Houlle to La Bassée

Monday 4th April

A very early start today because we hoped to get to La Bassée, 62 km and 3 locks upstream.  We left the mooring at 8.15.  The first hour we retraced our route down the River Houlle.  On Saturday the little ferries were mostly tied up outside the houses, today they were on the opposite bank,I guess their owners had gone to work.

Once again on the Canal Dunkerque –Escaut (the “liaison de grand gabarit”) we expected to see a lot more traffic today than we did on Saturday. But in 58km and 8 hours we encountered the grand total of 18 barges.  It is not at all an unpleasant canal, less industrialised than I expected, but it is very wide and little boring – especially after 8 hours.

Entrance to River de la Houlle

The locks broke the boredom.  The first one on the way upstream (after Watten) is the Flandres with a rise of just under 4m.  I called the lock  in French as we approached, got no answer but the lights changed from red to red/green meaning it was being prepared.  As we waited a commercial barge appeared behind us so I called again to ask if we must go in before or after the “bateau de commerce”.  I got a torrent of very fast French in reply, and didn’t understand a word.  Eventually, after a few more exchanges we understood that we were to go in first.  In this lock the bollards are very far apart, too far for a 9m boat, so we used a hook amidships to a ladder.  No problem at all. 

Water poured over the top of the gates

Shannon comes in behind us

Water still pouring over the gates

Midships holding position with a hook on a ladder

River level higher than the top of the gates

The next lock is just 2 km away, the Fontinette.  This has a rise of over 13 metres and replaces the old Fontinette boat lift which lies alongside the canal just downstream of the lock. 

As we approached the “in preparation” green light came on so I didn’t call in.  The high lock walls are really rather daunting.

When the guillotine gate opened a stream of water poured down it for a good while.  Fortunately we had to wait while a barge exited – and who should it be but Hasta La vista, a Belgian barge that we passed at least four times last year on the Belgian canals.

The Fontinette Lock has floating bollards and only at the  ladders are they close enough together for small pleasure craft.  I got a line around the one furthest forward in the lock but Shannon was coming in fast behind us and we were not sure if we had left enough room.  As she got really close Ian told me to let go and we moved even further forward to a ladder with just one hold point amidships.  We waited for Shannon to tie up then gauged that the floating bollards were far enough ahead of her for us to use, so we reversed back and secured fore and aft on the floating bollards.   Thank goodness, the water coming in to fill the lock caused a huge amount of turbulence at the ladder we had hooked onto temporarily, but where we were at the floating bollards it was amazingly calm.

It's like entering a deep cave

Looking straight up, so dark at the bottom that the top is over exposed

It is high!

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Floating bollard,very smooth,they must have been lubricated recently

Turbulence

The third lock, Cuinchy, was 42 km upstream, lots of time to relax, have a cup of soup, then lunch, then a cup of coffee, or two, and count the passing barges.  Also some pleasing scenery.

As we approached the lock 3 barges passed us going in the same direction.  We were prepared for a long wait, expecting to be last in the queue.  I called the lock when we got there and the lock keeper informed, in very clear easy to understand French, that we would be in the next “bassine” behind the commercial barge.  The lock is 144m long and these barges were all around 80m long so two of them cannot fit in the lock together.  Luckily for us!  This lock is different from any we have seen before with large diameter tubes along the length of the lock.  

We kept a wary eye on these as the lock filled because it is possible for the fenders or guard rail to get caught underneath them.

Finally, we turned off the large canal into the off shoot that would take us to La Bassée just over 1km away.  

How peaceful after the large canal system.  

We tied up against the pontoon at 5.15, found a huge InterMarché supermarket just 100m away in one direction.  What more do we need?  Oh, a laundry – never got around to that when in Bergues because we spent the day fighting with Sim cards!