Sometimes I get questions about the French canals, and sometimes they make me laugh. Not in an evil way but when someone wonders if we can “run aground” over here.. Yes and no.. we run aground only once here. That’s when we enter the canal, we float again when we get out 220 kilometres later. (Internal skippers joke)

When we go to the south France the ship has a draft of 1.80 meters, this is the limit for passing the small canals. Going to the south of France we pass many different canals. First part of the trip the canals are still big and there is water enough but the further we get into the boondocks the worst they get..

Running aground is the easiest thing you can do here. The canal is about 20 meters wide and only in the middle there is enough water (most of the time) for navigating without touching the bottom of the canal. The moment there comes a ship from the opposite direction the problems start and getting stuck for a while is not unusual.. The moment that happens the only thing you can do is have patients. Sometimes the movement in the water is enough and that will only happen when the lockkeeper is smart enough to open the gates of the lock for a while. When both ships try to force moving by engine the water will get from under them and it gets even worst. The best way is to tug the ships along side by hand, ropes on the bollards and start tugging.

At night we try to moor the ship but even that is not always an easy thing to do. Like I wrote, only in the middle of the canal there is enough water..

We have a gangway of 6 meters but sometimes even that is to short to get ashore and most of the time the only possibility for really mooring is putting a rope around a tree! When the gangway is to short there are 2 possibilities .. swim ashore or putting the lifeboat in the water. As you will understand, swimming is only in summertime And NO there are no pictures…

This reminds me of a night we tried to moor, it was late, dark and winter and the gangway to short. We were stuck in the mud and we thought we were fine there. Next morning we woke up 2 kilometres back.. During the night we floated them back without touching or hitting a thing!

But other times we wake up in the morning to find out that during the night the water level in the canal lowered and the ship is hanging over to one side..

Navigating is such a romantic job..

Problem about blogging is that what you write has to be of some interest for the readers and it should be fun to write for the author. And that was what missed last year, from one trip to the other, no funny stories – no bloody accidents – no locks that fell apart.. At least – not the moment we passed them.

2011 Started cold but we missed most of it having our winter break in the family summerhouse.
We had a great time, making walks in the forest spotting deer’s – gazing at the birds for whom we made real dinners in the time there was to much snow for them to find food.

Beginning of March we started with a trip from Stein to Middenmeer and that was the beginning of a year short trips.. We didn’t really dislike it, maybe it gives even more profit BUT… we are used to long trips.

We went loading in Amsterdam, brought it to places near Reims in France and reloaded somewhere near Reims back to Holland.

And that is in short the year 2011…

We did some sightseeing around Amsterdam and visited the “Batavia werf” something we always wanted to do but never got the opportunity. It was great to climb that old ships and wondering about how living on those ships would have been, 300 people using 2 toilets..

We had several walks but even those were not spectacular and not many pictures.

One of the most crazy things was one of our cats having blather problems and the vet gave him a catheter for 4 days.. what a mess!

But we got our silly Hobo back as crazy as he always was! He hasn’t been well for more the 6 months over it without us noticing it but doing well now on his special diet. Trico, his little girlfriend, was glad to have back her silly big fat tomcat!

And then the winter came closer – time to pack and take off for our winter stop!

This year it was not the snow that made us happy we went to the summerhouse but all the big storms and we got sandblasted several times on the beach.

The cold came late in 2012, February temperatures got down to minus 12 degrees and canals were closed everywhere in Holland and France. End of February we packed and got back to the ship and we had a trip to the south of France. Solaize – somewhere near to Lyon.

March 15th – today..
It is a bit misty but the sun is already there to warm the frozen decks! Spring is in the air! Who knows, maybe this year will bring some funny stories!

Thursday –finally- the testing started. First the container with the 700 ton that we (and the two other ships) brought there and that turned out well but they wanted more. Four big water bags filled with each 50 ton of water were add and that made the total weight lifted by the crane 900 tons. After the testing it took them hours to empty does water bags and we started loading Friday morning..

After loading we headed for St. Jean de Losne to do shopping and arrange some business at the bank. When we are in that village we moor most of the time a bit out of the village on a nice quite place.. Meadow where the dogs can play, and we can have a barbecue and campfire.. Friday evening, it started to get dark already .. Jacob said .. there are cows here.. I did not see them when I drove to here with the car… and the fence was open.. Oh well we will see tomorrow..

Saturday morning 7 o’clock … Lot of noise.. strange noise.. I get out of bed and go out to see what is happening.. Jacob on the ship with a broom shouting.. On the other side of the plank a wild bull not letting Jacob over the plank! In the mean while Bullies harem was bumping and destroying our car! I went back inside for I could not do much about it and after a while Jacob came in. I asked him if Bully was still mad about him.. no he answered .. I cuddled him a bit and now he is gone.. I decided to call the owner of the meadow, he told me that it must be his cows but they should not be on that meadow.. AND that we had to take care for the bull is a killer… Our nice sunny Sunday off, having a barbecue turned out into a catastrophe for flies and bullshit do not combine with that! Sunday night they took of again and we never saw them again.. Car came out of the battle with a broken mirror and wind screen wiper and 3 dents…..

While we were busy unloading in Nijkerk we got a phone call for a next trip! Strange trip this one.. Not dusty at all, ship will be as clean as it was before loading.. even after two trips.. We got ourselves a double trip! Loading in Breda – unloading in Chalon sur Saone- and back to Breda! All with the same cargo, contra weights to test a crane in France, when that is done the contra weights have to go back to Breda. There are two other ships doing the same trip a total of 720 tonnes of contra weights.

Loading started Wednesday morning around 8:00 and around 10:00 we had 235 tonnes (17 contra weights -each one around 12,500 tons) in the ship.. there is still plenty of space to have a party in there now!

There were two very nice guys in the hole to get everything on the right place, they did a very good job!

The men with the papers.. well I think they are good with papers but loading a ship? They had calculated exactly what the best way would be to load the ship -their way would be easy for unloading in France.. Yes but not for our ship .. a block of 60 tonnes on 4 little feet on the floor in the ship – just like that?… OH NO mister… our ship.. we decide how it will be placed in there!
Then they found out that 2 blocks of 10 tonnes each could be taken of. That was better already! First we made a floor with the flat parts and the heavy part could go on to that. So the surface where the weight is on is bigger and the weight more divided.











While I am writing this we are in Belgium, while you are reading it already in France… Chalon sur Saone here we come!

Hey that one we saw already… Oh well it is idyllic when your yacht is surrounded by water lilies and the guys that are trying to make it float again don’t seem to have a very bad time! Wondering if the rental compagny will be that happy….

Upstream we go, next trip will be from Montargis(Fr) to Nijkerk(NL) but before we can load we have to travel 400 km with an empty ship! You can download the track for this here. It is a nice route but many low bridges so we have to put ballast in the ship, more about that later!

Sancerre here we come! Finally we get an opportunity to make a new stock of that very good wine

Further downstream – of course- there is no strike and all the locks are operating normal! So when.. but we did not so we have a day off, nice for cleaning up, painting and BBQ.

Ironically enough, we are the only freighter over here that is hit my this strike, later that night two other freighters arrive at the lock but they do not loose a complete day like we did. The yachtsmen who have been stopped also did not even dislike the day off with a little town nearby…

But I think we are punished for the flag we have.. The Frenche are not very happy about football at the moment!

Not much happened since Chica was operated and she is doing fine. This afternoon the stitches will go out and we can forget about it.

Somewhere during the trip we rescued a little sparrow out of the river. After drying it was glad to get out of her cage!

Roses and cherries for my birthday, all stolen out of the lockkeepers garden!

Pfew.. we were allowed to walk back.. it was only 40 meters

VNF is doing a lot to make it comfortable for everyone.. Planters with lovely flowers, signs to let you know where you can do your shopping etc… Only thing they forget is chopping trees.. The people on this yacht didn’t seem to be happy. Nor will the disabled people that have to do some mowing before they can get to there fishing spot. A lockkeeper told me they are never used… Even the locks are filled up with weed.. Jacob tried to cleanup a bit! And dredging.. that is something we only dream about!

Yeaaahh Finaly SUN!

COME ON… get CLOSER! I remember last time when you gave me that apple… and bite you in your arm to thank you!

Friday morning we got to Sedan, a bigger town and I even found a veterinarian. So I looked up the address -only a 3 km walk- not that bad. When I came at the address there was no veterinarian but a dentist.. pfff. Luckily I had taken my phone and the telephone number.. Oh well one more kilometre to walk.. they moved a year ago! Nice those websites that are kept up to date!

Chica was very tired by then for she was not in a good condition and it was hot! The veterinary made the same conclusion as I did about the infection and one hour later Chica was operated… We stayed the rest of the day in Sedan and around 3 o’clock I could go to get her. When I came there she was still not able to walk so a 4 kilometre walk not possible but the vet brought us back to the ship by car, sometimes you find nice people around! Arriving there the next problem.. a six metres gangway and a dog that weights 36 kilo… The vet was afraid of the gangway so Jacob picked her up alone and carried her over the gangway!

Everyone happy when Chica was inside, she not the least I think. She is doing well now, starts to walk around already. Hopefully she will recover fast!

Another prove that navigating is not always romantic and needs a lot of improvisation sometimes.