July 2023 – Part 1
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1st July 2023 – We left our overnight mooring at Ecluse 7 on the Loing for a short jaunt to Cepoy, unusually for us, not departing until early afternoon. Four hours later we arrived at ecluse 1, only to find that we could not pass and so retraced our route to find our night’s location just by ecluse 2, and despite some overnight noise from creaky ropes (possibly due to water movement), this turned out to be quite a pleasant stop.
The next day started off fairly cool, heating up as the day wore on, and we had a nice smooth journey from ecluse 2 all the way to ecluse 10 at Bagneaux sur Loing, where we came across bollards outside of a disused factory, along a cycle path. Nicki took the dogs out briefly (as by now it was blisteringly hot) and returned to suggest a better mooring just the other side of the ecluse. We slowly (too hot to rush anything) pulled in our ropes, passed through ecluse 10 and on to an attractive grassy bank behind private houses. All very nice and peaceful. We stayed two nights as by this point we weren’t in such a hurry.
On the 4th we set off again and made a leisurely cruise along the Canal du Loing to once again reach the Halte Fluvial at Moret sur Loing, and in the end we stayed another three nights in this lovely location. I took the opportunity to get into the water and check out the underside of the boat, thrusters etc and although I had my concerns as to what I’d see, it all looked pretty good. We also managed to clean the boat, so another job ticked off.
Now (7th July) our journey took us back out onto the Yonne river, and we made good time until ….. on our way along the river (at pk 93 to be precise, Misy-sur-Yonne) we ran aground in very shallow water and managed to get well and truly stuck, and despite trying every manoeuvre we could, including dumping two tons of water, we eventually realised that nothing we tried was helping us budge.
There was no other passing traffic at all that we could hail to come and help us. In the end we called the VNF (the French waterways authority), and after several phone conversations with them they arranged for a team to come and investigate our problem, but all they could do was look on from the shore (one did suggest we tried rowing, but we declined that option – and assumed they weren’t actually serious) and chat amongst themselves, until they eventually phoned to say there was nothing they could do for us.
By then though we had made contact with many of our friends from the Dutch Barge Association, several of whom were willing to come and help us out, despite being one or two days away (big shout out to Terry, David and Janos), which meant that it looked like we would have to stay stranded for a day or two. Luckily though, a lock keeper at Ecluse Barbey heard of our plight and he contacted us to advise that he had spoken with a commercial barge owner (Bahamas) about our situation, and the bargee was on his way to help us, hopefully reaching us at about 7 pm – at this point it was already 6pm, and we had been stuck since 2:30pm. And to add to the stress of the occasion, the dogs were getting somewhat restless and in need of a wee break (they have always refused to use the boat as a toilet, although we wouldn’t have worried on this occasion). Anyway, I broke out and set up our inflatable, made ready our towing ropes and waited for our superhero to arrive. At 7:30, Bahamas came storming round the bend and grateful did not come close to how we felt at seeing him. I’d like to say that I immediately got into our inflatable dinghy and took the end of the tow rope across to him, problem solved, but in fact it was a lot less slick than that – it appears that we had not properly inflated the dingy (which became apparent when I sat in it), had not pre-attached the oars and, in the rush, I only just managed to get into the dinghy without falling into the river. Still, once in and having manouvrred round to the bow, Nicki dropped the tow ropes to me and I struggled through the weeds until I was close enough to throw the end of the rope to the commercial captain. Then all I had to do was row back to Shensi in my much-deflated dinghy, clamber back on board, and we were towed off and able to continue our journey. We were much later than we had expected, but very happy to be on our way again.
Bahamas then escorted us to the next ecluse, where he turned round and moored up, and at that point we realised that the captain had made a special trip to our location just to help/extract/assist us (however you’d describe it), someone we didn’t know, had never met before. We did try to offer him money as a thank you, but he refused to take anything, saying it was ‘normal’. What a star. All this by 7.45pm, some 10+ hours after we set off in the morning!
You’d think that was enough for one day, but no. Having settled in for the night, Nicki took the dogs for a walk to stretch their legs and get some exercise, and on her return to our mooring Pip managed to catch a claw in some metal grating – she did scream and there was blood everywhere, poor thing. Our dog first aid training came into play and we managed to disinfect the paw and bandage it up for the night.
Moving on in the morning (8th) we set off along the Yonne, and managed to find a vet in Pont sur Yonne who could see Pip a little later in the morning and treat her paw properly, and as it turned out he was also able to check out Casper as he was still suffering with a bad tummy. Now with Pip neatly bandaged up and with various meds for the next few days, and Casper with his own selection of medication for his upset tummy, we set off again for Sens.
On reaching Sens we managed to grab space along a pontoon in the town with water and electricity available, and heard there was a summer fete in the centre that evening, with live music, fairground rides, etc. so a little later we took a stroll into the town.
We walked around the centre before popping over to the fete, which was very well attended and full of happy families.
Unfortunately overnight was not that great – I was kept awake a lot of the night with noise from the nearby road, lots of shouting and screaming, along with the risk of potential rioting … Nicki heard nothing!
The next days cruising was somewhat longer – seven hours, some of it in thunderstorms – but we managed to reach Joigny, mooring at a grassy bank close to Terry on his boat, CarolAnn. Terry came along and joined us for dinner later that evening
Today is 10th July, Lucy’s birthday – Happy 29th Birthday Lucy. Up early, we set off for Gurgy, our last stop before reaching Auxerre and the DBA rally, where we were able to raft up to Otium – there were now lots of rally barges at every turn so spaces are definitely getting harder to come by.
Next day (11th) and the fun began as we left Gurgy and headed into Auxerre, just a couple of hours along the Yonne. We made it by about 1pm passing into Ecluse de Batardeau, closely followed by Otium, and were guided by Howard to our allotted space outside the swimming area along from the Parc des arbres sec, wedged between Matilda and Otium, with Amarok rafted up to us.
Immediately we were greeted by Diana and she and Nicki had a long overdue catch-up whilst I chatted to various DBA attendees outside. A little later Janos, Rachel and Mischka popped along, and so a very alcoholic evening began.
Once everyone had arrived over the first two days of the rally, there were some 24 barges lined/rafted up along the bankside, all sporting bunting or decoration of some sort and providing a lovely splash of colour for everyone walking past.
Over the course of the next few days there was a fairly busy itinerary for those who had booked in, which included a ‘bring your own picnic/drinks provided by the DBA’ each lunchtime in the park.
Tim and Glynis arrived early on the morning of 13th, in time to take part in the trip to the Wine Caves de Bailley; they stayed stay with us on the boat for the duration, and we spent some good times with them.
Nicki and I had registered for a couple of events – a Bastille Eve bbq on the 13th held at the port Aquarelle and followed by a city fireworks spectacular, which was absolutely brilliant – a stunning display set to music.
On 14th July there was a guided tour of Auxerre in the morning and a DBA boules match in the afternoon (both of which we managed to miss for various reasons).
In the evening the committee had arranged a Progressive Dinner, where various boats hosted up to a total of eight diners and those particular boats provided the main course. The starter and the dessert were brought along by one or more of the guests, who in turn rotated around the host boats during the evening. It turned out to be a very enjoyable evening, with lots of people we didn’t really know, with lots of good company, food and drink.
