Thursday 27th August 2015 Chepy to Condé-sur-Marne. 24.9kms 4 locks

Chalons cathedral from the canal

17.4° C. Rain in the night, overcast, more rain later. Mike turned the boat using ropes to avoid getting weed on the prop and then we set off at 10am. We had a short wait at lock 8 Sarry while the lock filled. There was no longer a house by the lock and there were tubular railings along both sides of the chamber to stop cyclists and gongoozlers falling in. Down 2.4m and on to the next pound which was 5.9kms long, 5kms of it dead straight, almost to the next lock which is in Châlons. We passed a British yacht going in the opposite direction but very close to the bank. Mike told the skipper as we passed to beware as the locals sometime shove cars in the canal so it’s best not to go too close to the banks. He said thanks for that and moved into the middle. Ten minutes later a Swiss flagged cruiser went past, then we saw nothing else moving as we went into the town of Châlons, most of 

Hotel boat Raymonde moored at Chalons

which is hidden behind a thick belt of trees. There was an old quay and the Circus school had its big tops next to it and some new buildings which looked like warehouses but bore the name QUEL CIRQUE! There was a radar detector for lock 9 Châlons and to our great surprise it worked. A small DB called Aquarius was moored right by the lock and we noted that the town moorings appeared to be full, plus hotel boat Raymonde was moored at the end nearest the lock where our friends with theatre boat Cristal’Canal usually moor when playing in Châlons. As I lifted the blue rod Madame came out of the office to ask where we’d come from, Belgium via Givet. Mike put a rope on a bollard (as we knew from her blog that Jill on Matilda Rose had had a telling off from 

The moorings in Chalons

Madame for not putting a rope on while coming up in this lock) we don’t need one, especially going downhill, but it keeps the staff happy. She was very chatty and went on to tell us that Châlons was about to have its 69th Foire-Exposition starting on the 28th August and finishing on 6th September. We’d already seen them setting up the tents around the Expo centre, Le Capitole, next door to Carrefour when we were shopping there last Tuesday. Looks like it’s going to be a big show with lots of concerts going on too in the evenings in Le Capitole. We dropped down nearly 3m in the lock and I noted that, (useful for uphill traffic), there was bank access both sides below the lock and sets of steps under the tail end bridge so crew could get off to deal with ropes. 7.1kms to the next

A peniche and a houseboat moored in the arm below Chalons lock

 lock. A German péniche called Adria from Saarbrücken was loading grain at the silo. Another uphill cruiser, British this time, went by as we passed the end of the silo quay. A little further along there were new “no mooring” signs opposite a factory called Ecolab (they produce soaps and washing powders – there was an explosion there in 2013!) and a bright yellow sign saying that we were passing a “high risk” establishment! It started to rain so Mike put the brolly up. Fed up with the dismal weather, we gave up on our diet day and had a hot sandwich for lunch of bacon and eggs. As we passed St Martin-sur-le-Pré the canal kinked left then was dead straight for the next 12kms, all the way to Condé. We could see a empty péniche was coming up in lock 10 Juvigny from a long way off. Drakkar from Vitry passed us just before we got to the A26 motorway bridge. The crew were smiling and waving. The lock was full so we had green lights and sailed straight in. Down another 2.2m. The lock house was in a good state still, but looked empty. We had a cuppa and a cake to keep us going. The next empty péniche was Franca from Wasserbilig in Luxembourg. The steerer was out in the open in the rain with his wheelhouse dismantled for the low bridges, but still smiling and waving as we passed. He was followed by an odd looking French boat (we thought it was a tripper) which was steering along the wrong side of the canal, ie keeping to his left, which meant he had to pull out across the canal to go past us - then he moved over again! The canal in front of us was steaming, as the air temperature had dropped lower than the water temperature. Down another 2m at lock 11 Vraux. The lock house was lived in and had the biggest stash of stacked wood for winter that we’d ever seen (do they know something we don’t??) There was an old capstan for winching dumb barges in and out of the lock, disused for how many years we wondered. The metal edges along the tops of the lock walls had been renewed (stops rope grooves in the concrete) and we noted that new boat graffiti had been added. A cyclist had pitched a tent under the tail end bridge by the lock to escape the rain. The overflow weir must have been deafening to whoever was in the tent as it was less than 2m away. There was a long row of ancient plane trees below the lock which dripped extra rainwater on us. 3kms away we saw an empty péniche turn out from the C de la Marne à l’Aisne towards us. Galion (another from Vitry) had a lovely new paint job but hadn’t yet been loaded as there was no water mark around it. We noted that he had (like many other péniches) a forward facing camera on the bow so that the steerer could see what was in front of his bows when empty. Another turned out on to the Latéral as we were about 1km from the junction. It was yet another empty from Vitry, this one was called Dahna. A cruiser coming up from the Marne turned at the junction into Condé and Mike said “I know where that’s going!” Our pontoon was free when he dropped the car off there the day before, but the British cruiser was tying up on it when we got there. Never mind, plenty of space up by the gantry (towards the bottom lock of the flight of eight that leads to the summit level and the Mont de Billy tunnel). We moored just beyond the port to a large bollard at our bows and to a hook in the piling by the back of Arséne’s boat. The rain was still pouring down. Mike went to say a quick hello to Gérard and saw the Dutch couple off the cruiser Rompt. He ran the electric cable out to one of the newly installed boxes. Later, while I was cooking dinner, one of the new Capitaines (there are three of them, he said) arrived and said we were OK with electric and we could have our mooring for the winter where we were last year, but he asked if we would delay moving on to the big pontoon until after the end of the month. OK (means they get some cash from passing boats as it is the only mooring space unoccupied, later another Capitaine turned up and asked if we’d remain by the towpath until the middle of the month, no problem for us). Meanwhile loaded péniche Adria arrived and wanted to moor in front of us. Our Capitaine, who was getting soaked as the rain was still pouring down, took a rope for the German crew, whose boat was on the bottom 1.5m out from the bank. They wanted electricity and had a noisy generator running. Later (thank goodness) they ran a long cable out and plugged in, then turned their noisy gennie off.

Cruising is now finished for this year, we must get on with some work on the cabin, this boat is 42 years and it seriously needs a refit.  
As and when I get time I will finish the blog of 2005 when Billybubbles came with us to Poland - I left us at Minden on the Mittellankanaal.
Here's the link:-
http://nbtemujin20042005.blogspot.fr/