Saturday 6th March 2004 Abbécourt to Jussy.

Clock tower at Chauny

A mild 4° C overnight, but grey, chilly and drizzly all day. Helen ‘phoned at 8.30 a.m. to ask where we were, Mike told her we were at Abbécourt heading for the St Quentin canal and then the canal du Nord. She said she’d ring us again on Monday to find out how we’d got on. We set off at 9.10 a.m. winding in the wide below the lock, after Congaye and Chakari had gone past heading downhill. In Chauny we met a downhill empty from Nancy called Roquette. The town looked a little down at heel. A couple of cruisers were moored at the port, as was a small converted tjalk called Perseverance and a couple of old and battered ex-hire pénichettes. The paired locks had been made automatic! The right hand side lock emptied, although the left hand chamber was empty as“Roquette had just descended in it. We went up lock 35, Chauny, side by side with Rosy. A short pound lead to lock 34, Senicourt. Anitjo, a loaded boat from Soissons, was just coming out of the left hand chamber as we went into the right to go up. Before we got there the left hand lock had been full and running weir over both top and bottom end gates. Just beyond the bridge three fishermen (the only ones for miles) were sitting elbow to elbow, fishing under their green brollies in the rain. 

Garage on the stern deck of a peniche

A slinky, auburn-furred bank vole swam along the bank opposite the fishermen and disappeared into a hole in the piling. Lock 33, Viry, had a green light on the left hand chamber. As we got closer it became apparent that the lock hadn’t closed after the péniche left, as a keeper was in the cabin and the right hand chamber had started to empty automatically for us. We went into the right hand side, waved to the old chap in the cabin who had succeeded in closing the gates on the left hand lock chamber. It was nice to note that all the central dividing wooden platforms, above and below each set of locks, had been renovated so that they all now had new planking (the old ones had been very rotten and dangerous). 

Remains of an old house at Chauny

Lock 32, Tergnier, was also automatic - we expected there to be a keeper who would ask if we were going to continue along the St Quentin canal (which the canal had been called since Chauny) or were we going to travel the Sambre à l’Oise canal, for which we would have needed a control box (zapper) which he dished out last time we were there. There was no one in the greenhouse lock cabin as we rose in the chamber. The planking on the dividers hadn’t been renovated any further than lock 32. We swung left under the bridge to activate the right hand chamber of the bottom pair of the three locks at Fagniers, lock 31. The lock emptied, we went in and the red light was flashing atop the control pole, not the green one which had been flashing on all the other automatic locks on this section to tell us to lift the blue bar. Mike reversed out, after Bill had tried lifting the pole for the third time with no success, dropped me off below the lock and I went up to see if there was an intercom on the lockside. There wasn’t. Mike tried calling for a keeper on VHF channel 10 and got no reply. He had spotted a ‘phone number on the previous lock, so he called that. 

Lock island garden at Mennessis

It wasn’t the right number, but the person who answered said they would call the man who was responsible for the locks. He arrived and I went to have a chat. He said the computer indicated that it was waiting for two more boats! He said we should keep twenty metres apart when passing through the sensors. We had done. Bill ate his lunch while the itinerant sorted the lock out. I went inside to make a sandwich when the chamber was full and I could get back on board. The keeper worked the locks for us at 30 and 29, we used the left hand chambers of each pair. As we left 29, I asked him if the canal de la Somme was open on Sundays, he replied that it was closed until June, as the VHF were in process of reconstructing the locks. Padoue came down the next pound, running empty. 

Old route on to the river Oise at Chauny, long closed.

We ate lunch on the long pound to lock 28, Voyaux. We went up the right hand side chamber on auto with no problems, except Bill followed us straight out, forgetting to leave a gap between the two boats. Lock 27, Mennessis, had stop planks across the gates on the left hand side chamber as they were installing new lock gates. The right hand chamber emptied and we went in, but the red light was flashing again. Now we know why. Mike spoke to Bill later to say that we must keep closer together when passing through the activating sensors and be sure to leave the same sort of gap when leaving the locks. The keeper turned up, reset the lock and then left us to it. At lock 26, Jussy, the left hand chamber emptied and the lock worked perfectly. Through the cutting and we were into the valley of the Somme. Moored on the silo quay at Jussy. They had removed the loading chutes at the silo, so no boats can load there anymore. A fisherman was installed at the downstream end where we normally would have moored, but as the whole quay was now available we moved up so as not to disturb him. It was 2.40 p.m. Gave Mike a hand to get the moped off the roof and he went to collect the car from Abbécourt. Peter sent an SMS wanting to know where we would be on the 12th of April. I sent one back to say probably somewhere in the Netherlands.

(Note: due to lack of photos from  I've added ones of the same trip done in 2011, sorry if you've seen some of them before.)

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