Tuesday 28th July 2015 Pont-à-Bar to abv Remilly-Allicourt lk. 18kms 5 locks

This is an Eagle Owl - one landed next to the boat last night
Wikimedia photo by Fabrice Stoger

11.5° C Cloudy with brief sunny spells, warm and windy. Rain expected later. Untied at 9.40am after two Dutch cruisers had gone past on the canal heading downhill. We went up to the wide bit below Pont-à-Bar lock to wind. A little Eau Claire hireboat (Le Cheval Bayard) from Ardennnes Nautique (located above the lock) had just come down the lock, they pulled into the left bank as we went past. Mike shouted to the French couple on it that we were going to turn round and would follow them down to Meuse lock. They waited for us even though we had to have a short pause on

Yesterday evening at Pont-a-Bar

the way for Mike to remove a small dead fish (perch) from the water intake. It had completely blocked the pipe and the exhaust had started to steam. They were completely new to boating but seemed to be taking to it quite well. We went into Meuse lock behind them and she lifted the blue rod, we dropped down 2m and then we followed them out on to the river Meuse, turning right to head upriver towards Sedan. 3kms later, when we got to lock 39 Donchery, we followed the hireboat into the chamber to go up and Madame went up the ladder by the blue pole when she was on the lock side her husband threw her their bow rope. As soon as we were in the chamber we said OK and she lifted the pole. Rose 1.6m with our centre rope around a large bollard inset in the wall. Sandpipers flew off in front as we travelled along the 3.7kms reach to the next lock. Two cruisers went past, one Belgian one Dutch, as we approached lock 38 Villette. Took photos of an unusual looking derelict factory at Torcy. Villette was only a 1m rise and again the lady off the boat in front went up the ladder to receive their rope. We rose ropeless, there being no easily available bollards. A small Belgian cruiser was

Following hire boat to Donchery lock39 R Meuse

waiting almost in the lock gates as we left the lock. We were pushing a big tree branch which had lodged across our bows, it slipped off as we came out of the chamber. Into the kilometre long lock cut, which cuts off the peninsular d’Ige, the scene of the terrible incarceration of the French prisonners in 1870 at the end of the battle of Sedan during the Franco-Prussian War when over 20,000 men were kept for over a week with no food, water or shelter in bad weather. No mention was made of this in our Carte Maritime guide, which is usually a mine of information on local history. A

Above Donchery lock

couple more kilometres of river and into the outskirts of the town of Sedan. Graffiti covered all the bridges and derelict factory walls, even the lock cabin at Sedan lock 37, which had a deeper chamber at 1.89m rise. The lady off the boat in front braved the ladder and they moved forward to another bollard further up the chamber so we could get into the chamber and I put my centre rope around the rungs on the ladder by the poles. I lifted the blue pole and the lock filled. As we left the chamber there was a Dutch yacht right in the lock mouth. They

Old derelict factory at Torcy

went into the chamber with the lights still on red/green, (ie before they got a green light).  Needless to say the lock went “en panne” - it broke down – as they went into the chamber before the electronics was ready for them, therefore it sat waiting for them to come in when they were already in the lock, eventually it timed out on them and they would have to wait for a man in a van to arrive to sort it out for them. Out of the short lock cut back on to the river, then the hireboat turned left into the weirstream, where there was a municipal campsite with moorings, no doubt to stay for lunch, etc. A bit further upriver, beyond the next road bridge, there were two DBs moored, one British and one Australian, next to an old factory quay opposite the town stadium. 5.7kms to our next lock. VNF, or the local authorities, had been adding new pontoons – one before the road bridge and one after it – they were short (only about 10m long) and had nothing to tie to like cleats or bollards and several had a sign which said maximum 15

Another odd old building - Sedan

tonnes. I made some lunch and we ate it going along to lock 36 Remilly-Aillicourt. We passed one Dutch cruiser half way along the reach and one was coming down in the lock as we approached it. Up the deep lock (3.58m) on our own, admiring a beautifully restored white stuccoed lock house, and on to a long lock cut (4.5kms out of a total distance of 9.73kms to Mouzon). The wind was picking up and lots of grey clouds were gathering so we decided to stop next to the piled edge on the offside, opposite the bank

New pontoon upstream of Sedan

with the new cycle piste on the towpath. It was 1.45pm. We set up the TV and solar panels, Mike trimmed the herbage to keep the creepy crawlies off the boat and I made a cuppa. Amazingly we had 4G. Traffic was quite busy during the rest of the afternoon and the lock behind us kept going en panne, it didn’t close properly when we left the chamber – nothing we’d done - it was faulty and VNF men in vans had to keep coming out to sort it. Keeps them busy

Renovated lock house at Remilly-Allicourt

.

Moored in the lock cut above Remilly-Allicourt