Upper Thames
The day before we left Reading most of the locks had yellow boards showing. The actual boards say ‘caution stream in(de)creasing’. There is a small flap that can be lifted up or down to indicate whether the stream is increasing or decreasing, but most of these have broken or the lock keepers do not bother to alter them. So you either ignore them or ask which it is.
The next level of increased water activity from yellow is red. As we arrived at Sonning Lock we found that red boards were showing. The next two locks had yellow boards. Marlow had red, but following that the level went down to yellow and then no boards. This confused us, since there was no significant rain while we were travelling, and the levels went up and down seemingly randomly. We asked a lock keeper to explain. He said that the only criterion that determines whether yellow or red boards go up is the state of the weir. If a certain percentage of the sluices are up (drawn) then the boards are yellow or red. As the sluices are shut (meaning that water is being held back) then the boards are removed. Although there is a relationship between the water level at the weir and the current flow it is not the strength of the stream that determines whether red or yellow boards are used. The reason for the boards is that there can be a very powerful suction at the weir when the weir is drawn, and small boats in particular may not be able to keep clear and could be pulled down. Large boats, such as a Dutch barge with a powerful engine, should not have such problems. But because they cannot cater for individual boats they have to deal with the worst case. So, in order to prevent a problem with small boats all others are advised to stop.
Of course, if a lot of water is going over the weir then the stream is likely to be running fast. But there is no real logic to this, and the strength of the current also depends on the shape of the river. And some weirs are worse than others for having red boards. For example, Marlow weir has a large area but few sluices, so is more likely to go to red boards earlier than most. Once past a weir, even one with a large flow, there is no particular reason why navigation should be unsafe. You need to look at the individual conditions, and the navigation advice does not go into this level of detail.
Tidal Thames
Teddington to Limehouse
When travelling between Teddington and central London you need to check the tide tables and leave at the appropriate time. Going against the tide can add 50% to your journey time and you will have to run your engine a lot harder. Going downstream against the tide also means that, at the Teddington end, the river will look rather like a gutter for the first few miles, with little room for passing. If you are going to St. Katherine’s you may not be able to avoid this, since they only open their lock from 2 hours before to 2 hours after high water. Limehouse is open from 08:00 to 18:00 every day, so there is nearly always the opportunity to travel with the tide. Limehouse will also open the lock early or late if you book 24 hours in advance. It is also well worth sticking to travel around high tide at the Richmond end. If you arrive at Richmond outside these times you have to go through the tidal lock. This is a fairly slow process and the lock is not a particularly easy one to go through.
The journey from Teddington to Lambeth Bridge is generally fairly smooth. With the tide you can comfortably achieve 8 knots, making the trip to Limehouse last around 3 hours. The traffic control people, London VTS, appreciate a call on channel 14 with your brief passage plan. You will probably only be able to make contact while going downstream after about Wandsworth Bridge. Making such a call might save you from being boarded by the river police. They board a percentage of vessels to show that they are actively in combating water borne terrorism at the Houses of Parliament.
As you pass Westminster Bridge the water quickly becomes more choppy. This is due to the trip boats and water taxis that flit around. You need to keep a watchful eye open for them. Between London Bridge and Tower Bridge the water seems most turbulent, but this passes after Tower Bridge. After Tower Bridge (assuming you are going into St Katharine’s or Limehouse) you will need to call the marina on channel 80. St Katharine’s can be approached directly. It is advised to approach Limehouse from the downstream direction. Be careful of the cross eddy when entering the channel into the lock.
Limehouse to Queenborough
Catching the tide at the most favourable point is fairly important. This can be a little tricky if you do not want to start out very early or arrive late. If you need to start early you can arrange an early lock time with Limehouse provided you do it at least 24 hours in advance.
The river is wide a presents no particular problems as you head downstream. Again, it is worth reporting your traffic plan to London VTS. You will have to radio them as you approach the Thames Barrier, but a board at the side will remind you to do this. Listen carefully to the span that they tell you to uses and repeat it back to them. When we went through the centre span suddenly had green lights, but only so that a fast river ferry could overtake us.
The journey down to Queenborough is fairly easy and should take about 5-6 hours if you run with the tide all the way. As you approach the Medway entrance check the state of the tide. If you there at low water you will need to keep to the main navigation channel (clearly marked on the chart and by buoys on the water). If you are some time away from low water you probably have enough depth to cut off a considerable corner and go straight into the Medway. The entrance to the Queenborough channel is a short distance down on the port side. There is a jetty that can be used as well as a concrete ship just beyond the jetty. Outside the peak season there seems to be no-one around to call, so just turn up and moor. It is best to moor against the tide, which runs fairly strongly. The pontoon from the jetty has a turnstile. You can exit for free, but have to buy a 50P token from local shops or pubs to re-enter. There are several pubs and shops in the village.
Thames Estuary
Queenborough to Ramsgate
Again, catching the tide is important. Running with the tide means a journey time of 5-6 hours, going against will add an hour or two, will push the engine harder and use a lot more fuel.
The best route is the southern one, keeping between the shipping channel and the Kent coast. But parts of this cannot be done at low water. North of Margate there are several sand banks. These dry out at low water so are impassable. There is a small channel, marked by channel markers, that can safely be used. The best route is to approach slightly from the north, and to slow down as soon as the depth starts to decrease. As we went though the depth dropped to 1M and a yacht was sitting aground waiting for the tide to float them off. As we went through the depth rapidly increased.
With correct timing it is possible to run with the tide all the way round North Foreland and down to Ramsgate. As you past Point Romeo you need to call Ramsgate port control. They seem fairly relaxed on the radio and if there is little traffic they allow you to cut off the corner and enter the harbour directly. Otherwise they will advise you to come in from further out along the shipping lane. Visitor berths are just inside the inner harbour to the left.
English Channel
Ramsgate to Calais
There are two main routes. One is to go down to Dover and cross at the shortest point. The only real advantage to this is that, if the weather turns bad, you can bolt into Dover Harbour. Otherwise you have to contend with the ferry traffic between Dover and Calais, and the tide will tend to be taking you sideways, rather than helping.
The other route is to head east from Ramsgate for about 6 nm, so as to avoid Goodwin Sands, the start to turn south. Again, it is worth leaving at an unsocial hour in order to catch a good tide. You have to cross the traffic separation zone (TSS) at 90 degress relative to the zone. This will probably carry you down just above or slightly to the west of Calais. The ferries all cross directly from Dover and then hug the coast into the harbour. You have to watch the large set of lights at the harbour entrance. They will indicate when it is allowed to enter. If you cannot enter you can hold just to the north of the north harbour wall. The harbour control people can see you and may call you when it is safe to enter. Otherwise you can call them on channel 17 and ask.
Once inside the main harbour go immediately right. Two hours before or after high water you can enter the marina, but the bridge only opens at fixed times, and you have to wait for the green light. Visitor moorings are on the right hand side as you enter.
Calais Marina to the Canals
As you leave the marina bear right to reach the ship lock. At high water this becomes just a channel, with both sets of gates open. But there is a commercial basin beyond the lock and it is used by large ships. Call Calais Port on channel 17 before going much past the marina bridge and get permission to enter the lock. They may ask you to wait. You can moor against a convenient wall on the right or onto a buoy. Port Control will call you when they are ready and you can enter the lock and probably drive straight through. They will ask if you are entering the canal and will arrange for a lock keeper to open the second lock. You may have to wait around for both these locks, possibly for an hour or so. The second lock is also controlled by Port Control.
As you leave the second lock you bear left into the canal. There is a jetty just past the bridge and this is a good place to stop and wait for VNF to open the bridge. There is a VNF office in the street behind you, opposite the small moorings, where you can buy your licence. The leaflet that they give you as you leave the second lock from the port tells you to call channel 22 to arrange for someone to take you through the swing bridges. I could get no answer on channel 22, but someone answered the phone immediately and spoke English.
A VNF car arrived for us within 10 minutes and opened the next four lift bridges as we arrived.
Northern Canals of France
Canal de Calais
We stopped for the night at the first lift bridge after Calais, an hour or two’s journey. Mooring against the grassy bank was easy and the nearest village (about 2km away) had fresh bread. A VNF official arrived on his moped and asked us what time we wanted passage. At the next lock we completed a form with our boat details and we were asked to take this to the next convenient VNF office to buy a licence. If are sure in advance that you will be arriving in France you can apply for the licence on the internet and print it at home. The first lock was simple and was operated by the roving lock keeper.
Dunkerque-Escaut Canal
The next section is the Dunkerque-Escaut Canal, a wide water expressway built to cope with very large barges. Travelling along the canal is not problem, and the barges have plenty or room to keep to one side. The locks are very large. Each has a VHF channel published in the various guide books. At first we called the lock, but it seemed to make little difference. Some answered, but then less bothered to reply. We heard some radio chatter, but frequently boats just went through with no discussion. Every lock has a set of lights and these work accurately. Even if you think nothing is happening it usually means that a large boat is approaching from the other side. We often found that we were able to enter the lock immediately. Once in a while we had a longer delay of 30-40 minutes. We allowed an average lock delay of 30 minutes and assumed an average speed of 10 kph on the canals. On the Oise this increased to 14 kph going downstream.
The large locks can be quite intimidating. On the downstream side there is a guillotine gate. The entrance looks low but is quite high as you pass through. Although it may be unconventional or not advised, this is how we were best able to deal with these large locks.
Going up
This is the harder one due to the incoming water speed. There are walk up bollards at various points, but spread out too far to allow someone at each end to latch on. As the rise can be 6M or more and you cannot see a bollard at the top you have to use the walk up bollards. We found it easier for the front person to hook onto one, then another as we went up, with someone staying at the helm and nudging the boat to a fro on the engine to keep it in position. If you moor against the left wall and steer right the boat will tend to stay against the left wall. An occasional touch of bow thruster is handy for fine adjustment. If the rush of water is too great you can drive against the bow line more firmly to hold yourself in place.
Going down
We noted that, both for going up and going down, the large barges do not tie up in the locks. They just use the engine to stay in position. Of course, they usually fill the lock and so do not need to worry about buffeting from side to side. Going down is a gently process, with minimal boat movement. We found that we could safely leave the boat untied and just use the engine to hold position. If necessary you can secure your initial position on a side bollard, then do the same on a walk down bollard.
On some of the locks there were floating bollards. These are very useful since they stay at the water level. You can safely loop a rope around one and it will stay level with the boat. But they are generally spaced too far apart to allow a rope to be attached at each end.
Canal du Nord
The locks are slightly smaller here, but the principles are the same. We found that the lights operated properly in every case but one, where we entered on a red and green. But the lock keeper said nothing. At one point the driver of a very large barge gesticulated for us to go straight into the lock as he was leaving, even though the light was still red.
Canal Lateral de l’Oise and l’Oise
These locks are much nicer. They are in pairs, tend to have a small drop, and work very gently. They normally have a steel bar that runs the height of the lock that can safely be used for attaching a rope that will slide up and down. These are conveniently positioned so that a front and back line can be attached.
The current can run quite fast on the Oise, but it is fairly wide and deep, so steering through bridges and around commercial barges is no problem. Commercial traffic uses VHF channel 10, so if you can work out what people are saying you can get some idea of the goings on. But even French friends who visited had difficulty on understanding much of what was being said. There is no recognised VHF protocol used - people just talk. However, this can be useful. If you pass a boat that you think might respond you can just say 'bonjour' or 'hello' and see what happens. Lock VHF channels are published on the map and tend to alternate between two numbers.
Seine
Commercial traffic increases, but there is no more difficulty in navigating than on the Oise. Current flow is about the same, so making 8 kph or more against the stream is fairly easy.
The locks are often on opposite sides of the river, so you have to do one of several things: hover in the river and wait for a green light to appear; tag along behind a commecial barge; call on VHF. We tried the last one several times and managed to communicate well enough to know that we should be going to the left or the right, or whether we should wait and for how long. If you don't feel like talking on the radio in French, then if you just hang around for a few minutes you will either be spotted and the lock will eventually operate in your favour, or a commercial barge will come along and you can follow it in.
These large locks have reasonable bollards onto which to tie. They are quite widely spaced apart, so sometimes we just had to tie to the front then hold on the engine.
Paris
We were told that L'Arsenal did not take advance bookings, but would more or less guarantee to get you in. When we arrived and called on the radio we were told 'complet'. Our French visitor tried again for us and she was told 'complet, complet, complet'. We turned round and went back to the moorings on the upstream side by the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately these closed permanently as we were leaving two days later. But we have read that L'Arsenal now takes advance bookings. There were various other empty riverside spots with bollards that we spotted as we went through. In an emergency we would have pulled onto one of these, since it is several hours' drive into our out of Paris. For us a convenient place to stop going upstream was Isle Chatou, where there is a good, free public mooring and a good restaurant.
Going through Paris is not bad, provided you keep an eye open behind you as well as in front. Water taxis and bateaux mouches tend to go quite fast and come up quite close. If you let them past they give you a friendly wave. There are no real restrictions going upstream. Coming downstream there is a waiting system just before Isle de La Cite, and you may have to wait for 20 minutes for the green light.
Yonne
The Yonne going upstream from where it meets the Seine is somewhat similar to the Seine, but the commercial traffic drops off. Locks are large but manageable. As with lots of the commercial locks there is often nowhere where you can easily tie up and wait. Sometimes there is a landing stage close to the lock. Often there are just two large metal posts some way from the lock, spaced apart to accommodate commercial barges. If the wait is likely to be a long one it is worth tying up at one of these, otherwise hovering near the lock is a reasonable option.
As you travel further upstream the commercial traffic gets less and less, until by the time you reach the junction with the Canal de Bourgogne the only commercial traffic left is hotel boats. We got into a lock with one of these and tagged along behind for several locks. We quickly found out that he had booked a passage through the locks at lunch time, so we stayed with him and made it to a reasonable spot for lunch.
As the river becomes less commercial the locks have a lunch break from 12:30 to 13:30. This changes to 12:00 to 13:00 above Auxerre.
In places the Yonne is very wide but also very shallow. At one point we were cruising nicely about 20 metres from the bank, when suddenly the depth gauge went mad, followed by us going aground. Fortunately we were able to cut the engine drive quickly enough that we were not wedged solidly. The bow thruster was extremely useful for wiggling us around prior to backing off. We did not see another boat for about an hour, so getting off otherwise might have been a problem.
Nivernais
Above Auxerre the locks are tiny by comparision with the more commercial locks, and are hand operated by lock keepers. You can jump off and help if you wish. The lock keepers carry hand held VHF and talk to each other on channel 12.