Grey and overcast, rain showers from mid morning until mid afternoon. We prepared to set off around nine. The blue widebeam called Renaissance was in the lock, 8 Beaulon (2.40m), at nine, we were too wide to lock together. Mike chatted with the American skipper off Rival while he refilled our water tank, he said he’d booked to go at nine but he’d got visitors on board and wasn’t in a rush, so he’d leave at ten. We set off at nine thirty just as hotel boat Hirondelle (French for swallow. Our second boat was called L'Hirondelle, a wooden Dawncraft cruiser that we restored and owned from 1971 to 1973) went steaming into the empty lock. (Hotel boats with passengers have priority at locks) I walked up to the lock with my locking rope to drop down to Mike. The Dutch skipper on Vertigo said my missus is up at the lock could you ask her to come back? She was helping with the lock so I took over and gave the keeper, a tall dark haired young man, a hand with the gates. When she got back to DB Vertigo they moved off the grass bank on to the quay where we’d been moored. Three American ladies got off the hotel boat Hirondelle and set off along the towpath on bikes, one had a bike with a chain that kept slipping so the young deckhand was on and off the DB to fix it for her before they left the chamber. Just after the hotel boat left the lock a Canalous Recla hireboat set off, it had been moored just above the lock. That’s it, we’re in for a slow trip! The keeper said he had to go on with the hotel boat and there was a Canalous hire boat coming down, so he ran up the non-towpath side to where another VNF man was mowing the grass to get him to come and help work the lock. The lad drove off in a VNF van and I helped the mower man to work the lock for the hire boat. The lad returned as our lock was half full. It was 10.00 a.m. as we left the top on the 4.9 kms pound. Made a cuppa. It started to rain so out came the big green brolly. As we turned the bend on to the long straight that lead up to lock 7, Bessais (2.50m), we could see Hirondelle had just entered the lock and the hire boat was hovering below having caught up with the DB. When the keeper emptied the lock we followed the Recla into the chamber. I stepped off under the tail bridge and went up the steps to drop a rope down for Mike and closed the gate behind us while the keeper closed the other. We followed the Canalous 3.6 kms to Besbre lock 6 (3.20m). Another Canalous, a Tarpon, was also waiting for the lock by the entrance to the Dompierre branch, so Mike put our boat under the bridge and I went up to give the keeper a hand work the two hireboats through and then turn the lock round. He went off to his lunch as Rival arrived and moored below the lock. I said we could probably lock together. Lunch. The keeper was back and Rival was in the lock already before one. The keeper came to find us just as I was getting off with my rope. He said the little DB was 15m long so we were OK to lock together, they’d gone right up the front of the lock chamber. The keeper filled the lock slowly. The Americans said they were going as far as Diou, spend an hour or so there before heading back down the canal as the wanted to be at Gannay for the weekend (where they were leaving the boat for the winter) then having a few days in Paris before going back to the boat to do some jobs before winter. We said we’d see them later. We stooged along the 3 kms to the mooring in Diou, looking for walnuts and not finding any. The Canalous Recla was on the mooring taking on water (and washing the boat down with drinking water) and Rival was moored at the top end of the quay. We moored at the downhill end and chatted with the crew off Rival. The hireboat left and we moved up on to the quay. I gave Mike a hand to get the bike off the roof down a plank. A couple of cruisers went past heading uphill. Rival set off back down the canal, gave us their card www.rivalsfrance.com and we wished them bon route. They hadn’t long gone when narrowboat Kells arrived, having come up from Gannay in one go. I had a brief few words with the lady skipper as I helped her tie up. She said she was tired after single handed boating all day so she went for a nap. I got on with the chores. Mike was soon back with the car. A large Belgian replica DB called LM went past heading uphill. Heaved the bike back on board. I checked to see if we’d reached 3G land yet. Nope, but we’d got a reasonable signal on 2G.
Sunday 3 October 2010
Wednesday 29th September 2010 Beaulon. Day off.
Grey, overcast but dry. Mike insisted I did the setting up in the engine room to run the Markon. I suppose he was right, there could be a time when, for whatever reason, that he couldn’t do it and if the Markon was wanted I would have to connect it up. Loads to remember connecting up the drive plates and lots of fiddly stuff, too. It ME took ages. Most of the campers had gone except one grey Dutch motor home that had been here when we arrived. Mike spoke to the guy on a large French cruiser moored right behind us to tell him we would be running our engine to power our generator as the electricity supply was probably only 6 Amps. He told Mike he was off to Marseilles-les-Aubigny for the winter but had stayed in Roanne and knew the Mayor who lived on a boat in the basin and was an ex-motorcycle cop. Très genial, he said. After the washing machine finished heating Mike put the boat back on mains and when the washing finished and I’d hung it up to dry we went out in the car for a ride round the hilly country south of the Morvan. Through Bourbon-Lancy to Grury, Issy-l’Évêque and into Toulon-sur-Arroux, southwest on the D994 through Gueugnon and back to Beaulon via Neuvy-Grandchamp and Bourbon-Lancy, pausing at Le Fourneau to admire a vast machine that made ice from the early 1900s. Back on the boat at 8.30 p.m. A blue widebeam narrowboat called Renaissance had moored next to the American’s little DB Rival (two boats behind us) and both crews were still sitting out on Rival’s back deck chatting in the dark.
Tuesday 28th September 2010 Beaulon. Day off.
Milder. Grey, overcast with light showers, but less of them than the day before. A cyclist had pitched his tent overnight among the campervans. We went to Dompierre for the car’s biannual MoT (Control Technique) at 11.00 a.m. A different young man was on duty and did the tests. There was a list of things that needed attention, but none that would fail it, most of which we knew about like a stone chip in one of the front lights, corrosion underneath (he said the patching Mike had done was OK, in fact very good, and the rest had nowhere near as much rust – thank goodness!) and dents in the side doors – but the new items were corrosion in the joint in the exhaust pipe (that will need replacing soon) and a bit of play in the rubber mounting on the lower suspension arm (that will remain as it’s too expensive, it will only affect the tracking slightly). Paid 76€ and went back home, calling via the Marché U for a loaf. Two Australian cruisers moored behind us but only stayed over lunchtime. Campervans left and were replaced by others. Mike had started cutting out cardboard templates to make the shape for a parabolic dish for amplifying Internet signals but needed more cardboard – have to buy more Magnums! Had a look online for exhaust systems for the ZX and guess what? The British firms were offering them at less than half the price of the French ones!
Monday 27th September 2010 Beaulon. Day off.
Chilly. Rain most of the day. The boat in front (Verwisseling) left at nine, they were off to Joe Parfitt’s for him to fit a car power steering system to assist the rudder movement (Mike wanted to know how he was going to do that) as their tjalk was still tiller steered which, being ex-narrowboaters, they really liked but she was finding it heavy work. Mike moved our boat up to the end of the quay while I got ready to go out. We went to Dompierre and booked the control technique for the ZX for 11.00 a.m. the following day. Called in the Marché U in the town centre for a loaf (most of the village boulangeries were closed as it’s Monday) then headed home. A French cruiser that had arrived the day before (and still had Jenny across its bows although it had a French name along its sides) was still there and the Serge Gainsbourg lookalike skipper was stood at the door. We asked him if the square aerial he had on the roof was for WiFi. No, he replied, TNT (Terrestrial Numerique Television, ie digital TV) and it’s not very good. We said we found TNT reception wasn’t very good at most places along the canal, maybe it’ll be better when they do the switchover to digital TV in October/November? Or maybe we’ll have no French TV at all?!! Or even worse, a lot of French people will have no TV at all. Made a cuppa then helped Mike to make electrical modifications on one of our two panel heaters.
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