Summit Conquered

On the 18th May Antiope finally reached the highest navigable point in France, 378m above sea level.We passed through the last lock, Ecluse no 1. to moor in the basin at Pouilly en Auxois.

Top lock, Ecluse no 1, the summit

 

Since leaving Migennes we have negotiated 114 locks, much of the time in pouring rain, not much fun with the canopy down. The bridges on the Bourgogne canal have a air draft of only 3.4 m or 200mm spare for Antiope.

Antiope in low profile mode, in the rain!

Air draft limited on the Bougogne.

According to the lockeepers this May has been the wettest in memory.

Aftermath of flooding in Montbard.

 The aftermath of flooding two weeks ago is very evident, with massive trees having been swept down the rivers. Altitude plays tricks with the barometer, we could also claim the storm of the century by the weather outside right now.

Our barometer plummets as we climb the hill.

Our next hurdle is the Pouilly tunnel over 3km long and likely to be a tight fit for us. Watch this space.

Springtime 2013 France

Where do all the old lifeboats go?

Simon Evans collects retired RNLI lifeboats

We arrived in Laroche Migennes In the last days of April to find Antiope had survived the winter in good shape.Her home for the winter was at Simom Evans Boatyard on the banks of the river Yonne. Here has also become the home of a lost fleet of RNLI lifeboats!
An unlikely place to find these herioc craft, all lovingly salvaged by Simon.

Antiope is refloated, just in time, before the Yonne river flooded.

                                   The flooded river Armencon, overflowed the canal


Antiope had a lick of paint and was craned into the river, but only just in time, the rains came in buckets, followed by floods, the Yonne turned into a raging torrent, we had scuttled into the Bourgogne canal basin just in time.
The VNF closed all the waterways in our region for several days. Our choice of where to go was reduced to one option, the canal de Bourgogne.
So two weeks after launching we finally head off south towards Digon. The canal de Bourgogne was one of the the earliest canals cut linking the north to the south, and climbs to the highest navigable point in France, through 113 locks.        

Under way at last, cruising South towards Dijon, the canal de Bourgogne

Into France

Our time cruising through Belgium had been a delightful surprise. while in the Netherlands we found boating very ordered and efficient, it needed to be, due to the sheer number of craft on the move.  Belgium we found was more relaxed and casual. waterways less travelled.

The Dendre river, our own secret waterway in Belgium

 

 

Deep lock on the Canal du Centre

 

 

No room for error, negotiating the ancient bridge at Tournai

 

 

Lock sharing on the Canal du Nord

 

 

 

 

 Busy day at Compienne

 

 

Canal du Nord, in the 4km tunnel at Ruyaulcourt

 

Crossing the border into France gave us yet another perspective. First impressions were of a waterway network in need of attention, our attempts to obtain the 'Vignette' or licence to cruise were frustrating, we were never asked if we had one, and in the end were told to get it in Paris, but then the outdated locks still work and by the time we reached Paris we had fallen in love with France, possibly helped by a spell of proper summer weather.

                               Antiope, Canopy down, ready for the low btidges of the Somme

Our route from Belgium took us along the Dendre river and the Arth canal, The canal du centre, the Escaut, and the great Canal du Nord.
We had been told that a visit to the Somme was a must do. we were not dissapointed.

The tranquil 'Somme'

 

A Picardie rose in one of many WW1 cemeteries

 

 

The Somme, the scene of carnage in WW1, could not have been more tranquil. We cruised as far as Amiens and tarried a few days there, visiting the huge Cathedral by day and by night.

Arriving in Amiens, on the Somme river

Amiens cathedral, an evening light show is a must to see 

The days were beginning to shorten and the trees beginning to turn as we rejoined the Canal du Nord and headed further South towards Paris. we joined the Oise river near Compienne, where I visited the scene of the 1918 armistice, Standing by the rail track where in a railway carriage the conflict was ended, I wondered what had been learnt.

      

 

Another milestone, Paris.

Flanders to The Somme, a Cruise !

Without intending or planning to trace this route, from Flanders to Pickardie, Our summer cruise has criss crossed the battle lines of the Great war. Grey skies gave way to blue as we headed inland.
We have passed through gentle rolling country in its summer mantle. The 90 years plus since, have healed the wounds on the land, but countless cemeteries and battle scarred towns tell a different story.

Classic Ghent, remains largely unscarred by war

The old classiic Belgian towns of Brugges and Ghent survived largely untouched having been quickly overun in 1914. To moor up to stone wharves in these towns where merchants have brought their goods by water since before 1200, does set the imagination racing.

Backwater waterways in Brugges

A few photographs cannot do justice to the architecture, but perhaps I can shed some insight into the Flemmish passion for ringing bells. The 'Belfort' tower in Brugge houses a massive carillion of bells rung either by a manual keyboard or by a huge rotating bronze drum studded with triggers.
All this atop a 75m tower!

The 'Belfrie' and carillion tower, Brugge.

 

This drum rotates slowly, setting the bells ringing on the hour.

 

The town hall at Oudenaarde

Along the waterway we encountered very different architecture often in the forms of lifting bridges, including those that just rolled up into the air.

The road just lifted in front of us!

For those readers interested enough to follow our route, we cruised for a week on a ring route first down the Leie river, a delightfull winding waterway to Dienze, Kortrijk, along a little used canal to Bossuit, returning to Ghent via Oudenaarde, the scene of another but much older battle. It was finally time to get on our way towards France, This we did by heading east out of Ghent taking the tide down the Schelte river to Grembergen, and the junction with the Dendre river.

Antiope shares a small lock at Kortrijk

 

At Bossuit- Flanders, Wallonia on the far bank

For four days we met only three other boats along this old and little known navigation, that meanders out of Flanders and into Wallonia, the French speaking soutern province of Belgium. Mobile lock keepers would shepperd us through 36 locks over the summit and down to Blaton, wher we joined the main east west commercial waterway 'the Canal du Centre'. time to sit up and take notice. A water stop and crew change in Tournai and next stop France.       
 

IN ROME

I just have to show you these two pictures

                                                        The Colloseum, Is just huge!

           The Pantheon, is also huge, and a marvel of construction for its age, over 1600 years

                                                              IN FLANDERS

We cruise through a tranquil landscape, alone on a treelined canal. The wide flat land slowly rises ahead, we see tall church spires ahead between the trees, we are coming to a town.
Two deep locks lift us out of the coastal plains. the waterway ends In a very old looking stone lined basin, a friendly habourmaster greets us, wecome to Leper, (Ypres)
Antiope is one of only three visiting boats, not many come this way by water.

We had just rejoined Antiope in Dixmuide, after travelling by train from Rome, What way to see some country! Hot dry and dusty through to snowy Alps then steep vinyard clad slopes of the Rhine gorge, however the temperature dropped as we came North and changed trains many times.
What did I know about Flanders and the 'War to end all wars' clearly not enough, We were moored only metres from the trenches where over 4 years, thousands of Belgians died holding on to the last remaining corner of their country.

'The Trench of Death' the last line of defense for Belgium

And so to Ypres. We walk up a slight hill from the basin, newish houses give way to the now familiar flemish architechture, we arrive at the market square in all its'a 14th century grandeur, when it rivalled London for wealth and population.
What is inspiring, as the war was devastating is how thw Belgian people have rebuilt their town. In 1917 not a building remained standing, now, you would believe that within the walls all is as it was centuries ago. but for one of the ancient gateways, the Menin gate, Rebuilt as a Memorial,
which I can only describe as massive and haunting bearing the names of the nearly 500,000 commonwealth soldiers who died here.

                                         A Belgian 'honour guard', at the Mennin Gate

We attended 'the last post' the daily 8pm ceremony, when quietly 1500 to 2000 people gather. The traffic stops, the town falls quiet, and the bugles call us all to remember.          

                                                         Ypres 1918, the Town Hall on the right

                                                           Ypres 2012, The same Town Hall.


We slip away from Ypres, back down the waterway that was the 'Front line' for four devastating years.  We reach the North Sea coast and take a day trip off Antiope, a tram ride along 30 Kms of coast. The Summer has finally arrived in Europe and it seems that the entire population of Belgium has hit the beach.

                                                          The Beach at Oostende

This will be the closest we get to the sea until we reach the Med in a season or two. for now Antiope heads inland to Brugge and Ghent. Towns that deserve a chapter of their own, watch this space.

Cheers Charles and Annie,  aboard Antiope in Sunny Ghent

2012 A busy year

An Author at last

                                          ' Swatchway Magic',   the book, finally in print

There is a saying, that there is a book in all of us. Well finally I can claim my place, with my name on a pubished work. Nothing grand, a modest paperback, however, the book 'Swatchway Magic' has been in the pipeline for over 10 years now. So, what is it all about? A boating tale of course, but also a nostalgic photographic journey along the Essex and Suffolk coast of England where I learned to sail.
The original Idea was hatched back in 2000 when co author Paul Antrobus was staying with us in Auckland. We had both sailed this coast and experienced the magic back then.
So What has this got to do with Antiope? Well she features in the text and her passage down the Thames and eventually to the Netherlands forms a thread through the book. 
Spare a moment while browsing and google 'Swatchway Magic' to learn more. The book is now available through some london bookstores, Amazon, Kindle, or drop me a line for an Authors copy.

An Atlantic adventure

The writer was invited last month to help crew a yacht from the Carribean to Newport, Rhode island.
The opportunity was too good to refuse, It has been many a year since I last sailed into English Harbour Antigua, at the end of my first Transatlantic crossing, so I was keen to see how much things had changed. Yes there are now rows of mega yachts being preened by their professional crews, but Nelsons dockyard has survived and been restored much as I remembered it.
A rum in the Admirals Inn was mandatory.
our passage, Due north by compass was very comfortable, not difficult aboard the 68ft Swan, 'Toucan'. That was until we reached the Gulf stream. This uncannily warm flow of water was being pushed up against the eastery wind the resulting lumpy seas caused our staysail stay to let go high up the mast, of course this happened in the dead of night. Taming a 75 ft steel serpent encased in a heavy wet sail does focus the mind.
The coast of America was heralded by rain squalls and grey mist, The moan of a foghorn from Brenton reef light was all we heard as we crossed the infamous waters where Americas cup battles had been fought over in decades past.
My first visit to Newport left me with the impression that The Americas Cup was still around somewhere perhaps in a clubhouse nearby, A deightfull time warp new England town just waking up for the season. Alongside us at the boatyard, the legendary 12 metres American Eagle and Intrepid were being rigged for the charter season.

                                        'Toucan'  A swan 68, a very comfortable ride.

New York was close enough for a visit by train, so in an all too short couple of days I saw the sights, Watched the world pass by in Times Square, rode the Staten Is ferry, and paid my respects at 'Ground Zero'

                                          'Ground Zero'  New York, a vrey fitting memorial.

On then to London. Meet up with my long suffering wife Annie, and start planning for our cruise aboard Antiope.

                                                  Antiope wakes after her winter sleep.
Our partners Roger and Robyn, are first aboard this season to commission Antiope. Relaunching in Enkhuizen they have cruised to Hoorn, Edam, and at last report were in the Hague. The general plan this year is to head south to warmer latitudes.  

Cheers Charles

Angels and Admirals

Although We have cruised a few kilometers since the last update, I have lacked the enthusiasm to report.
The Summer weather has eluded us until now...the first week of October! We have had no rain for almost a week now, plus record temperatures.
Our plan was always to explore the Netherlands before heading down to France next season. We have certainly done that, cruising from Maastricht in the South to the Northern coastline where we looked out on a bleak North Sea.

                                                                              Who gives way!
Our journey North followed the Maas river, sharing the waterway with massive commercial barges, quiet backwaters providing havens for the night.
At S-Hertogenbosh cathedral we were told to look out for the Angel on the cellphone. Oh yea, pull the other one! But there she was,carved in stone- Jeans, shoulder bag and cellphone up there on the roof with all the others.

The Angel on the cellphone

Where we could, we stayed off the main waterways, bypassing Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The Vecht river has to be one of the prettiest waterways, taking us to the Markermeer and the now landlocked inland sea that used to be the Zuider Zee.
Here we found the rich maritime history kept alive. Museums were out of the wind and rain, we learned all about the Dutch East India Company, and Admiral Micheal de Ruyter, and his battles with the English.
Tradtitional barges have been restored and are sailed enthusiastically. At Enkhuizen a whole village has been preserved as an active working museum. Across the IJsselmeer in Friesland the land is half water. We make it back to Sneek where two years ago our search for a boat began.

               We moor by the Watergate at Sneek, where we first started our boat hunt

By mid september the season was winding down, people had had enough of the weather, We too wanted to get back on the plane. Suddenly Summer happened.
The deserted squares and open air cafes reopened, and boaters pulled off their covers again. One of the highlights of this time was a visit in Meppel to the Korenmolen "De Weert", a fully restored and working flour windmill.

                                                         The working mill at Meppel
We visited Lelystad they have rebuilt the Batavia, a Dutch East Indiaman. Not satisfied with that they are now rebuilding de Ruyters flagship, The Seven Provinces, from scratch!

                         The Seven Provinces, de Ruyters flagship, being rebuilt from scratch

The mornings are misty now and the days shorter. In a week we will be hauling out for the winter in Enkhuizen.