Week 214: Turning north up the Champagne canal

After last week's drama, we hoped to have a more relaxed time, and largely, that's been true. After mending the wheelhouse at Chagny, we were up and at it on Sunday to reach Fragnes. Another series of locks, no drama, and we were tied up early.

We met an Australian couple, Sheree and Paul, and their daughter, Ciel. While Mal and Paul went to dinner, we enjoyed our first social event on the barge. We exchanged lots of stories, and it's good to see that the barging community is as social as the sailing one, although, as Sheree said, it's great to meet someone in our age group! There's a progression that usually goes something like a Sail Boat, a Trawler and then a Barge!

On Monday, we went through the last lock on the Canal du Centre and dropped over 10 meters onto the Saône River. To the relief of everyone following along, we've now headed north towards Belgium, away from the Mediterranean.

The river was a lot of fun as we could speed up (to 10 km/h) and put Clair de Lune through her paces. She handled it well, and we did the biggest distance of the trip, around 60 km. At St Jean-de-Losne, we pulled alongside the fuel dock and waved farewell to Paul and Mal, now back in their home port. From here, we're taking Clair de Lune on our own!

Unfortunately, the fuel dock was empty so we couldn't fill up. It seemed there was no option but to wait. We are heading into a more rural part of the network, and fuel will be hard to find. No choice but to wait.

We found a spot alongside Jean-Luc, who kindly invited us to moor with him on Monday night. Tuesday was spent doing chores, splicing ropes, fetching things from the chandlery and regularly checking in with the fuel dock. No fuel. We had to wait!

Finally, on Wednesday, around lunch, the fuel truck arrived, and we filled the boat with diesel, which was a huge relief. It took about one hour to fill, and almost 1,200 litres, but Clair de Lune is now full and ready for her big trip north.

From there, we cast off and headed further up the river to the town of Auxonne for the night. I saw a barber and had a haircut for €10. We enjoyed wandering the streets and had a hamburger along the shore. Like most places in Europe, summer is ending, and the summer establishments are shutting down. It was cool enough in the evening so we started the fire.

The forecast for Thursday was miserable–stormy, pouring with rain, and winds gusting to 40 knots. But Jean-Luc had advised us not to worry about it too much, and when one of the plastic boats pulled off the quay, we thought we'd go for it. We have places to be!

This is where barging is very different from the open waters. Yes, the wind was strong, but Clair de Lune didn't care. There was no chop, no swell, and inside the wheelhouse, it was fine. Once off the river and on the canal, it was a non-event. The trees are so thick, and you're generally a little lower in the canal that it's not an issue, even in big winds.

What is difficult is the cold and the wet. With the locks, you are up and down to the front of the boat, handling wet lines, and that part is fairly miserable. Although, the radiator and the heated wheelhouse help make up for it.

The hardest part was that I slipped on the dock in the morning and wrenched my knee. I was in a lot of pain and had to take it very slowly. Karina was good at doing her share of wet weather, but, by the time Thursday night rolled around, we were both exhausted and happy to sit inside and put the fire on. I also iced my knee and kept it elevated, which has helped. It's still swollen and sore, but it is heading in the right direction day by day.

We've spent the later part of the week on the Canal Champagne -Bourgogne, climbing up lock after lock, working our way slowly to the top of the hill. It's very rural and very pretty, but there's not much to report. It's drive along a canal for a few hundred meters, navigate into the lock, wait for it to fill, then repeat. For 8 hours a day.

Something that makes this canal a little easier is the remote control (when it works). At the first lock, we were issued with a remote. Now as we approach a lock, we just push a button, and the gates open. That's a lot easier than the usual approach of having to pull a rope swinging above the river. Once we're in, we push the button again and the lock cycles and away we go.

Finally, on Saturday evening, we made it to the top! Today we woke up and spoke with the lock operator, who gave us permission to depart and travel through the Balesmes Tunnel, that cuts under the top of the hill. It's 5km long, and after the excitement of navigating into it, really quite boring. It took just over an hour to get through and it's been the most tedious part of our journey so far!

And that's the week. We've travelled 173km, been through 60 locks and we're starting to feel like we've got the hang of this barging thing. Yes, there's always more to learn, but we're discovering that there's a reason people migrate here from the sea. It's a lot easier! Once you dock up at night, that's it. You switch off and there's no obsessing about the weather or waves. Eight hours underway on Clair de Lune is a significantly easier proposition than the same time on Matilda, the sea is just a much tougher environment.

Safe to say we're loving the life so far and enjoying our very slow exploration of rural France.