Chalonne and Joinville

Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Fri 17 Jun 2011 19:22


Chaumont  12:06.2011 
Awoke to blue skies and warm sunshine. After breakfast we cleaned up the boat, Maureen did some washing, I did some boat maintenance, including cleaning out the filter in the engine exhaust cooling system. I have to do this at least once a day; there is so much fine weed in the canal. Although I have to say the Canal du Marne is not as bad as some the waterways we have been along. Some of the local parishes just don’t seem to do any canal maintenance at all. We both had showers ( a real luxury!). After lunch I went for a bike ride, intending to just do a few kilometres down the towpath and back, but I got a bit carried away after 6 kilometres and turned off to visit an old church that was signposted as 0.5 kilometres away. The first thing the road did was to go up a very long and steep hill. I then met a couple of hikers and asked them in my best Frongelas (French/English) how far it was to the church. They said three kilometres up the hill. Determined not to be beaten I carried on and eventually got to the top of the hill and the church, only to find it was shut (bother! Although that was not my original expletive!) So I carried on and eventually got back to Chaumont. Having cycled about 18 miles in all. Back on the boat, Ann and Gareth were telling Maureen about their input into getting the Severn Barrage project going. I thought it was a lot of hot air but when I checked the web site Gareth had been one of the principals to push the project forward. Very interesting chap. That evening Maureen and I went and had a nice meal in the local restaurant to celebrate her birthday (one day early as we will be moving tomorrow and tomorrow is a bank holiday here and everything is closed). We move off tomorrow at 09:00hrs.
Joinville.  13.06.2011  48:26:74N  05:08:93E
We had an early breakfast and Maureen opened her birthday cards and presents before we left the mooring at 08:50hrs under heavy grey clouds. We are still travelling together with Gareth and Ann in “Ruby”. Not a very good start to the day, as two locks after the start and just before we entered Conde Tunnel (300metres long and fairly wide) we met a large barge at a narrow and shallow point in the canal and we bumped our bottom several times (the boat’s bottom that is) I think when we get back home I will have to replace the copper coating on the bottom of the bilge keels. For the last five days we have been going down in some very deep locks manned by student lock keepers and very good they are too. A lot of them speak English and are all very amiable and helpful. Today however we lost our lads and we are back to using automatic locks (starting at lock 35) on our own. The weather has been very very changeable and the jumpers and macs have been on and off all day. It was a long tiring day covering 48 kilometres and passing through 21 locks, arriving at Joinville Port du Plaisance at 18:00hrs. There were a lot of motor homes on the dockside and one of the chaps from one of them came over and correctly identified “Seascape” as a Seadog Ketch. Not many people can do that, but he was a dedicated sailing man and hada Seadog moored up near where he used to live in Whitby. Now he keeps his boat in the Bahamas. (lucky blighter) Having tied up our boats, the four of us sat around one of the port’s picnic tables and had champagne and nibbles (Coo, how the rich live!  That would be nice to do every day. Spent the evening playing cards and writing up this log.
Joinville  14.06.2011 48:26:74N  05:08:93E
Awoke to a dull overcast day. After breakfast we said our goodbyes to Gareth and Ann on “Ruby” and helped them cast off. The electrics at this site used to be free but the town have now installed a card system which no-one, even the French could understand.  Normally it is 2euro for 24 hours but here it was 2 euro for 55mins!!  The mayor, town clerk and justice minister for the town came around and introduced themselves, Maureen did her best to make them understand there was a problem and they promised to investigate as they had no idea how the system worked. We walked around the town and like so many, we found they were once really beautiful, but had been left to go to rack and ruin. The main church boasts the relic of a crusading knight (looked like his leg!?) It started to rain by mid morning so we went back to the boat. The rain did not last long and we were able to take the bikes and make three runs up to the local garage to fill up our diesel cans, without getting wet. While we were back at the boat, a cruiser the size of the QE2 arrived and moored up behind us. Talk about feeling inferior! Then to really rub it in the owner and his spouse lounged around on the upper sun deck while the man servant washed and polished the boat and the maid busied herself grooming the dog. It all supplied some amusement along the quay. I lazed around the rest of the day but then so did my staff! The weather did improve right at the end of the day. We move on tomorrow.