Aigues Morte to Ipswich

Aigues Mortes to the English Channel.

Having made the journey from Aigues Mortes to the English Channel by yacht during May/June of 2006 as a crew member aboard Jade I felt it appropriate to make a few jottings about our adventure for the benefit of others considering a similar journey.

Jade is a 31ft Ketch rig Westerley Longbow with a draft of 1.6m. Power was supplied by the excellent 35hp inboard diesel engine. For the journey her masts had been removed and laid the length of the boat centraly sitting on the pushpit at the front and supported at the back by a cross of two hefty pieces of driftwood. Extra support was supplied by a triangle of wood towards the bow. Experience showed that the mast and supports must be securely fixed as although the journey is on inland waterways conditions can get rough and there are situations, such as, a sudden stop of the boat when the mast feels the necessity to continue the journey after the boat has stopped.

The usual collection of fenders together with a large spherical fender which was used towards the bow to prevent the mast hitting lock walls were used. A six foot plank was hung bridging the two central fenders thus stopping the fenders from being absorbed by any delves in the lock wall. Idealy two sets of fore, aft and centre lines should be set up to allow locking on either port or starboard. We set Jade up to lock on port, however, there were many occasions when a sudden change in plan was required usually, upon the request of the lock keeper who was having a boring day and fancied a look at our papers.

Jade moored at Valence.

The crew... Captain Headboard had selected his two crew from the cream of his hometown sailing fraternity which consisted of himself, his Father and Brother-in-law (me). Actually his selection was based on the fact that we were the only two people he could find that could worm three weeks off work/home duties and our sailing abilities had naf all to do with it.

The Journey... Originally planned for 6 weeks earlier, but cancelled due to the flow in the Rhone being too strong. The french inforhone.fr website contains excellent information regarding the flow and even trafic on the Rhone. Relatives at home enjoyed watching our progress as each locking is listed on the site for all to monitor. The plan was to take the Rhone -> Saone -> Canal de Marne a la Saone -> Calais -> Ipswich. However, this didn't quite work out.

Actually trying to figure out how fast the Rhone is flowing is very difficult. Originally the Captain had put flow rates of Beaucaire @ 1460, Valence @ 1200, and Lyon @ 810 as the maximum flow Jade could take. In the end we actually started on 2100, 1800, 800 realising that we would probably need to turn back, but, the job had to be done and sitting in the marina was only going to cost money. Fortunately, although we weren't aware of it, the flow rates were falling daily and conditions were improving hourly.

Aigues Mortes street scene

The Marina at Aigues Mortes

Day 1.
Early morning start (07:00) in hot sunshine off towards St Gillies Lock. Spent a little time doing speed trials trying to figure out Jade's maximum speed which came to around 12kph. The single most useful tool on the entire journey was our handheld gps which we set up in the cockpit to read speed and vmg. By mid morning we were on the Petit Rhone and averaging 9-10 kph against the flow. Captain was happy we were going to make good progress and things weren't as bad as the marina Thomas's had predicted. Around 12:40 we came in sight of the Rhone proper and edged our way towards the confluence. It became clear the the flow of the Petit Rhone was only a fraction of the Rhone and that we were about to head into serious current. Captain edged Jade into the flow making sure that an about turn could be made should we be unable to make progress. All eyes were on the gps speed reading as we hit the flow 10.. 9.5 .. 9 .. 8 .. 7.5 .. 7 .. 6 .. 5 .. 4 .. 3 .. 2.4 .. 2.6 up went the throttle ... 2.8 ... 3. Now, this was a little worrying as we had no idea whether we were in a section of fast flow or a section of slow flow, however, the captain pressed on, albeit at the speed of a baby's crawl. Fortunately the flow we encountered at that point was to be the strongest of the entire journey. Late in the evening (19:00) we pull into Avignon, just past the famous half bridge. Capitinaire is on holiday, so free parking. Walked around the town after dinner, teeming with life.

The petit Rhone

The bridge at Avignon

Day 2
Up and off at 06:30 still battling against a strong flow. Weather baking hot. Reached Viviers around 19:30 and pulled into the small marina for much needed shower. Superb town well worth visiting. Campervan stop next to marina.

By day 2 we are starting to learn how to make best use of the river. The flow is not constant across the width of the river and by using the gps and moving from side to side it becomes quite easy to find the most advantagous path up the river. As a general rule of thumb the flow is less on the inside banks of the curves of the river and heading into these makes much quicker progress. It is necessary to keep an eye out for oncoming barges as this process often throws you onto the left hand side, which in theory is the wrong side navigationally. However, whilst upstream traffic is trying to find the weakest current, downstream traffic is working the fastest current and as a result we found we never really came into confilict with downstream traffic. For the canalised sections the slowest flow is nearest the bank and travelling as near as we dare to the bank was the best way to proceed.

Bridges. Painful places bridges. Bridge constructors generally build their bridges at the narrowest point of the river, which coincidenttaly is the fastest flowing part. Then, they restrict the flow even more by putting huge bridge piers to support the bridge. The flow under bridges we found increased considerably and we were regularly down to under 4kph whilst underneath. Add to this the huge standing waves by the piers and it is quite scary stuff. Captain made the mistake of allowing a barge to overtake us whilst passing under a bridge which made for a seriously white knuckle ride. This was the only time we saw Captain a touch tense. New underwear required. We did find that slipstreaming the bridge piers also worked quite well.

The mooring at Viviers

Left : The lock at Bollene (The deepest lock in Europe with a drop of 23 metres)

Day 3
Had to wait for fuel station to open to get fuel (long walk) before we could set off today. 09:20 start. Pulled into the nice large marina at Valence around 18:20. Food available from Geant a short cycle ride away.

The Marina at Valence

Twixt Valence and Vienne

Day 4
05:30 start. Making around 8kph over the ground now and another scorching day. Hit the bottom hard just before ecluse de gervons due to taking too close a cut between posts. Later the enging cooling system packed up and we had to moor to a commercial wharf whilst Captain fitted a new impeller. Got to Vienne early evening and moored up to a free pontoon on the left bank just before the town. Lovely historic town, walked around until it got dark. Found a cybercafe and checked on emails and Rhone flow.

Vienne by evening, view from the pontoon

Vienne

Day 5
05:30 start, through Lyon around 09:30 in the morning, turn left up the Soane. Fuel barge closed (Sunday) VNF office closed. Moored on bank under the willows to try to find fuel. Fuel available at car park on roadside above moorings. Food available about 2 blocks further in to the city. Arrived at Macon at 19:50 and moored up to a deserted run down wharf. Kicked off mooring around 23:30 by small floating town who insisted we were parked on their berth (wish I had some photos of this). Edged our way through narrow difficult section through Macon in pitch black and tied up to nearest boat we could find.

Pierre-Bénite lock - Showing the rubbish the locks sometimes accumulate	Exiting Pierre-Bénite lock and heading into Lyon (Second largest city in France)
Lyon on the Saone under the willows	Lyon

Day 6
Off at 06:15. The locks are now much smaller than the Rhone locks and reached ecluse de ormes at 10:15. Weather has taken a turn for the worse, drizzly and cold. Reached Chalon sur Soane in pouring rain and hail and decided to have an afternoon off (big yipees!) Moored at marina and filled up with fuel. Spent afternoon wine tasting and stocking up from local supermarket (short walk from marina). Showers!

Weather takes a turn

The marina at Chalon sur Saone

Day 7
Off at 06:15, made it to St Jean de Losne around 14:00 and called in at the VNF office to purchase our vignette - 89 Euros. Reached Auxonne at 17:15. Free pontoon mooring and easy access to town centre.

St Jean de Losne - upstream

Same place looking downstream

Day 8
Set off at 06:30 and got into the Canal de la marne a la Soane at 09:30. Made arrangements for a lock keeper at the first lock. The locks in this canal are a mixture of automatics and manual locks operated by your own personal lock keeper. We made slow progress as we were up behind a very slow peniche. Stopped when the locks closed at 18:30. Moored in the mud by the next lock and walked to a cafe (ish) and had our first meal out. Steak and chips ! five euros! bootiful.

The landscape gets greener, the locks get smaller.

Notice how close the next lock is.

Same position looking aft.

Day 9
Up at 07:00. Painful day, incessant rain and behind the slow barge all day. Stopped at mooring at PK168 19:00. We were finding the automatic locks were occasionally failing to detect us either approaching or entering the lock. On several occasions it was necessary to jump off and use the unmanned intercom to contact the control centre who then opened the lock manually. It is also necessary to enter the lock very slowly as the detectors will not detect you entering unless you break the detector beam for 10 seconds (Originally I thought it was 9 seconds, but found out our lock keeper had a finger missing). It is also worth noting the height of the entry detectors as they appeared to shining through Jade's windows which meant the beam wasn't broken for long enough. If all else fails jump off and stick your hand over the detector.

Typical method of mooring for Jade.

Note: The tree was leaning like that before we moored to it!

Same place, upstream view showing the lock we will pass through as

soon as the canal opens next morning.

Day 10
Up at 07:30 and through a string of 8 locks like lightening averaging 9min per lock. Up to the Langres tunnel. The last lock before the tunnel looks to be the control centre for the southern section. The Langres tunnel is pretty impressive, 4km of perfectly straight tunnel. It is not possible to see the end of the tunnel until you get pretty much to the middle. It is well lit but it is wise to have a bow man checking for floaters. Stopped at Langres around midday and cycled up the hill to the supermarket to stock up on food. Keep catching up our slow barge. At one lock we had to wait an hour as our slow barge met another oncoming slow barge and they both got stuck. Lock keepers flushed more water through the locks to refloat them. At this point Captain had a word with the collection of lock keepers that had congregated and asked if we could overtake the slow barge as we had been following it for the past three days. A mobile phone call later and it was all organised ! The barge would pull over after the next lock and lets us through ! Through we went and made much better progress. Stopped at 18:15 at PK130 by the lock.

Inside the tunnel

Tunnel exit.

Day 11
Lock keeper arrives at 07:15, To our dismay it is the slow barge's lock keeper and not ours ! We watch in dismay as the barge is let through and we are told to stay ! Our lock keeper turns up at 08:45 and off we go. Lock keeper forgot to close the gates before opening the sluice which turns the lock into a river... much shouting... lock keeper apologises and off we go. We had the same lock keeper all day today and he was very good. His moped kept breaking down which led to much hilarity as we passed him on the canalside trying to fix it again and again. After a couple of locks we catch up our slow barge again and he waves us by this time. We wouldn't see him again as we had a full day ahead to make progress this time. Made it to Vouecourt around 18:30 and tied up across the lock gates... no one is getting through before us this time! Vouecourt is a nice little village with an odd old bath house alongside the lock. The campsite nearby alongside the river Marne has showers but we couldn't find anyone to ask if we could use them. A barge appeared later in the evening and tied up nearby obviously waiting to lock in the morning.

Evening halt	Misty morning
Town baths!	Captain moors Jade across the lock entrance.

Day 12
8:00am and both our and the barge's lock keepers arrive. Fortunately they decide to lock us first. Today's lock keeper 'Pedro' was quite a character and he started the first few locks off running from gate to gate, but, we soon wore him down and by the end of the day it had turned to a slow walk. Pedro would lock us and whizz by on his moped onto the next lock giving us a beep beep every time he passed. We did toy with the idea of giving him a beep beep on our air horn but thought that such was the power of the thing it might make him jump and fall off his moped. On this canal the keepers stop for lunch and Pedro told us he was going to stop for lunch at the next lock around midday. We tied up in the lock and Pedro brought his chair and sat next to us. Obligingly we supplied coffee and a mushroom and ham omlette. He must have liked the coffee because he said 'Mon Dieu' when we gave it to him. We had hoped to reach St Dizier, but ended up one lock short and tied up right next to a bakery selling the most delicious pastries! Biked on to St Dizier to find an internet cafe in the evening.

Pedro and two Dutch cyclists who asked to have their photo taken aboard Jade.
(Being, Dutch cyclists on a British boat in the French canals - you do meet the oddest people!)

Tonight's mooring - right next to the bakery! Yummy!

Day 13
Stocked up on bread from the bakery and set off around 8:00. Arrived at Vitry around 16:45 and moored up in the small scruffy marina. Actually we stuck in the mud more than moored. The local campsite had showers and a walk of around 20mins made it to the site. Twenty minutes walk and 1.5 euros for a cold shower! still, it had been seven days without! Stocked up from local supermarket.

Junction

The small marina at Vitry

Day 14
Left Vitry at 07:00 and now on the Lateral Marne travelling quite quickly. Today we did our fastest two locks. Both were automatics without the entry time delay that some of the automatics have. From crossing the lock door on entry to crossing the door on exit we did a 4 minute and, the best, a 3 minute 41 second. We reached Sillery at 18:30 and moored up in the marina. Refueled from the service station at the supermarket about 5 mins walk.

Marina at Sillery	Making good progress
Locking	Memorial at Sillery

Day 15
Left Sillery around 07:00 heading for Reims. Had a short stop in Reims and reached Berry-au-Bac around 15:00 and had some lunch. Reached Pargny-Filath around 19:00 (can't remember this place)

Decided to check the VNF chomages (closures) for our route to Calais and it appeared the canal that feeds Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne is shut for two weeks. This comes as a bit of a blow and eventually it was decided that we would have to take the route along the Somme and out into the sea at St Vallery. This would mean a much longer sea journey but since this was the route Jade had taken on the way down to the Med there should be no problems.

Day 16
Up at 06:30. Moored up for the night at Pont-l'eveque around 20:00

Day 17
Off at 07:00. Entered the Canal de la Somme at 09:15. Not much water here! The banks look as if they were around two foot short of water. Pushed our way through the mud along the first section. The locks are not very integrated and there is a definate lack of, what you might call, the rat race. Relaxed is an overused word here. This canal relies on you phoning up lock keepers and they will even lend you a mobile phone if you ask. A very detailed booklet is available on request which is very similar to the Navicarte guides. We reached Amiens at 18:15 and tied up on the free mooring in the town centre. To be fair Amiens is probably quite a nice place but I did not find it so. The mooring is alongside a car park littered with dropouts and beggars. Within a few minutes of our arrival we were approached by someone wanting to shake our hand and then demanding to see our papers. There was no way were were going to show our papers to this guy and he became very agitated saying that he was going to call the police. He eventually left pointing, shouting and demanding we stay on the boat. Had a walk round the town that evening. Didn't sleep a wink as the road alongside was being used by motorbikes as a makeshift racetrack up to around 3am. Amiens.... don't bother.

The canal de la Somme

Amiens

Day 18
Off at 08:30 and glad to be out of Amiens, hopefully this will be our last day on the canals. Captain was called into the office at the Amiens lock and it was explained to him that there had been a bank slippage further along and that there was only 1.5m of depth on this section and to take care. They were aware that Jade drew 1.5m as we had been asked at several locks along the way and were happy for us to proceed. We continued on our way. Three locks further down we had a telephone call from the Amiens office. It would appear that there was only 1.4m of depth today and there was no way we could proceed. They did not know when, or indeed if, there would be enough depth. We were to wait or turn back. This was a bombshell! After a fairly short discussion it was decided waiting was not our game so we turned and made our way back up the Somme. The only route we could take now was via Belgium to Zeebruge or Ostende. After turning we were then held up two and a half hours at the next lock. We made painfully slow progress back to Corbie and had to stop here at 17:45. Free showers at the muicipal campsite here. Much needed red wine helped the evening along.

Corbie

Just showing how much we enjoyed the fruit cordials

Day 19
Up at 07:45, stood around waiting for lock keeper until 10:05. Reached Froisy at 13:00 and had lunch. Passed hundreds of swimmers (yes swimmers!) and endless fishermen with huge rods. Finally escaped the Canal de la Somme at 16:20. Only just escaped, as, having pushed through the mud and logs of the last section, in the final lock Jade scraped across the lock ledge with a grim grinding sound. Had we been there much longer it would have been unlikely we could have got out.
Once into the Canal du Nord it was like being on the motorway again! Made it to the entrance of the Ryancourt tunnel by 19:15 tied up and ate. Captain went to try and get some information on how to get to Belguim from the Barge owners tied up ahead of us as we had no maps of Belgium and were relying on an old AA book map. Not sure if his communication skills were lacking or if they thought he was joking but he gleaned very little. The lady on the barge in front of us took pity on us and gave us a bottle of Croimasy which was gratefully received.

Swimmers in the Somme

Moored at the Ryancourt tunnel

Day 20
Woken up at 06:15 by the roar of diesel engines of the barges. All hands on deck and we were off en-convoy through the tunnel. Being at the back of five barges proved a pretty smokey passage. The tunnel is single file but has a very long double central section controlled by traffic lights which means traffic gets through quicker. We sailed straight through without stopping, just passed one oncoming barge in the central section. We got to the first lock around 08:45 in scorching heat. Queing for the lock the bargees waved us passed three barges since we were smalll enough to fit in with one of the front barges, which was very considerate of them. Arrived at Lille around 21:00 and went to bed early after a heat exhausting day.

Following a barge through the tunnel (cough cough!)

Passing oncoming traffic in the centre section

Day 21
Up at 06:15 and first lock at 06:25. Spent another blistering day running along the French Belgium border and made Belgium proper around midday. The first Belgium lock needed papers showing and a Belgium canal vignete had to be purchased which cost 25 euros for the month with no smaller time period being available. Later in the day as we approached Bruge the weather changed with thunder and lightening and cooling showers, almost pleasant after the last few days of extreme heat. Bruge has a number of lifting bridges (That don't operate for canal traffic at rush hour periods) and we managed to make it through three of them before running out of time. Pulled up in the marina around 19:30, showered and went into the city and treated the crew to a meal in a small restraunt, which was superb.

Belgium on the right, France of the left.

Marina at Bruge

Day 22
Up at 05:50 in order to try to get through Bruge before the morning rush hour cut off. Followed a large barge through the swing bridges and odd locks of the city and out into the Zeebruge turn off. The traffic now increased in size somewhat as we were now in container vessel territory. We approached the smaller sea lock at Zeebruge around 09:30 and couldn't figure out how to get into it as the lights remained on red. A nearby wharf contained a number of large fishing boats being repaired so we approuched the side of one and enquired with the workmen just how we could get to the sea. In perfect english they advised the smaller sea lock was out of action and that we would have to use the larger commercial lock around the corner. All we had to do was call them on channel 71 and request a locking. Off we trundled and another 20 minutes saw us at the sea lock. A quick radio call and we were advised we could lock in around an hour. This lock was immense in size (500m x 60m) and we were locked all on our own, which, given the size of the ships around us we were quite relieved about! The exit doors opened and we were greeted to our first taste of the sea which came as a shock as there was quite a swell running into the harbour. We made our way around the corner and moored up at the Royal Belgium Yacht Club. Captain arranged for the mast to be raised that afternoon and we rigged the boat in deteriorating windy and raining conditions. Searched by Belgium customs officers. The first and only time we had to show our passports for this trip. By evening time we were all drenched, cold and pretty despondent. Spent a little time plotting a course for Ipswich on the laptop.

The size of the traffic increases somewhat

The huge sea lock at Zeebruge

Day 23/24
Spirits were at an all time low, the wind had been blowing NNE for two days now and the conditions looked grim for the sea crossing. Some yachts had attempted to leave the harbour the previous day but returned due to the swell. Captain continued to rig the boat and at midday made the snap decision to go. We made our way to the harbour entrance and radioed a request to leave harbour, some undecipherable response was received and off we motored. The chop in the harbour entrance was quite severe and we had to get sail up to make any headway. We motorsail for a while and once out of the harbour made good progress, the log reading around 7 knots. I took the helm as we bounced up and down towards Ipswich, and, to my surprise within ten minutes both my fellow crew members had their heads over the side and were heaving. I kept hold of the helm with an odd break or two for as long as I could stay awake whilst the others tried to sleep. Eventually we all sucumbed to the sickness. After sailing through the night we arrived at our final destination, Shotley Marina, around 07:00.

Zeebruge dissapears into the distance

Early morning mooring at Shotley Marina