Wednesday Aug 29 Fouchecourt near end of Saone

Written by Jack van Ommen on August 28th, 2012

I am at km. 381 and will be entering the Canal de Vosges which will lead me to the outskirts of Nancy, then I take the Canal de Marne au Rhin to the Marne. The locks are becoming closer together and I will pass through over 100 locks from here till Paris… Monday night I anchored out at k.m. 303.5.  A peaceful spot. Not a sound. The smell of fresh mown grass and cow dung.  I could hear the call of a night bird. Not sure if it was an owl. A loud call followed by a staccato. Early in the morning a combine was harvesting the corn beyond the river tree line. I went through at
least 6 locks. Small ones, as little as a 4 feet rise. Some of them are manned/womened  by students and they pick up your lines with a boat hook and start the lock cycle. You are expected to
return their favor with a 1 Euro coin. I had heard/read about that some of the lock keepers sell produc from their gardens. Today in one lock that was the case, see pictures. I also had my first experience going through two tunnels. Dug through a hill. See pictures below. The first one was close to 1/2 mile long. The Saone has become shallower and I have gotten stuck a few times. I got an early start Tuesday morning at 6.30 and got stuck hard and just could not get off the shallow spot. I decided to wait for a boat going my direction to pull me off. But I managed to get off. Then I
discovered that the tunnel lock did not open for business till 9 a.m. In one of the locks I went through with a bumper boat with a couple and their mother/mother in law from Bern. The four of us sang “Vogelisi” to the amusement of the lock tender. I learned this skiing in Adelboden with Suselii Stern from Bern in the late seventies. The other day I met other Swiss travelers and they told me that during the 2nd World War there were many English, Canadian and US pilots who had parachuted out of their bombers, after being shot by German flak, over Switserland who ended up being kept in custody in Adelboden hotels. And till this day the hotels and even the locals serve the traditional English tea in the afternoon.

I tried entering the marina here last night and again hit the ground. Just like the Main and Danube many of the marinas are not set up for keel boats and they do not put a sign of the draft at their entrance. A little further up the river I managed to get pulled through the muck and ended up about two feet from the dock and slept at a slight heel. Hope I’ll be able to get off in the next ten minutes.

The weather has improved over the weekend but still had a few light showers yesterday. I am wearing socks again and jeans and sleep with a wool blanket. Feels like home.

 

 

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