Tuesday 20th April 2004 Eijsden to Panheel.

Limmel flood gates at the start of the Julianakanaal
(picture from 2005)

We were up at 7 a.m. ready to leave at 8 a.m. It was sunny after 4.1° C overnight. The lake at Eijsden was very calm with lots of birds on it and around it. An uphill boat went past as we turned right heading downstream on the Maas back towards Maastricht, back through the arched bridge to look at the moored boats on the town quay. We thought from the direction he was steering that a loaded boat was heading for the tanker station, but he veered off back towards the navigation channel as we went toward him. Another empty went past hardly raising a ripple. 

Crane above Born locks

At Itteren bridge a loaded boat called Trinitas hooted as we passed him, then waved. At KP 8 a large square tug Mover 2 had just overtaken a loaded boat called Temptation, 90m x 11.5m capacity 1,598 tonnes, both were heading upstream. The first swallows of the year were skimming the water. The next big tug which went past, Barasca, was making a big hole in the water with his wash on the left hand bank. On the bends at Elsloo we passed Fandango a loaded 65m 800 tonner. Contrans 1 was catching us up and overtook us at the end of the bends as we were passing a moored boat and there were two boats, a loaded and an empty tanker, coming past us heading uphill. Our first Dutch windmill showed the tips of its sails as we went through Urmond. We arrived above Born locks at midday. Mike called the keeper on VHF and he told us to take the middle chamber. A big empty tanker called Isis, 110m x 11m, 2,311 tonnes, was coming up, so we sat and watched what looked like a steam crane with two little tugs unloading a bridge section from a pan above the lock. I took a photo of it surrounded by clouds of steam. All the old wooden baulk fendering above the lock and below had been replaced by new stuff all faced with rubber and painted bright yellow. 

Boats abv Born locks

Mike told Bill to take a floater marked “L” as there were two sorts in the chamber, “L” for low (for loaded boats) and “H” for high (for empties) which all looked the same until the water dropped then the “H” ones stayed two metres above the boat roof! Just the two of us to drop down, with one coming up in the chamber on our right - the left chamber was out of commission. Three more loaded boats were waiting below to go up. 

In Born lock (picture from 2005)

At Illikhaven bridge we passed a tug shoving a platform crane called Albatross. We had lunch whilst travelling. Several boats went past heading uphill. At KP 31 Antisana loaded with stone overtook us, 3 kms before Maasbracht locks. We had a short wait while the container boat Elegance, 110 x 11, 2,200 tonnes, came up, then we went down. Below the lock a tanker called Prinsenland and an empty square fronted barge called Draet-Labora were waiting to go up. The first pair of oystercatchers we’d seen this year went yodelling past us as we crossed the big basin below Maasbracht locks. The basin was busy (as usual) with all sorts of moored craft, bunker ships and retired craft. 

Maasbracht lock (picture from 2005)

We went under the motorway bridge, keeping a careful eye on traffic moving on the river alongside the lock cut, before turning left to cross the Maas and take the Nederweert canal. Slowed off while a Luxe (305 tonnes) craneboat came through the bridge by the gravel loading berth, where two tugs were manoeuvring pans under the loading staithes. A little Luxe with no wheelhouse, called Rival, came out of the little lake below Panheel lock. The skipper asked if we’d come from France - he was going there on five weeks vacation. We wished him the best of luck. The right hand chamber at Panheel was full, so we waited while it emptied and then the two of us went up the deep lock, lifting the rope from bollard to bollard up the wall as the lock filled. It was 4.15 p.m. when we tied up at the end of the high quay wall on the beginning of the piled section next to a grassy bank. The waves from passing traffic weren’t too bad once we’d got all four ropes well secured. We unloaded the moped and Mike went off at 5 p.m. to collect the car from Visé.