream from Carrefour. 

Sunday 22nd August 2010 Sury-sur-Loire. Day off.

Woken early by heavy rain and a very loud clap of thunder with a flash of lightening that seemed too close for comfort! It was 7.00 a.m. Mike had already unplugged the TV aerial. (Later Nick said it had tripped his electricity circuit breakers) Mike went in the car to Belleville to get some bread. There is a depot de pain in Sury, but you have to place an order the day before.  

Saturday 21st August 2010 Sury-sur-Loire. Day off

Hot and sunny. Mike gave the deck a coat of paint where he’d fetched rust off then he went to have a chat with the guy off Dreamcatcher about his WiFi set up as he’d told Nick and Diana he could get WiFi everywhere he stops and keeps in contact with his family using Skype videophone. Turned out he possibly had an antenna amplifier from Maplins made by Edimax. The afternoon was very hot - neighbours had both their air conditioning units working – we had both ventilator fans on! After lunch we went out in the car (Mike had found a large car park by the cemetery) to have a look at moorings further down the  canal and also have a look at the old railway in St Satur and Sancerre. Back before five, loads of cars on the road. Didn’t find much in the way of moorings and not much of the railway either. Dreamcatcher had left (he said earlier he was moving back towards Briare after lunch) so everyone had moved up a bit. We closed the gap between us and Charley. The WiFi still didn’t work on our boat. I noticed Diana was sitting on their back deck to use it, therefore you need to be pretty close to the WiFi transceiver which was by the bridge over the ditch leading to a path to the village. 

Friday 20th August 2010 Belleville to Sury-sur-Loire. 2.6kms 1 lock

Sunny, hot with a nice breeze. Mike was up early and carried on with the work on the front deck, sanding down the filler and giving it a coat of minium gris paint. The neighbours left at 10.40 a.m. and went up the lock. I got on with the usual chores, went for bread, took the special electric plug back to the lady in Tourist Information Office and said thank you, then walked up to the lock, 37 Belleville (1.80m), to tell the keeper we wanted to come up the lock. The keeper, a young ginger-haired bearded man with specs, emptied the lock while two retriever dogs wandered around the lock. I went round to the far side and closed a top end gate for him. Told him we could get through one gate, to which he said OK, but looked sceptical. Mike brought the boat in, I dropped a rope down for him to attach to the roof and the keeper wound one top end ground paddle open. It was getting close to midday as we left the lock. We passed a downhill Nautic hireboat as we went through the first bridge. A couple of kilometres later we were at the moorings at Sury and found Charley tagged on the uphill end of the quay. Dreamcatcher was at the other end and two Dutch boats in the middle (a blue and yellow tug and a fat narrowboat). We tied along the piled edge and connected up to the electric. Nick said it was all free and the guy off Dreamcatcher said there was free WiFi too - Diana was already on it! Made sandwiches for lunch. I tried WiFi but we must have been too far away as there was nothing showing. I did the log. Bouygues was still on the slowest setting, GPRS. Mike walked back to get the car. 

Thursday 19th August 2010 Belleville. Day off.

View across the fields from Belleville. 

White clouds and blue skies getting warmer, no rain forecast so Mike started on the front deck again. He put the starboard side step back in place and took the port side step off after emptying the red diesel out of the central heating day tank (in the step). The port side wasn’t as rusty as the starboard side but a large pile of debris had accumulated between the step and the hull side. After lunch Mike put some filler on the pitted areas where the worst rust had been. He hadn’t got enough cutting discs to shorten the edges of the step so he went to get some from the nearest brico. Big Mat just up the road was closed for holidays according to the couple in a 4x4 who were just closing the main gates. He went to Cosne and bought some from a brico next to the other Carrefour market in the town. They were expensive at 2€ each or a pack of three for 4,95€, so he bought three packs. Two loaded boats went downhill at 5.00 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. both Belgian, Serjos from Ampsin and Sequens. We’d seen them loading at the silo in Les Fourchards opposite Cosne when we went shopping the day before. Lovely sunset. Decided to move on up the canal next day.

Wednesday 18th August 2010 Belleville. Day off.

Grey clouds, a few sunny spells and a few drops of rain. We went shopping at Carrefour Market in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire. Followed a lorry through the villages on the west side of the Loire and took a wrong turn in Cosne, travelling too far south, so we went to C4 (there were supposed to be two in the town) by Auchan to the south of the town. Nice shop, large and modern with lots of fresh veg for a change (and this week’s offer was buy two get one free on all vegetables). Back via the faster RN7 to Neuvy and crossed the river by the nuclear power plant. Stowed all the groceries while Mike put more paint on the front deck as the sun was out. 

Tuesday 17th August 2010 Beaulieu to Belleville. 4.7 kms 1 lock

Grey and overcast but dry, occasional sunny spells after lunch, rain in the evening. Several boats were moving at lock opening time. I did a few chores before Mike disconnected the electric. We set off at 9.45 a.m. leaving the neighbours to follow on later. A lady in a van arrived on the track below the canal (which is on an embankment overlooking fields towards the Loire) to read a meter at a pumphouse that extracted water from the canal to water a farmer’s fields. It didn’t look an easy task, she had to straddle a ditch then hang from the pumphouse wall whilst opening the meter box - she fell off twice. Ten minutes after we set off we passed a Nicholls hireboat heading downhill, good news as that meant the lock would be empty. Up lock 38, Mainbray (2.30m) which was worked for us by a friendly chatty man in his fifties. Mike asked if he knew which pounds would be drained this winter and he said no, he hadn’t been informed yet. 3 kms to Belleville. We passed two moored speedboat cruisers by a house on a long straight. A shortened péniche houseboat called Pen Callet went past with its wheelhouse down heading downhill just before Chevennnes road bridge. The bridge had no towpath and rope grooves on both sides, we thought it was an old towpath changeover bridge. Another Nicholls hireboat went past, crew taking photos. I took a photo of the nuclear power station at Neuvy-sur-Loire as there was a good view of it across the fields. We arrived at Belleville at 10.50 a.m. There was just one cruiser moored on the quay so we stayed towards the downhill end by the café, leaving enough space for Charley to moor between us and a replica wooden Loire boat with a huge outboard motor on the back. They arrived before we’d finished sorting ourselves out. The guy on the cruiser said everything was free (he was from Paris) but to get the electric you had to get a special plug from the Tourist Information Office which was just across the road. Mike and Nick went to get two plugs. They were free, no deposit, just sign a piece of paper. Mike put another coat of minium gris on the front deck where he’d removed rust. After lunch he took a walk back to get the car (about 5 kms) and I put the laptop on and did the log. Internet was even worse - GPRS, but didn’t drop out and seemed as fast as EDGE (2G) was at Beaulieu! More rain in the night.

Monday 16th August 2010 Beaulieu. Day off.

Still grey and pouring with rain. Mike went to get some bread (by car) in Beaulieu. The usual boulangerie was closed so he had a drive round and found another. PCs on. Mike had trouble connecting up to the Internet using leads, it connected up and immediately closed down again, so he did what I did with the laptop and plugged the dongle directly into his PC, then amazingly it worked. Still very, very slow. 

Sunday 15th August 2010 Beaulieu. Day off.

Rain was pouring down from dawn onwards. The port side bedroom window had leaked so Mike found where it was leaking in – the joint between two steel plates that never made a good fit when the boat was originally built, (same on the starboard side), and mixed some miliput epoxy resin filler to act as a temporary fix until we next take the windows out and repaint. It was still pouring with rain at bedtime and the sky covered with thick clouds so no chance of seeing any of the Perseid meteors. 

Saturday 14th August 2010 Beaulieu. Day off.

Sunny spells, lots of clouds and a few spots of rain in the late afternoon. Mike went for bread by car as it was just a bit far to walk (and all uphill). He carried on with repairs on the front deck, sanding down the filler he’d put on the day before and adding some more. After lunch we went shopping at Carrefour Market while the filler hardened. Mike made the error in Chatillon of not crossing the bridge over the Loire, thinking there was one at Briare (there isn’t) so we went to Gien instead. I prefer the C4 in Gien, not so many tourists as in Briare - I said. When we arrived on the car park we were astounded to see a whole clutch of Dutch and British cars! Famous last words. Didn’t buy much as we didn’t need much. Took a loaf back for the neighbours. Mike carried on sanding down the filler, then gave it a coat of minium gris paint (red oxide substitute). 

Friday 13th August 2010 Beaulieu. Day off.

Sunshine and a few white clouds, gradually getting more clouds and grey ones. Mike started work on the front deck, taking the steel box off that houses the water and diesel tank fillers and pump to remove the rust from behind it. He got on well with the preparation after fixing the electric chisel and declaring a Bosch angle grinder dead. 

Thursday 12th August 2010 Beaulieu. Day off.

Cooler, blue skies but loads of white clouds turning to grey ones later. Charley went past heading for a space further up the moorings after another boat left. They didn’t like being on the end as there were loads of bumper boats about and Nick gets very concerned about them smacking into Charley’s stern (which they have done on several occasions). Shortly after Mike took a walk down the moorings and decided we’d go to the uphill end and moor next to the pilings as we could still reach the water and electric from there and it would be quieter away from the surprisingly busy road bridge. Also the water taps weren’t locked at that end of the moorings. There were two “dead” cruisers ahead of Charley, then a large Recla, then us. Mike tried talking to the Dutchman off the Recla - as we tied up he came out to lend a hand - but he didn’t speak English or much French. They left before lunch, so I gave Mike a hand to bowhaul our boat back a boat’s length on to the end of the wooden edged quay to close up the gap. After lunch Mike took Nick with him to Briare to find the VNF office (by the pumping station that takes water from the Loire to the summit) to see if they could get a list of which pounds were going to be drained during November and December. They didn’t get any more information, only the fact that the powers that be in the VNF don’t let the local offices know what work they will be doing until perhaps the beginning of September. The lady in the office gave them booklets and said she was surprised we didn’t have them with our licences – Mike told her we bought our licences online. 

Wednesday 11th August 2010 Haute Rives to Beaulieu. 8.8 kms no locks

Ecluse de l'Etang on the old canal leading to the Loire
crossing, made obsolete when Briare aqueduct was built.

Grey and overcast with showers of light drizzle. We set off at ten, shouting au’voir to the lady from the house as we left. Charley followed a bit later as they travel faster than us. Into Chatillon-sur-Loire. The first boat was moored well before the bend; Elizabeth, another péniche sized hotel boat, was almost halfway across the canal due to the sloping banks. More houseboats were moored up as far as the corner and the basin, where the small-boat finger moorings were. Most of these were occupied by permanent moorers. A LeBoat hire base was next to the basin and it had quite a few boats not out on hire, then there was a long line of un-named houseboats and “dead” boats all the way along the canal to the bridge and two elegant houses. To our great surprise the next cruiser then went past heading towards Briare was Lady Aberdour, the wreck that had been moored for years at Fleury on the Nivernais. It still looked in very bad shape. A string of hire boats went past, all in the same direction, heading for Briare. A white van was parked on the towpath between the new canal and the old one that leads down to the Loire (before the building of the aqueduct boats had the arduous task of crossing the Loire to reach the canal de Briare). 

Moorings at Beaulieu

A large flock of sheep were wandering along the towpath and a golden retriever was with them, also chewing grass and taking no notice. We guessed the shepherd was asleep in his van! At 11.30 a.m. we found an empty mooring just right for us and Charley (who had just caught up) so we tied up at Beaulieu. Cruiser Dreamcatcher was moored in front and the British couple told us that hotel boat Anna-Marie had left earlier, which was why there was a space. A notice on the electric box said they moor there every Tuesday. The Brits on Dreamcatcher also said the mooring with water and electric was free, which was good news as my ‘fridge had just finished defrosting. Mike went off on the moped to get the car at 2.15 p.m. and I made a start on sorting the log and stuff to blog. The Internet was infuriatingly slow on uploading pictures as it was EDGE = 2G, then it started dropping out and I had to keep reconnecting it even though it said it was a full strength signal. Finally it froze altogether which made the PC hang so I turned it off.