Conflans-St Honorine, Port du I’ion and L es Andelys
Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Sun 10 Jul 2011 15:09
Conflans-St Honorine 07.07.2011 48:59:38N 02:06:18E
We said our farewells to our NZ neighbours and the NZ/Canadian crew of “Gewa” and at 08:45hrs we slipped out of the Arsenal lock into the River Seine and motored slowly up towards the first bridge which was showing two red lights. Bother! I thought, (or some other _expression_) that means we will have to wait for a barge to come down through. So we waited and waited and the boat was drifting about all over the river. Then a barge came up behind us and then moored up by some building works on the quay wall. I motored over to it and Maureen asked if they knew why the lights were still at red with nothing coming either way. The bargee told us that the lights would change at 09:35hrs? (a further wait of 25minutes!) I therefore moored up behind the barge to wait. An English woman walked by with her dog and she told us that the lights change alternately on the hour and 35 minutes past the hour, irrespective of any traffic around. She said that it clearly states this in the Fluvialcarte ( the map book of the canals). Oh dear, we hadn’t read that bit! So we waited and sure enough, the lights did change at the appointed time and resumed our merry way. For the next 16 kilometres there were houseboats moored on both sides of the river, some of which looked like they were derelict, but probably weren’t. On the outskirts of Paris on both sides of the river, there were a lot of tents and cardboard lean-tos where the dropouts sleep. Some of the long time residents had gone to great lengths to make their plot look quite homely with potted plants around the outside. We thought we would stop for the night at one halte (mooring) on the river, at Chatou, but when we stopped and tied up two huge barges went past at warp nine causing two tsunamis that caused poor old Seascape to try and climb up on to the pontoon to get out of the way. It was only 15:00hrs and the next stopping place we had sort of earmarked as a possible night stop was only another 20 kilometres so we decided to carry on. The number of barges we saw today far outnumbered the total we saw for the whole of our time on the canals. We arrived at the small (off the river) marina at Conflans-St. Honorine and moored up at a very run down boat yard. There were electric points on the pontoon but like a lot of things there, they didn’t work, but we couldn’t complain, the mooring was free. Today we covered 69 kilometres and passed through 3 locks. The weather has been very changeable today, except the strong wind, which has been in our faces all day.
Port du I’ion 08.07.2011 49:01:67N 01:37:68E
Slipped the mooring at 08:45hrs and motored out into the River Seine into yet another strong head wind. (it plays hell with fuel consumption) After we passed the junction with the River Oise we were very pleased that we lost a lot of the barge traffic. I have come to the conclusion that Maureen is jinxed (no, not just with me!) every time it was sunny and she put out the washing, within 5 minutes it was raining. A few minutes after the clothes come back in, out comes the sun again. This was repeated several times. During one memorable occasion, when she had removed all the washing apart from her underclothes, She suddenly got up and removed them as well, a split second before the heavens opened. She then made the following statement, “I must be psychic as I have just pulled my knickers down!” Several thoughts went through my mind in response but nothing terribly apt came to the forefront. (Any thoughts from my readers should be written on a plain postcard and sent to our address). At 10:15hrs we stopped off in the run down marina at Port St Louis to pick up fuel but when we got there the Capitainerie was absent. We waited 20 minutes, had coffee and then he turned up and we were able to fill our tanks up. We then continued down the now very winding bit of the Seine. The only slight advantage to that is whenever the river turns northwards the wind is then now longer in our faces. Compared to yesterday we have seen very few barges, guess they were all rushing home for the weekend. At 15:45hrs we arrived in the Port Du L’Ilon having covered 50 kilometres. The port is lovely, set right back from the river and is situated at one side of a huge lake. A wee bit exposed though, the wind was making loud rattling noises in the rigging. Maybe a noisy night.
Les Andelys 09.07.2011 49:15:10N 01:22:59E
Both of us overslept. In consequence we did not leave the mooring until 10:00hrs. We motored out into the main river (The Seine) and were immediately held in mid stream for 10 minutes or so waiting for the lady Eclusier (lock keeper) to open the lock gates. When we entered I felt a bit guilty really as we were the only boat in this huge lock basin. The gate at the other end of the lock was nothing like the normal pair of gates that swing open but a really huge sluice gate that rose out of the water like a massive guillotine. Woe betide anyone who upsets this Eclusier. Annoy her and you could find yourself with two unconnected halves of your boat. We then had a very uneventful journey (slightly boring really) downstream to the port de Plaisance Nautikhome. This is just downstream from the hill overlooking Les Andelys town which has King Richard’s (as in The Lionheart) castle on the top. The journey only being punctuated by the very occasional barge going past. As we turned into the very narrow entrance of the port I asked Maureen (a bit late in the day really) what the book said the depth of water was in the basin. She told me no problem, it was advertised as 1,5 metres. (Seascape only draws 1.2 metres). She had no sooner stopped speaking than we slid to halt in the middle of the basin, aground. A small cruiser then motored across the basin and stopped beneath a small crane that was on the quayside. The Capitainerie then arrived and asked us to wait before we moored up as he had to lift the cruiser out and place it on to a trailer. We told him that was no problem since we were aground, We said we were surprised since the book says the water depth is 1,5 metres. The reply was, “Yes it was, a long time ago” (“Thanks very much”. I muttered under my breath). So we sat motionless in the middle of the basin for 15 minutes and watched the cruiser being removed from the water and placed on the trailer. Once that was done we managed to slide off the mud bank backwards sufficiently for ropes to thrown to the Capitainerie who pulled us close into the quayside. Just to make us feel really welcome he said that the depth could drop a further 15 centimetres with the barge traffic and then asked how long we were going to stay. I said “We were going to stay just one night but in that case, a week, a month, or a year perhaps”. The good thing about this port is that although it is a bit run down, it is very quiet, well equipped with electrical hook-ups and water points, showers and loos and most importantly, off the main river. So we should have another quiet night. It has been another bright but very windy day today and I do find that very tiring, so I will sleep soundly anyway.