Saturday 20th May 2017 Grand Crucifix lock to l’Isle-sur-le-Doubs 10 lks 24.8kms

Black redstart on the quay ladder at L'Isle

Chaux-les-Clerval and start of lock cut

7.6°C Sunshine with clouds building up, some black ones, but the rain missed us. Early morning mist was lifting as we set off ay 7.50am. I cleaned thousands of corpses off the roof – tiny black mayflies that were attracted to the solar lights in the flower boxes. Mike said the river level had risen by 18” while we’d been moored on the pontoon due to all that rain we had. 2.5kms of river to lock 36 Hyèvre-Magny. Less than a metre rise and the weir alongside was flowing well, producing a standing wave below it. A campervan had parked on the lockside overnight. Just 1km to lock 35 l’Ermite. It was a slow kilometre with a water flow of 3.5kph. Up another 1.7m then 1.4kms, still on the river, to lock 34 Branne, a deep one (3.6m) taking us up on to the next canal section. At the lockhouse there was a cage with birds, but not chickens – guinea fowl! 2.2kms of canal to lock 33 Chaux-les-Clerval (0.7m) fishermen were out in force along the canal banks. 4kms to the next lock, half of that distance along the canal, through the flood lock, which to our amazement was open, on to 2kms of river. Under a new road bridge and through the middle of Clerval with a pontoon on our right and a big

A swan in flight abv lk 35 l'Ermite

“no mooring” sign! An elderly man stood on the lockside and watched us lock through 32 Clerval (2m) (he was gobsmacked, we think, he only managed to say Bonjour!). The lock house’s doors and windows were all bricked up. 3.3kms of river reach, the flow rate increased, 4kph, so Mike wound the power on to keep going at around 4kph. Round a long right hand bend to lock 31 Pompièrre and up almost 3m on to the next canal section, nice to have no flow

Guinea fowl at lk 34 Branne

for a while. 1.6kms to the next lock. Up another 3m at 30 Plaine de Pompièrre. The canal followed a long sweeping left hand bend of the river, through an open flood gate back on to a 4kms river reach. Lock 29 La Goulisse refused to work, we got really close with the boat and still the device said “out of range”. Mike backed up to the pontoon and I got off with the device and walked up to the lock, still trying the controller and still getting the same message on its screen “Hors Champ”. Even right next to the cone shaped antenna on the lock cabin it still said “out of range” – so I called VNF on the

Pontoon with no mooring sign at Clerval

cabin intercom. I could hardly hear the person who spoke as the weir was so loud. Presumed he said he’d send someone. I walked back to the pontoon – at least we had something to tie to and wait. It was 12.45pm so I made some lunch. Mike got some sandpaper out to sand down the filler he put on some small depressions in the roof by the engine room slide. Our VNF lady in a van arrived and emptied the lock for us. It wasn’t a fault with the device, it

Waiting for a lock keeper at lk 29 La Goulisse

was a lock fault she said (probably that antenna we thought) and we locked through. The VNF lady was on the phone throughout. It was just 1.45pm as we left the lock on the 2.5kms river reach to lock 28 Appenans. There was a boat in the lock coming down (that’s probably why the long phone conversation – she’d have to work the lock for that one too). The cruiser went past, gates started closing, then reopened, relief when the device activated the lock for us to go up. We counted up how many boats we’d seen moving since we came on to the Doubs, it had

Thundering weir at La Goulisse

been very, very quiet – a total of 12 boats including the cruiser we’d just passed. Up 1.5m in lock 28, the smell was pretty bad (cow byre) as the wind was in the wrong direction! On to the last navigable reach of the Doubs, 1.2kms to lock 27 La Papeterie up nearly 3m and on to the canal. Tied up in l’Isle-sur-le-Doubs at 3pm next to a high quay wall (with new ladders) by an Intermarché supermarket. We hadn’t been tied up very long when number 13 went past heading uphill, the Swiss cruiser whose skipper had told Mike how much the mooring fees were at

You have been warned!

Baume-les-Dames. Internet was full house, 4G four bars. Mike went to have a look at the parking in the town for when he collects the car next day. Maybe have a day out in the car in Switzerland on Monday as the weather looks like being good. He said there was a new mooring above the next lock with eight boats moored there, including the Swiss cruiser. It’s much quieter down here  on the quay where we are despite it being right next to a road.

Quiet mooring on the quay at L'Isle