Monday 8th June 2015 Pommeroeul to Thieu. 31.6kms 3 locks 1 boatlift 1 liftbridge

80m empty boat Pat-Vero

12.9° C Sunny but windy and the wind was cold. In fact, the wind tried to glue us to the pier, so Mike had to power the stern out then back out into the middle of the “large” to wind. It was 9am and a hotel boat had just gone past with a very noisy engine, heading in the same direction as us. Just before the Grand Large at Mons an empty 80m boat (1375T) called Pat-Vero went past and after the Large two big pans being pushed by a large tug were being loaded from tipper tanker lorries. The canal changed its

In Havre lock

name to the Canal du Centrum as we left Mons behind. Mike called Obourg lock and told the keeper there were two boats coming. He asked if it was a pusher-pair, no, sorry just a couple of English narrowboats - he said he would get the lock ready for us. It was ready and only us to go up the 5m lift in the enormous chamber. Roping up the bollards in these big Belgian locks is very easy as the bollards are less than a metre apart. A big empty boat called Chateau de Lafaurie was

Thieu new lock and old boatlift

moored above the lock and a 73m boat loaded with scrap, called Gaele, was heading for the lock we’d just vacated. He was closely followed by two Dutch cruisers. I rang the phone number for the ascenseurs (boat lifts) to see if lift 4 was working. Yes. I said we’d be there later in the afternoon. A short distance and we were at Havré lock, twice as deep as the previous lock at 10m, but fully equipped with floating bollards to tie to. We had to wait below for a loaded boat to come down. It was still

The new lock and new canal from the old boatlift at Thieu

very windy and so we turned bows into the wind and G put MR’s bows on a ladder by the waiting steigers for the commercial boats (big stumps of steel 20m apart with a walkway across the top) and Jill attached a rope.  When the downhill 80m cleared the lock, there was a loaded péniche called Mober, coming up behind, so we did circles to get further from the lock and then followed Mober into the lock and went up 10m – very, very, slowly.  It was 2pm by the time we left the top. An

Strepy-Thieu boatlift, replaces the four old lifts

empty boat called St Louis (80m x 9.5m 1425T) was heading for the lock. Five minutes behind him was a small Belgian cruiser called Anaise. Jill lifted the bar for the automatic péniche-sized lock, it emptied and we went in and up. There was a quay with bollards to the left above the lock, not easy to get to when the wind was blowing off the quay. I was about to get off with our centre line just as the waterways man came to ask me loads of

Old wind up liftbridge on old canal du Centrum

questions. Mike got off and held the boat in while I answered the questions, then he said it would be a good half hour before lift 4 Thieu would be ready for us. We tied up. A British chap on holiday in a campervan came to chat. The lift was ready as promised and we entered the right hand caisson and rose 17m smoothly in a matter of minutes. I told the guy as we left that we would like to go back down on Wednesday at ten. A van went past honking its horn – our bridge keeper, waving. He

Moored at Thieu - now a dead end with only one lift working.

wound up the ancient Lllangollen style liftbridge and we motored on into the town of Thieu, with glorious views of the big lift and winded by the next liftbridge then returned to moor at the quay by the first liftbridge. It was 4.30pm. G had a call from Mike Clarke to say our letters from the Service Public de Wallonie had arrived and he very kindly brought them over. Mike walked back to the second liftbridge to get our car, then he and G went to get G’s car from Pommeroeul.