Friday 11 April
I cycled to the nearest village, trying our new fold-up bike for the first time, and came back clutching a fresh loaf of bread. As I was folding up the bike a man on a moped appeared and asked at what time we’d like to go through the bridge. Amazed that he knew we were there, we agreed 10:00. At 09:55 the lights on the bridge started flashing and we quickly pulled up our ropes and started the engine. We passed the bridge, rounded the bend and drove into the open lock, and there he was again, waiting for us. After signing some paperwork (‘it’s all right, you can pay later’), we were on our way.
But not for long. After a few minutes the engine over heating buzzer sounded. We turned off the engine, coasted for a bit, re-started, but to no effect. After trying this a few times we pulled into the bank and called Piper Boats. Simon Piper thought that we might have air in the cooling system, and suggested ways in which we might be able to clear it. We tried his method, but it did not work, so reverted to reading the engine manual. We found a bleed valve on top of the engine and bled the engine of air several times. This worked and we continued our journey with the engine temperature reading normal.
Our first large lock soon appeared. We did not spot the VHF information in the guide, so just motored up to it, and entered on the green light. No-one appeared, but the lock just operated magically. Later we entered the second, much larger lock, that had a guillotine gate at the entrance and a pair of extremely large gates in the middle. Just before the lock were the rusting remains of an old boat lift. After tying up and waiting a few minutes a figure appeared at the tower a long way above us and gesticulated for us to move forward. We did so and the gigantic gates behind us closed. We tied to a rising bollard, and by the time we reached the top we had risen 17 metres.
We continued on the wide waterway, passing very large barges, laded down to the water line with unknown, covered cargo, and with most of the drivers giving us a cheery wave as they passed. Most had a car on the deck, and many had what appeared to be husband and wife teams. There were several women driving alone.
The wide canal had concrete banks on both sides, so mooring did not look very inviting. When we arrived at Aire-sur-Lys we spotted a barge mooring on the right hand side, just before the bridge. We tied up to the giant barge bollards, then tied in extra lines to our stakes. This was just as well, since large barges continued past until midnight and buffeted us against the side. Since we were near a bridge and close to a bend it was not as bad as it might have been.
Saturday 12 April
After the previous night’s experience we thought that a gentle backwater might be a good place to stop for lunch, so pulled into Bethune, planning to stop for lunch at the moorings shown on the map, but found that a new bridge was being constructed in their place, so carried on upstream and ate lunch on the move.
At the next lock I used the radio to call the lock keeper and managed to deal handle the conversation in French reasonable well. This was a more gentle lock. Before we left we were invited inside to show our papers. It was just like passing through a Thames lock – they simply had to record boat movements on a piece of paper. Whether anyone actually looks at this is questionable.
You can make good progress going along these wide canals. We travelled at about 10 kph without any problems and soon arrived at the junction of several canals at Douai. Since the regional waterways office was here, where we could buy a licence, we thought we’d have an easy weekend and stop until Monday. There were no obvious moorings for a small boat, so we turned left of the main artery and immediately saw some large barges followed by smaller, leisure boats, several of which had a UK registration. As we reversed back we were helped into place by Peter and Linda on board Elsie May. We soon met Mike from two boats away and were invited to join him for early evening drinks. There was a small community of British people who were here over the winter, preparing to move off for the season.
Sunday 13 April
We spent the day tidying up, chatting to fellow boaters, cycling to the local town and generally messing about on boats. After looking at the map and having a long discussion with Mike from Sterna, we decided to continue our journey the next day and aim for a marina closer to Paris. We had dinner on our boat with Mike and found out lots of useful information about boatyards and such like.
Monday 14 April
Soon after they opened we rang the bell of the regional VNF office and obtained our vignette, allowing us to stick a licence in the window of our boat and continue as fully paid up boating citizens. After stocking up with groceries at the nearby LeClerc we departed at noon, waving goodbye to the small community of British boaters as we left.
The Dunkerque-Escaut waterway soon gave way to the Canal du Nord. The canal looked much the same and there were fairly frequent barges passing, but the locks were a little smaller and more manageable. At the summit, above lock 7, there was a long mooring area, so we called it a day at 18:30. Comfortable moorings are hard to find on these commercial waterways, so anything with proper bollards is relatively inviting. Being near a lock we thought it unlikely that large barges would pass at speed. Another barge was moored just past us, and another pulled up to the lock shortly after it closed at 19:00.
Tuesday 15 April
By 08:00, when I came up to the wheelhouse, both the nearby barges had gone, so we assumed that the locks opened at 07:00. We left at 08:50 and reached Peronne boat harbour for a late lunch at 13:30. We had half considered stopping there, but it was a tiny jetty, with not much else to offer, so we spent about half an hour on the phone calling British Airways and Eurostar looking for reasonable deals to get home. We had already booked a mooring at Cergy, near Pontoise, and discovered that a small airline flew from there to Worthing. But at £150 each it seemed pricey. BA had no better deals, and initially it seemed, neither did Eurostar. But after a bit of prompting we found we could get a first class return ticket for £106, so opted for that. This meant that we had to move along to ensure reaching Cergy by Friday night. Nevertheless, when we saw another reasonable mooring at Rouy-le-petit bridge we stopped for the night at 18:05.