Rangali Adventures: Strasbourg to Souffleweyersheim/Souffleweyershiem to Boofzheim

Wednesday 16^th July

Koejac Marina Strasbourg to Souffleweyersheim

We have decided to move onto to Souffleweyersheim to moor there for a couple of nights, so an hour and a half after leaving the Koejac marina we were moored up at a very busy Souffleweyersheim port du pleasance. Our short journey took us through the European district where we went past the European Parliament, it is a truly impressive building.

Leaving Koejac Marina
Sunny weather has returned at last

I think we were lucky to get our mooring at Souffleweyersheim, it was busy with private, French and German owned cruisers, hire boats and a lovely old 21m 1926 dutch barge called Hoop Doet Leven. We were lucky enough to make the acquaintance of Harvey and Sandra who are the owners of Hoop Doet Leven and within 4 days of meeting each other they were to become our partners in crime! More about that later!

We found out a little more about the St Louis Arzillier Incline Plane situation and the unlikelihood of it being repaired any time soon. So we knew we had no choice but turn back and face the ordeal of going UP the Grand Canal d’Alsace, back to Niffer/ Mulhouse.

Harvey and Sandra from Hoop Doet Leven had been told they needed a Rhine exemption certificate for their barge, so we thought we’d better go and get one too. We cycled into Strasbourg from Souffleweyersheim, in the searing heat, and using excellent directions from Harvey,we found the office that issues them, not that far from Koejac marina, where we were moored this morning! The man we wanted to see, Monsieur Christian Herman was off that day so we left photocopies of our paperwork for the boat, our VHF license, CEVNI, insurance etc.

The Skipper/pilot we had found while we were at the Koejac Marina told us he was going away on holiday for 3 weeks, so we needed to find someone else. So after dropping off our paper work, we went back to the VNF offices in Strasbourg to see if they could help us find a skipper. We had a very helpful VNF man who rang someone and he managed to give our details and they would give us a call later. Later came and we didn’t get a call so we called instead. We had a very short conversation just to say what we required; we were asked our engine size (105BHP). The comment that came back was that the Rhine current was very strong at the moment, but he would talk to his colleague and get back to us later……..we never heard from him again!

Harvey and Sandra from Hoop Doet Leven came for drinks in the evening. They had come to Strasbourg via the Arzillier Incline Plane and were planning to go back that way. They never intended to set foot onto the Rhine. They had a few telephone numbers for Rhine skippers but no one had got back to them either. Were we all uming and ahhing, should we or shouldn’t we go without a pilot? A decision is yet to be made.

The European Parliament

Another view of the European Parliament

Our mooring at Souffleweyersheim

Thursday 17^th July

Souffelweyersheim

It was a very, very hot day. We cycled to the centre of Souffleweyersheim to a lovely small market, selling all very high quality food, and later on we cycled to a supermarket to stock up on food staples and cold drinks. During the day our plan gradually came together. We decided not to continue along the Canal de la Marne au Rhin to have a look at the Arzillier Incline Plane, but that we would get ourselves back to as close to the Grand Canal d’Alsace by the end of the day Friday, to then travel Saturday and Sunday back up the Rhine to NIiffer/Mulhouse. We checked the Internet to see the Rhine river flow and it was now back to green, the few days of hot weather and no rain has helped. We could see bad weather was forecast the next week so we thought we should get the Rhine trip over and done with, sooner rather than later.

Friday 18^th July

Souffleweyersheim to Boofzheim

12 locks, 37km 9 hours

We had a really long, slow journey, with really high temperatures, with a lot of bad luck. We got stuck behind a hotel barge, which really slowed us down, and two locks malfunctioned so we had to wait for the VNF to come and fix them. We left at 8am and arrived at Boofzheim by 5pm. Harvey and Sandra left at 11am, after picking up their Rhine exemption certificate from Strasbourg, they had a great trip with no hold ups, and it only took them 5¾ hrs. The only unlucky thing was that they arrived at the last lock after 5.30pm and it was closed for business. The locks from the Rhine to Kraft work from 9am to 5.30pm in the summer.