 |
| Lift 4 Thieu - archway where road passes through |
9°
C Sunny but windy, very windy at times. To Mike’s great surprise the bridge
keeper turned up at ten to wind up the old liftbridge. We set off and had to
wait a short time as the boatlift, No 4 Thieu, wasn't ready. The wind blew
us left on to the bank, so we sat there and waited. Into the lift at 10.20am
with a young man working the lift for us. Cantankerous old thing was difficult
and the gates were stubborn and, once we’d descended 17m, the lad had to ash
the seals (good old bad tradition of chucking ashes in the water to be sucked
into the gaps where the gates were leaking, it works but it makes the leaks
worse over time) then the bottom end guillotine went up and we left as the trip
boat Scaldis, which had just come up Thieu lock, was waiting for the lift to go
up as we left. The lock must have started to empty off because, after I’d
lifted the bar to activate it, it took some time before the gates opened. When both boats were in the lock I lifted the
blue rod (there were three of them spaced out along the lock wall) and nothing
happened. Mike got off and tried the one at the top end of the lock, still
nothing, nor the one by the bottom end. He called on the intercom. The guy
who
answered was most surprised that the new lock didn't work, but within a few
minutes a SPW (Service public de Wallonie) van arrived with two men from the
offices and workshops by the bottom lift. They unlocked the lock cabin and
worked the lock for us. We descended, the gates opened as a loaded 80m boat was
going past on the new canal and one of the men shouted to say OK nothing else
coming (I went up to the bows anyway to check
as
we left). The wash from the passing boat caused the boats to start
running back up the lock chamber until Mike and Graham put the engines into forward
gear. Nothing coming, turned right and headed for the big lift. Mike gave them
a call on VHF and was surprised to get an answer (surprised by waterways twice
in one day!!) we’d be in the next locking with about 40 minutes to wait. OK. MR
moored on the left wall behind tripper Peterborough (a converted péniche) that
had just loaded up with passengers and we went behind a smaller tripper called
Heinrichenburg (not in use today) and tied on the right hand wall. Mike went in
the cabin to flush the loo water intake pipe which was blocked up again with
weed (loads of floating duckweed in the old canal). A loaded 85m boat called St
Just arrived and sat behind MR, its skipper went to chat with G. Nothing to
come down, so as soon as the gates went up we followed Peterborough into the
left hand caisson and went as far forward as possible, expecting the big boat
to come in too. It didn’t. The tourists on the tripper were all standing
outside and chatting with G, as MR had tied alongside them (the wind was still
blowing hard). Soon we were at the top and left at 12.45pm. Scaldis overtook us
and sped off across the aqueduct. The wind was blowing at gale force. A smart
Luxemotor went past heading for the lift. I made some lunch. Scaldis winded and
headed back to the lift, all the passengers were now inside the cabin, probably
eating lunch. We waved. There were several 80m boats moored at the container
port in the arm leading to the top of the old lifts. Two small speedboats went
past close to the junction
with the Charleroi-Brussels canal (which leads to
another interesting boat lift, Ronquières), followed by a three-man rowing
skiff, then an empty called St Jean Bosco (66.68m x 7.21m 625T) then a
Dutch-flagged DB with Dent YC on the bows. Quite a queue of boats after nothing
for over an hour. An empty péniche called Porto-Rico was moored next to a
factory quay under a disused gantry crane (there were trees growing under it)
that said Demanet-Cassart on it. MR moored at Seneffe on DB Geeske’s mooring
and we tied alongside. It was 3pm. As we were mooring an 80m boat called Eragon
loaded with scrap went past heading for Charleroi steelworks.
 |
| Hanging pole to lift and activate new lock at Thieu |
 |
| Old lift at Thieu |
 |
| In Thieu lock |
 |
| Waiting below Strepy-Thieu lift |
 |
| Loaded 85m boat St Just waiting below Strepy-Thieu |
 |
| Coming to the top of Strepy-Thieu |
 |
| On DB Geeske's mooring at Seneffe |
No comments:
Post a Comment