Overcast, windy with heavy showers. We paid Majorie 370 Eu
(250 for the docking, 25 for the washer, 5 for electricity (first time she’d
charged us for electricity!) and 90 for the pump) André came and shoved the
trolley with the forklift. As usual it was reluctant to get moving and when it
did move it charged faster than we’d ever done before down the slope - did
Majorie forget the brakes? The boat floated off the trolley and stopped moving
in the water but the trolley carried on with Rosy on it and pushed us with the
posts, fetching off some of our nice new paint.
I saw this and flicked the rope
off to shove us off, completely forgetting that we hadn’t got the engine
running because Mike had changed the fuel filters and hadn’t bled the system as
he needed water for the Jabsco pump and couldn’t get that until we were afloat
again! The wind was blowing the boat towards the end of the lake, so I was able
to get the rope back on and hang on to it while Mike started the engine. Bill
circled round with Rosy until we were away. I shouted across to Majorie and the
gang on the bank that we were OK, that the engine had to be bled and then we’d
be away - they waved “au’voir” and went off to get some lunch. Once we were
moving, I tidied up - several items had fallen over in the cabin, but no damage
had been done. One empty commercial vessel came down Peronne lock one, then we
went up. Mike put our squidgy blue fenders out as the paint was still “soft”
when Bill came alongside to go up the lock.
He dropped his roof centre rope
round our centre stud, but held the end and we chatted while the lock filled
(our rope was round a floater) until the flow caught Rosy’s bows and blew the
boat across the chamber. Bill couldn’t hang on to it and raced off to the
stern, but the bows still hit the wall harder than he would have liked with new
paint! I took the quittances up to the office and told the lone keeper that we
would like to pause in the corner while Mike collected the moped from the
chantier. No problems. A loaded péniche was coming down to the lock like a
rocket, making us bob up and down as we tied up. Mike collected the bike and
stowed it on the roof, then we set off again at 1.30 p.m. Bill had already
carried on to Pommeroeul. The weather turned wet and windy as I finished making
lunch. After lunch I steered while Mike pumped out the loo tank (no pump out
stations here!). We passed just one boat, a 60m empty called Timoré near the
junction with the Blaton-Ath canal. It was blowing a gale and the rain was
horizontal when we tied up in front of Rosy at Pommeroeul at 4.30 p.m.
Pictures are from 2011
sunny in late May not the howling gales and horizontal rain of April 2004
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