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| Steel coils |
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| Sign board with local history info |
-0.9ºC Cold, sunny but lots of grey clouds. Set off at
9.30am. The sky was filled with lots of con trails – jets from St Dizer no doubt. Took photos of coils of steel at the steel
works. No sign of the boats so they must have all unloaded and gone back down the canal. Lock
53, Notre Dame de Grâce, wouldn’t work, Mike phoned and the VNF at Bar-le-Duc
control put it right without sending the “jockey” out. All locks had been empty
until 52, Petit Fraicul, and we had a short wait while it emptied – it was
only three quarters full. Lock 51, Bois l’Ecuyer, was dead no electrics. A VNF engineer
was doing some work. A VNF van went past. The VNF man spotted the boat and worked
it from the cabin and was on the phone all the time. Mike asked what was wrong
with the lock and he just said it didn’t work! Photo of sign (history of region) by lock 52, Petit Fraicul. Lock 50 was so full of weed the top end
gates wouldn’t fully open, weed jammed up behind them. Lock en panne - broke. Lock 49
(Grand Fraicul) – orange lights didn’t work and the lock is hidden around a
corner – VNF and their lack of maintenance! Fortunately the lock electronics had worked and
the red/green lights were on. VNF had said that the liftbridge would open at 2pm. Windy, so hanging about below the lift bridge at Mussey with no tying up place was fun. The deck was in a very bad state
with a temporary deck on top of the old one and Ponts & Chaussees
arrived and had to move the temporary deck before opening the bridge. With it open we could get
into lock 46 Mussey. Mike booked the bridge at Fains for the following morning
with the VNF guy at Mussey. Lock 44, Varney, wouldn’t work – phoned Bar-le-Duc
again and they set it working remotely. A big
fat rat was walking around the lockside – and then it fell in! - we left it swimming in the lock
chamber. Arrived at Fain
s and tied to the piling at 4.10pm
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| Temporary decking on the liftbridge at Mussey |
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