Saturday
5th July
Mulhouse
to PK7
1
lock 1 hour
To
enable us to have an early start on Sunday we decided to move to a mooring near
to the Niffer Locks that will take us onto the Grand Canal d’Alsace (The Rhine) So after a shop for fresh fruit and vegetables
we set off around 11am.
“Vessels over 15m must have either a Rhine certification, or obtain an exemption available in Strasbourg (Service de la Navigation de Strasbourg, Arrondissement Fonctionnel, 14, Rue du Maréchal Juin, F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex, Tel. 0033-388-767933) or Basel
Skippers must either have a 'Streckenpatent' (specific license for
this part of the Rhine), Since early 2008 the French PP(S) is accepted for the
Strasbourg-Baselstretch ... BUT, only in combination with a Rhine medical
certificate . This medical certificate can be obtained quite easily in Basel
or
in Strasbourg - basically where the commercial skippers obtain their medicals. Failing this a pilot must be carried.
Barges under 20 m have done it regularly with no hassle from
authority, However checks on the Rhine between Strasbourg and Niffer are
reported as now being more frequent, not only by the French but also the German
water authorities.”
We have also spoken to lots of
people who had done this section of The Rhine with our length of barge 18.3m
with no problem, so very uncharacteristically (I am normally a rule keeper) I
said we should go this way to Strasbourg, but the nearer we have got to going the more
nervous I have become!
We had one lock to go through and we had heard that a 23m barge had been refused entry at this lock because it didn’t have the correct paperwork for the Grand Canal d’Alsace. So we were apprehensive as we entered
the last Lock at Mulhouse. A friendly but officious looking VNF man spoke to Kev,
with a clipboard, asking him questions such as name of boat, our surname,
length of boat and draft. He then went
into his office, and we thought uhoh!!! But he came back with lots of tourist information on all the
Alsacian canals and then we went through the lock onto a wide canal past a huge
commercial port. So there was no problem
at all for us.
We knew of two pontoons on the stretch of canal
to the Niffer locks, each pontoon big enough to take one barge.
We thought that if the first pontoon was available we’d moor there, just to
know we had somewhere to moor for the night and it would then only be about an hour
to the Niffer lock on Sunday morning.
When we got to the first pontoon, it had a small day boat moored up with
a couple having lunch, I asked them if they would mind moving so that we could
moor up and they could moor alongside us, but they moved off instead, I felt
bad about ruining their lunch. But after
we had moored up I noticed a sign saying boats to and from the Niffer lock had
priority. So I didn’t feel so bad!
We had a relaxing afternoon, (me
trying to relax,) no signal for internet which was a shame but we read our
books and enjoyed a sunny evening.
Sunday 6th July
PK7 to Boofzheim via The Grand Canal d’Alsace
82km 7 locks 10 hours
What a day we have had! The longest distance we’ve ever travelled in one day. We were so lucky with the weather, hot and sunny most of the day. We saw a lot of commercial barges, probably 15 huge barges and about 5 hotel barges all going upstream, we were going downstream.
We were up at 6.15am, and we left our mooring at 7am to get to our first lock the Niffer lock for 8am, when they open on Sundays. We VHF'd the lock and a very cheerful french lady told us to go into the Petit Lock, it had bollards in the wall (no floating bollards) and we went down very smoothly, moving our ropes onto the lower bollards as they came visible.
As we exited the lock we then had to turn left, (downstream) onto the Grand Canal d”Alsace. I stood at the bow to look out for traffic, and just as we were poking our bow out I saw a huge barge with lorry containers onboard moving at great speed on our port side. So we put on our brakes and held position off the Grand Canal, and waited for it to pass before we joined the Grand Canal d’Alsace. It is a large canal, 150m wide. We had a hand drawn map of the canal giving distances between the locks, the PK numbers, depth of lock, and VHF numbers to use for the locks. We had 5 locks to go through, each has two chambers (Grand Sas is 185m x 22m and Petit Sas is 185m x 11m) and the lock keepers will tell you which one they want you to use.
We were travelling most of the time at 12-14kph, we are normally around 6-7kph on the smaller canals.
We were really lucky because we didn’t have to share a lock with any other boat. We were in the narrower lock on all of them except one. It felt very wasteful us being the only boat in an enormous lock 185m x 22m. The locks all had floating bollards, huge floating bollards, I used a rope on our middle bit, and stood there as we went down, and down and down. The depth of the lock ranges from around 11m to 15m. The floating bollards all made a strange, mournful, creaking sound as they lowered. Even though the locks were easy, and very gentle, I was always glad to get out of them.
As we exited the lock we then had to turn left, (downstream) onto the Grand Canal d”Alsace. I stood at the bow to look out for traffic, and just as we were poking our bow out I saw a huge barge with lorry containers onboard moving at great speed on our port side. So we put on our brakes and held position off the Grand Canal, and waited for it to pass before we joined the Grand Canal d’Alsace. It is a large canal, 150m wide. We had a hand drawn map of the canal giving distances between the locks, the PK numbers, depth of lock, and VHF numbers to use for the locks. We had 5 locks to go through, each has two chambers (Grand Sas is 185m x 22m and Petit Sas is 185m x 11m) and the lock keepers will tell you which one they want you to use.
We were travelling most of the time at 12-14kph, we are normally around 6-7kph on the smaller canals.
We were really lucky because we didn’t have to share a lock with any other boat. We were in the narrower lock on all of them except one. It felt very wasteful us being the only boat in an enormous lock 185m x 22m. The locks all had floating bollards, huge floating bollards, I used a rope on our middle bit, and stood there as we went down, and down and down. The depth of the lock ranges from around 11m to 15m. The floating bollards all made a strange, mournful, creaking sound as they lowered. Even though the locks were easy, and very gentle, I was always glad to get out of them.
We had a couple of locks where we had to wait for barges to come up, floating around wasn’t always that easy as it was a little breezy, but Kev did a brilliant job. One lock we waited for over 30 minutes.
So we had set off at 7am in the morning to get to the Niffer lock for 8am, and we got to the lock that took us off the Grand Canal d”Alsace and onto the Canal du Rhône au Rhin branch Nord by 4.40pm. We were relieved as the locks on the Canal du Rhône au Rhin branch Nord on this section close at 5.30pm.
The first part of this new canal wasn't too pretty, it seemed over grown and not that deep, but it started to improve after 2-3km. We then motored on thinking we might just make the next lock before it closed at 5.30pm, but it started to look unlikely. We then turned a corner to see La Koala, a Piper barge (we knew they were in the area) moored up by the side of the canal. So we moored up behind them and had a great time comparing our experiences on the Grand Canal d’Alsace, and what each of us had been up to since we’d seen them last at Clamecy on the Nivernais canal. They had been much braver than us and had gone to Basel, and also stopped at Breisach on the Rhine canal. We just wanted to get it over and done with as quickly as possible! We had a thunderstorm in the evening; we were so lucky to have good weather during the day. We were shattered and I was in bed by 9.30pm, asleep by 9.35pm!
 |
| Leaving our mooring at 7am A beautiful sunny day |
 |
| We decided we should let this monster go by before we entered the Grand Canal d'Alsace It doesn't look big in this photo but they are lorry containers on top of the barge |
 |
| These are the huge floating bollards in all of the locks on the Grand Canal d'Alsace |
 |
| The locks depth ranged from just under 12m to 15m |
 |
| There is a guillotine door to let us out |
 |
| Waiting for the commercial to exit the lock before the lights go green for us to enter |
 |
| Going down, one middle rope on the floating bollard, no engine, a very slow, smooth descent |
 |
| One of the 5 hotel boats we saw |
 |
| Quite a wake behind it |
 |
| More hotel boats |
 |
| Their living accommodation at the back looks huge, with 2/3 cars at the back |
 |
| The locks don't look big enough for two commercial barges They all give us a friendly wave as they go past |
 |
| This beast is going in the smaller lock on the left, how will it fit in? |
 |
| It still doesn't look feasible |
 |
| No....it can't possibly fit! |
 |
| No it still looks unlikely to get in the lock entrance without causing damage to the barge |
 |
| The wheel house is on hydraulics and lowers just as they enter the lock A small cruiser fits into the lock at the back behind the commercial |
 |
| A mad canoeist riding the wave from the barge |
 |
| It looks very brave to me |
 |
| We had all the locks to ourselves, even this big one, such a waste of water |
 |
| The lock to take us off The Rhine and onto the Canal du Rhône au Rhin Branch Nord |
 |
| A lovely canal once you get past the first 2km YOu can't see it as its in the shadow but Le Koala was moored up on the left |
 |
| Our mooring behind Le Koala A lovely sunny evening which then turned into a big thunderstorm |
No comments:
Post a Comment