A stuttering start...

It is just under 30km from St Jean de Losne at the southern end of the Canal de Bourgogne to Dijon. There are 23 locks along the very straight stretch of canal and it is not considered to be amongst the more beautiful parts of French waterways. Most people cover the distance as quickly as possible, usually in around one and a half days, although it can be done in a single day if everything is working in your favour . We expected to take a couple of days over it, maybe three. It took us five. We left St Jean de Losne with our friends John and Elaine on Whare Waka at around 9.45 on Thursday 5 June and arrived in Dijon - on our own but fit and well - at 5.30pm on Monday 9th.

Feeling a little tired after a late night entertaining (repaying a debt of gratitude for a last-minute repair job on a badly leaking tap), we finally made our departure from marina at St Jean de Losne, which has been our home for more than a month. It was an inauspicious start with the very tight turn out of the marina proving difficult to manage… After one abandoned attempt, J executed a beautiful 180 degree turn in the very confined space with advice and encouragement from Guy in French and Cathy (Arjo) and Maggie (Seabird) in English. We left the marina to meet John and Elaine (McMillan) on Whare Waka just before the entrance to the Canal de Bourgogne.
As planned, we came through the first lock together with help and fond farewells from Roger and Chris (Liberte) before finding a place to stop so that John could go back to St Jean for a dental appointment. His root canal at 115 euros seemed such good value that it has us all wondering if we should opt to have our dental work done in France rather than in NZ in future… By the time he returned to the boat, it was after midday and as the next lock wouldn’t be open again until 1pm, we had lunch before setting off again. The second lock passed without incident for us but John had trouble getting Whare Waka into it and even more trouble getting out of it, mooring up immediately afterwards. The boat had no steering. The two of them were both disappointed and angry as they’d asked H2O in St Jean more than once to check the steering and had been told that all was fine. Patently, it wasn’t. To add insult to injury, the rain, which had begun on our approach to the second lock, set in at about this point - the silver lining being that it provided us with the perfect excuse to stay put as whanau support: boating in these conditions could hardly be considered a pleasure and we wanted to make sure all was okay for our friends.

John biked back to St Jean for a second time that day and before too long, H2O had sent out a mechanic to see to the problem. He seemed confident that he’d fixed the problem - certainly the hydraulic fluid had stopped leaking - but J&E were not so sure… We decided to stay put for the night and look for signs of leakage in the morning. Elaine cooked a roast chicken dinner and we all had an early night.

Day 2 dawned to grey skies but no sign of any hydraulic fluid leaks on Whare Waka so, as soon as the locks were open for the day (a very civilised 9am), we were off again. Just one lock later John and Elaine were mooring up again - hydraulic fluid was now pouring out of the steering column. As we were working out what they were up to, I bent down to pick something up off the floor and tweaked my back in the process. It was a bit sore but didn’t seem too bad, and certainly didn’t stop us travelling on up the canal after John and Elaine had made their decision to go back. Nor were we stopped by the rain, which was more of a heavy drizzle than anything. With no wind it wasn’t particularly cold but it also wasn’t quite as we’d imagined the start to our waterways travels in France. Late afternoon saw us at Aiserey, 10km and 6 locks away from our starting point. We knew there was a supermarket and a hardware store handy and, because we wanted things for both, decided to tie up just past the lock there and call it a day. J biked into Aiserey for supplies while I stayed on the boat - not fancying a bike ride with my still sore back. And then we settled in for the night.

Day 3 and I couldn’t get out of bed! My back had stiffened up overnight and I simply could not stand or even sit. It was as if the lower part of my back couldn’t support the upper part and I crashed in a not-quite-screaming-heap. And just for good measure, the weather was revolting: steady, heavy rain that looked as though it could stay forever. With the mobile phone out of power (aren’t they always when you need them?!), J and I quickly decided that we needed outside help - in the form of the lockkeeper, who lived just 100m from where we had tied up. He didn’t speak English but J’s French was enough to convey the nature of the problem* and he came up to the boat, conversed with me through the window and then rang the emergency services when it became clear that I wouldn’t be able to get out to his car so that he could take me to the doctor’s. From what I could gather, he first rang the “pompiers” (fire brigade), who in turn rang around to see if a doctor was available and if not, an ambulance would be sent… As it turned out, a doctor from a village down the road would be available in an hour or so and he turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous one at that! He checked to see the pain was muscular and gave me a shot of Voltaren in the bum, a prescription for more drugs than I‘m likely to need, a note for the insurance company and a bill for all of 32 euros for the “house”/boat call (on a Saturday, no less), and was on his way… Talk about silver lining! By the end of that day, I was able to walk (with support) from one end of the boat to the other ; by the end of the next, I was able to walk into Aiserey and back with Jeanette, a walk of 2-3km and by the third day, I was able to crew the boat through the remaining 16 locks and 19.5km to Dijon! And the sun shone all the way…

So, we’ve launched ourselves off into the Burgundy Canal - le Canal de Bourgogne - which links the Saone Valley to that of the Seine. It covers a distance of 242km between St Jean de Losne and Laroche for those who‘d like to find it on a map. On the Saone side, where we are starting, there are 76 locks, which rise 199 (vertical) metres and on the Seine side, we’ll go through 113 locks and descend a total of 300 metres. The high point is at Pouilly-en-Auxois, just after a 3.33km long tunnel. All the locks on this canal are “manned”, some by women, of course, and one lockkeeper may be in charge of 2, 3 or more locks. Their scooters cover the distance between the locks far faster than the boats do - there’s a speed limit of 8km an hour on the canals. Their presence is a mixed blessing: it certainly saves time and effort on the part of those of us on boats but it removes control over the process too but there are times , especially as novices, when you’d like more time to secure your boat in the lock before they open the gates and let the water flood in!

After just 30km and 21 locks, we feel we are still beginners but the boat has behaved beautifully so far and we are starting to get the hang of some things. Because every boat is different and every crew has different strengths and weaknesses, there is no generally accepted “best way” of doing things - you have to work them all out for yourselves. We have begun that process but expect it to continue as long as we stay on the waterways - and every waterway has its own eccentricities as well. We have done our first propeller inspection it was a bit of a drama, the arrangement to do this wasn’t particularly helpful. We have since modified the process and it should be much easier next time. One bucket of weed, which was tightly wound around the prop, was finally removed. We try where possible to glide through weed with the motor in neutral. Sometimes you can ‘shake off’ weed by putting the motor in reverse. We have become very fond of our boat and are very much at home on it - whether in the heat and bustle of Dijon in good health as is the case now or bedridden in the back of beyond under constant rain, as was the case just a few days ago.

Catherine

* J’s French did succeed in getting a message across but we’re not entirely sure what the lockkeeper thought when her attempt to convey that I had “mal au dos” (a sore back) came out sounding more like “mal odeur” (a bad smell)