Saturday
2nd May
Migennes
to Brienon
8
km 2 locks 1½ hrs
 |
| Leaving Migennes |
We
had a lovely evening yesterday. We were
invited for drinks by a great couple, Frank and Gill who were also moored at
Migennes on a cruiser called Détante. It’s shame they are not going to be
travelling in our direction.
We
set off at 10.10am to get to the first lock at 10.15am, our arranged time with
the lock keeper. He arrived and told us
he hadn’t got the keys for the automatic lock and apologized, and we had a to
wait a short while for another eclusier to arrive with the keys. We didn't mind at all, so sat on the back deck and had a cup of tea.
Kev
did really well with the rope throwing today so his shoulder isn’t holding him back.
The
weather this morning for our trip was drizzly, but stopped just as we arrived
in Brienon. We showered and then went to
walk to the restaurant in the town we went to last year, Auberge de la Poterne and had another great lunch.
It’s
pouring with rain this afternoon, so a lazy afternoon was spent relaxing on the
boat. Unfortunately the forecast isn’t
good for the next few days. The river
Yonne is back on yellow flood alert and is closed to pleasure craft. So it’s good that we have decided not to go via
the river Yonne and Nivernais canal. We
heard that Le Boat hire boats from Migennes were stuck at Auxerre, so customers
going home today were being collected by car to be able to pick up their
own cars from the Migennes Le Boat hire base.
Sunday
3rd May
Brienon
It’s
raining today again, so we stayed put.
Late morning we went for a walk in between rain showers up to the next
lock and back. It’s where we were able
to view the river Armençon, which runs along the same valley as our canal. It looked a little swollen, but not too bad.
In
the afternoon Gill and Frank off Détante
gave us a lovely surprise by knocking on our door, they’d been for a drive
in their car from Migennes where they are stuck due to high river levels on the
Yonne. We had a lovely few hours
chatting to them, this time over a cup of tea and biscuits as Frank was
driving. Shame they aren’t travelling
the same way as us, as they are great company.
Monday
4th May
Brienon
to St Florentine
10km
4 locks 2½ hours
No
rain today, so we set off just after 9am, after ringing the lock keeper to say
we were coming. Kev had a nasty shock in
the first lock; just where he was standing holding the stern rope, on the
ladder on the lock wall, was a snake curled up, looking at him with its forked
tongue going in and out. Kev hates
snakes, really hates them! The snake
eventually fell into the water as the lock filled and then it was swimming
around trying to get out. As we left the lock keeper got the snake out of the
water and pretended to chase his wife with it, she wasn’t happy!!
 |
| A snake in the lock! |
After
the first lock, we then shared the next 3 locks with a large 15m long hire
boat; luckily they knew what they were doing and the rest of the mornings
travel went well.
We
moored in St Florentine, in a similar spot where we moored last year and after
lunch we walked around the town. The
river L’Armençon looked very swollen, and there was a little flooding in the
park.
Early
evening we noticed that the canal water level had risen considerably, almost
over the edge of the banks, a couple of hire boats arrived, and moored up stern
to the bank on the opposite side of the pound to us. A few hours later we realised the water level
had then dropped by about a foot. We
found that we were grounded, and really tilting over. The
hire boats that had recently arrived found that their sterns were out of the
water, hung up on the wooden edging of the canal! There was much pushing and shoving, but they
were both well and truly stuck. We could
see them on the phone presumably talking to the hire boat company. Kev went to see if the VNF were at the lock,
he found someone there even though it was after 7pm. He told Kev that the water level would go
back up in the morning. Lets hope so!
 |
| You might just be able to see that we are on an angle The water level had risen right up to the edge, we must have floated closer in and when they let the water level go right down, we ended up high and dry! |
Later
we saw the VNF guy taking photos of the stranded hire boats and of us. We think the water level was risen a little
to help the hire boats, as eventually they were able to move and moored further
along where it was deeper. But we are
still stuck, but not listing over as much.
Wednesday
5th May
St
Florentine
We
hadn’t planned to move today or tomorrow as the forecast is for very strong winds; it is just as well we had decided to stay as
we are still grounded. Kev managed to
speak to the VNF man again, and this time there was a gardener working at the lock
who could speak English. Kev was told that because
of the heavy rains over the past few days, and high risk of flooding they are
using the canal as a way of taking some of the water off the river L’Armençon. There were big floods two years ago and the
towns that were affected are making sure they don’t suffer the same damage
again this year.
We’ve
been looking at the www.vigicrues.gouv.fr website (the French
flood alert website) and they are expecting the river levels in the area to
continue to rise today, so I think we will be here until Thursday, which was
our planned day to move on anyway.
 |
| See the arches of the bridge....almost disappeared see photo below of us going over the bridge last year to see how high the river is now |
 |
| Last year |
Wednesday 6th May
We are floating today, the canal level is back up again to normal level. So we are going to move on today. We have just spoken to a lock keeper riding by on his motorbike and we have arranged to leave after lunch.
No comments:
Post a Comment