Tesserae 2014

Thursday 5th June
On Wednesday it was a cold and rainy morning so we took the tram into Dijon and had lunch out. On our way back to the boat we called at the lock office to confirm our leaving time for the next day and were pleasantly surprised to find that “Tesserae” was already posted on his board for 9am Thursday.
The port at Dijon is quite large; there is an island in the middle a couple of long quays with space for several hotel barges and also pontoons, which have electricity and water which is free because there is no “Capitaine” to collect the fee.
Ten to nine this morning we were casting off when a hotel barge (which had arrived last night) appeared around the island and nosed its way towards the lock. We re-moored. Hotel barges move very slowly and we would now have to wait a couple of hours before leaving if we did not want to be waiting behind him at each lock. So much for being first on the lockkeeper’s board! We decided to leave after lunch and moved over to the pontoons to top up the water tank and recharge the batteries. Mooring on the pontoons is quite interesting as they are only 5 metres long and as springy as diving boards.
We had an easy journey in the afternoon as students were having a training day and we had at two keepers for every lock. We planned to stop at Longecourt, which is half way to St Jean de Losne, but the keepers told that the moorings there were full and we moored up early at Epoisses, where we had spent a couple of nights last year. The mooring was a bit shallow and we had to use one of our saplings to keep the stern off the bank. Another small barge tried to moor by us and went aground.

Watching us leave Dijon

Canal de Bourgogne below Dijon

Friday 6th June
We set off at nine and initially we had 2 lock keepers like yesterday but after a couple of locks they left us one and the chap who took over moved very slowly and we were waiting for him at each lock. When we came into a lock at 11.30am he said we would have to stay there until after lunch as he was not well and was going home to bed. The afternoon went much better and we arrived at St Jean de Losne , the end of the canal, at 3pm. The mooring on the Saone quay was full and even the campsite further up was full. Luckily a New Zealand couple waved to us to moor alongside. Soon after we arrived there was a lot of hooting from boats along the river. Approaching from downstream was an old wooden peniche that had travelled up from Dezice. It had been donated to the town of St Jean de Losne by H20 boatyard and was going to be used as a conference centre.

Last lock on the Bourgogne

The wooden Peniche arrives in St Jean de Losne

Serenaded by a dutch saxophonist

Sunday 8th June
Yesterday, we left St Jean de Losne before 9.00am and travelled up the Saone. It was over an hour before we reached the first lock, very different from travelling on the Bourgogne canal. A small hire boat was waiting to enter the lock and they waved us ahead of them. We soon understood why, it was an automatic lock and the sluices opened very rapidly creating a lot of turbulence, which would have sent the small boat spinning if he had been in front. We arrived at Auxonne at 11.15, there was just enough space on the pontoon between Bluegum another Piper boat we had last met on the Thames and Moondance, an Irish boat we had met last autumn on the Nivernais.
Saturday and Sunday was very hot, up to 30c. The mooring was opposite a water skiing area, Tesserae rolled about as the wash hit us and we felt quite seasick at times.

River cat

Moored at Auxonne

Water skiers

Evening at Auxonne

Tuesday 10th June
Yesterday it was a French bank holiday and there were a lot of boats out on the water but it still was not as busy as the Thames. We travelled north up the Saone to Pontailler-sur-Saone and moored up just before lunch. The afternoon was very hot, in the mid 30s but at least we had a breeze from the river. Today it remained hot and we had a day of inactivity. There was a fierce storm in the evening with very dramatic lighting and strong gusts of wind that rocked the boat.

Pontailler-sur-Saone

Friday 13th June
On Wednesday we left the river Saone and entered the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne that will take us north to Vitry-le-Francois. It was previously called Canal Marne et Saone which seemed sensible as it connects the Marne to the Saone. All the locks up to the summit and down to Langres are automatic which means no lock keeper to stop for lunch but also no lock keeper to fix a lock that breaks down. At the first lock a control box is delivered automatically and a voice on the speakerphone checks our details. After passing the first 2 locks without trouble we arrive at a swing bridge that should open automatically as we approach. No such luck and L. had to get off the boat to contact the central office on the speakerphone. The bridge is in a bad state of repair and is closed to motor traffic but it provides pedestrian access for the one house on the left bank.
We know that moorings are scarce on this canal and we head for a silo quay which according to the DBA guide has only one mooring ring but various metal projections on the silo itself that we can tie up to. We find the mooring ring but no silo! It has been demolished since last September. The ground is too hard to put in mooring pins all there is to tie on to is an electricity pylon, which we need a 30m rope to reach.
On Thursday the locks worked well until the one we entered at 11:45. There was no response when we lifted the blue pole to close the gates. D. climbed up the ladder out of the lock to contact the keeper on the speakerphone but there was no response. We tried ringing the office on our French mobile phone but there was no signal. In desperation we pulled the red pole, the alarm. Nothing happens, which is a little bit worrying. The only thing to do is have lunch, perhaps the automatic locks do stop at lunchtime. At 13:05 still nothing working so we tried our English mobile, got straight through to the office and a lock keeper was with us in 10 minutes. The afternoon was uneventful and we moored at a silo that was still standing but looked as if it might fall down at anytime.
Today we reached Cusey. This is the first proper mooring we have come across on this canal and it has free water and electrics. In the evening a pizza café opens up in a caravan alongside the mooring and we have two very good pizzas delivered to Tesserae. There are 6 other boats here one English and five Dutch. The Dutch are very happy, their football team beat Spain (5:1) and their hockey team beat England.

Not so automatic swing bridge

DBA says moor to the silo (what silo)

In this lock for 90min

Moored to this silo ok

Cusey

Tuesday 17th June
On Saturday we moved Piepape, a quiet rural mooring. We stayed there on Sunday and cycled up to the Resevoir de la Vingeanne. On Monday we reached Heuilley-Cotton at the summit of the canal and moored for the night near the entrance of the 5kmTunnel de Balesmes. We came through the tunnel in an hour this morning and had an easy journey down to Langres, arriving in time for lunch at the local café. Our friends on Moondance are here and a couple of other English boats, all very sociable. We plan to wait here until Lesley and Bernard arrive by train at the end of the week.