6. Epernay to Dunkirk 22nd May to 13th June 2025

This next leg was more about heading North and getting to Belgium to explore and find a winter mooring place for Ayanna.

22nd - 24th May Epernay to Conde sur Marne. ( 20.3km, 4 locks upstream, 1 swing bridge in 3hrs 45mins). Marne to Canal Lateral a la Marne.

We hadn't slept well at all, but decided to head back to Conde sur la Marne. The weather forecast wasn't great for the coming days, so we wanted to get somewhere safe for a few days and Epernay is an expensive mooring. It was fairly windy and our bow thruster was playing up on occasions. The canal was quite narrow with some weed in places, so we needed to be careful when we used the thrusters. Ayhan did a grand job. On our arrival at Conde sur Marne it was quite full, but luckily we found a spot, not the best spot, but it was safe, albeit a bit too far from the electric and water points, but we were all filled up with water anyway and can go without shore electric for some time. The next day I had a walk around the small town, not a lot there but it did at least have a bakery, a self-service pizza and a self service produce area, quite a new thing for me, but very enterprising.

24th - 26th May Conde Sur Marne to Sillery (24.3km, 3 locks downstream and 8 locks upstream, 1 tunnel (2,203m) in 5 ½hrs). Canal Lateral a la Marne to Canal de L'aisne a la Marne.

When we woke this morning, the weather wasn't too bad at all, so we decided to head back to Sillery. The wind did really pick up just before we arrived at Sillery, which wasn't very helpful for mooring. We moored in the same spot as last time. Shaun and Tracy were also moored here on Continuum, but they were out exploring Reims. We were very tired and had an early night. The next day, being a Sunday, we had to get up early to do a big supermarket shop before they closed at noon - the supermarket being nice and close - so also fill up the diesel tanks whilst we had the opportunity. The weather was wet on/off all day. I did a bit of laundry as not much else to do on a wet Sunday. Shaun & Tracy left early to get to Conde sur Marne.

26th - 29th May. Sillery to Berry Au Bac ( 33.8km,14 downstream locks in 7hrs 40mins). Canal de L'aisne a la Marne to Canal Lateral a L'Aisne. Cool and gusty day!

It had been a long day. At least the locks were going downstream, which is always easier. We had a 'lock breakdown' on the second lock and had to call the VNF chap, who, luckily came quickly and made sure we were ok with the other locks. Back into a few chains of locks, so you have to complete the chain once started. Luckily it was quiet on the canal, which is helpful in windy conditions. We headed for the mooring spot we have been to before. The last lock of the day had a water tap and hosepipe, so we decided to fill up the tank. Unbeknown to us, once you have activated the lock and entered it, you need to complete the lock process before you take your water. We didn't, we entered the lock and filled up our tanks with water and then when we wanted to activate the sluices to take us down, it wouldn't work, so we had to call out the VNF again. Every day is a learning day! Had a bit of a wait, plus the lock remote we collected here was missing a charger. By the time we got to our mooring spot, we were very weary.

The weather was still not looking good, so we decided to stay put for 3 nights and rest. We had water, and we had enough supplies. There was a bakery here too, not a brilliant one, but better than nothing. We are still baking our own bread, which is a huge bonus for us. Another barge, called Tammy, moored behind us. They were also with us at Sillery. A lovely couple. We like it here, it is quiet, and you also get to see the Commercial's way of life a bit too.

29th - 30th May. Berry Au Bac lock to Soissons ( 48km, 6 downstream locks in 6hrs 50mins). Canal Lateral a L'Aisne to Aisne.

We had a nice cruise today, the waterway is wider as well, which is always nice. We passed our friends on Ziggy B. They had been moored at the Isle Adam marina too, over the winter months. They took a video of us passing them, which was a nice thing to do.

Having spent some time at Soissons before, we knew the town and the layout. It was quite busy there with other boats. 'Tammy' was also there. We got chatting to them and invited them onto our boat for a drink, although they only drank water and had a few nuts. A very gentle couple called Serge and Jenny.

30th May - 2nd June. Soissons to Vic-Sur-Aisne. (18.6km, 2 locks downstream in 2hr 20mins). River Aisne.

When we arrived, there was another Piper boat moored here called 'Amarok'. 'Tammy' was also here. It is a small, free to use mooring area, and we had to squeeze in a difficult spot. Ayhan did a great job of getting alongside between the two boats and amongst the trees and shrubs. We had a challenge to get tied up, and Jenny from 'Tammy' helped us, which was kind of her. We were also able to get free water and electricity, which is always good news! We did the usual when we have access to electric and water, which was to clean inside and outside of the boat, and laundry. Serge and Jenny invited us to their boat for drinks that evening. They were so sweet and bought a bottle of bubbles, even though they don't drink alcohol themselves. The boating life is so great for meeting wonderful people, it is probably one of the best things about boating. Ayhan & I later went into town for supper and found a place to eat at, it was ok, but nothing special.

The next day, the boat in-front of us - Amarok - departed, so we moved forward and decided to stay here for another couple of days and relax. It was hot, and here felt nice. We went out for dinner again to a place called 'Welcome Cottage', which was a bit of strange place. The food was quite simple, but plenty of it and cheap. That night we had the most horrendous hail storm. When you are in a metal boat, it really sounds very dramatic. Luckily no damage was done. A motor boat had come behind us earlier that the day, and they had some damage to their Bimini cover after the hail storm. The couple on that boat were called Albert and Katja on KS206, and we would cross each others paths many more times on our journey.

2nd - 3rd June. Vic-Sur-Aisne to Compeigne. (25.5km, 4 downstream locks in 3½hr). We went from the River Aisne turning left onto the River L’Oise.

Quite windy today, but at least it is a route we know and we like this stretch. Compeigne was the busiest we had seen it. KS206 motor boat were here also and we moored behind them. As we had previously spent some time here, we knew the ropes. We walked to the Supermarket and did a shop and went to the chandlery to buy three new fenders. One of our fenders had popped on some sharp metal in a lock and we wanted a couple of spares. We will be heading north on the Canal Du Nord, and we don't know that stretch at all, so wanted to get stocked up in preparation. 'Wanderlust' and 'Anticus' - two other Piper boats - came alongside the fuel barge to fill up. A lot of boats were heading north.

3rd - 4th June. Compiegne to Tunnel de Panneterie entrance. (38km, 6 upstream locks in 6¼hrs) River Oise to Canal lateral a L'Oise to Canal du Nord.

We had heard mixed reports about cruising on the Canal du Nord. Some say that it isn't very nice and is more of a highway for Commercials, so we started the day feeling a bit anxious. We soon found that it was actually a really nice cruise and the canal was wide, so if a commercial did come past us, we all had plenty of room. The locks were a bit of a challenge to start with and quite muddy, but after a couple of locks we soon got into the swing of things. When we arrived at the tunnel entrance we decided to call it a day. It was a lovely quiet mooring, with the occasional Commercial going past us, but because it was by a tunnel entrance, they didn't go too fast. We had a nice evening. Wanderlust passed us again today! We had passed them earlier this morning. We will continue to leap-frog each other!

4th - 5th June. Tunnel de Panneterie to Biaches PK 475 - near to Peronne. (34km, 1 tunnel at 1.058km, 3 downstream locks in 4hrs 55mins) Canal Du Nord.

When we moored up yesterday, we hadn't quite realised that when we had come through the last lock, it also activates the traffic light system for the tunnel. But now that we had been here overnight we didn't know how we would activate our transit through the tunnel. We had been lucky, a Commercial had gone past us late last night heading in the same direction as we would be going, and so the tunnel light was still on green. We just hoped it would stay that way!! We were lucky and this tunnel wasn't too narrow or too low. Some tunnels are really quite narrow. We were getting the hang of the locks and these ones today were quite gentle when going up or down. At the last lock of the day, we ended up sharing it with KS206 - Albert who is Swiss and Katja who is Dutch. A friendly and fun couple. We ended up mooring up at the same spot as each other again. We didn't have a lot of mooring options on this stretch. Wanderlust passed again, although this was to be the last time that we would pass each other as they were turning left after us to get onto the Somme. Ayhan & I decided to cycle into Peronne and as we were getting our bikes ready to go, so were Albert and Katja, so I asked if we could follow them. They seemed to know where they were going. They ended up being our tour guides. They are far more used to cycling on roads than we are, so I was just happy to tag along and not get killed by the traffic. We had a lovely tour of Peronne, which was a major centre during the first world war. We walked around an old castle with a moat. When we returned to the boats, we invited Albert and Katja to our boat for drinks. They stayed for 5½ hrs and a few bottles of wine later!! We had a fun evening.

5th - 6th June. Biaches PK 475 - near to Peronne to PK 10 by Pont de la D16. (37.5km, 5 upstream locks, 5 downstream locks, 1 x 4.35km tunnel Ruyaulcourt in 7hrs 25mins) Canal du Nord.

We woke up with a bit of a hangover but we decided to carry on again today, to get to a nicer mooring spot. We hadn't intended for it to be such a long day, but all the decent mooring spots were taken, and the entrance to the next tunnel didn't have enough comfortable space for overnight mooring, unlike the last tunnel. The tunnel was in three sections and operated by red and green lights. The first section was 1,600m and if we had a green light we were clear to go. After that section we had a potential stop at the 'passing lay-by', if the lights became red on approach, then we would have to stop at the lay-by and wait for the passing traffic until we got the green light to continue through the last 1,600m section. Luckily we had a clear run all the way, and it was a nice, wide tunnel. We also had a lot of strong wind to contend with today and some heavy rain at times. Even in the deep locks we could feel the wind gusting into them. The bollards in the locks were quite wide apart too, but as usual, after a couple of locks we got a routine. Thankfully we found a nice, quiet mooring spot after one of the locks. Mooring before or after a lock is generally a good bet as the commercials will be slower approaching and exiting a lock and therefore won't create so much wake. It had been a long day, so we were more than ready for a quiet evening.

6th - 9th June. PK 10 by Pont de la D16 to Douai Marina Down Scarpe (25Km, 5 downstream locks, in 4hrs 20mins) Canal du Nord to Canal de la Sensee - Derivation de la Scarpe.

We had a good cruise today. Downstream locks always make life a lot easier. Today was the first time sharing a lock with a Commercial, which wasn't anywhere near as bad as we had anticipated, although the locks are quite narrow and very deep. Eventually we ended up getting back onto a canal that we had cruised on last year, so we were now in known territory. We moored at the same spot at Douai as last year. We had tried to get to a mooring further down nearer to the town but it was too shallow and we nearly grounded. Ayhan managed to get water so we could fill the tanks and rinse the boat. The weather was unsettled for a couple of days, so we decided to stay for two days and get some shopping done and relax a bit.

9th - 10th June. Douai marina to La Bassee pontoon. (31km, NO LOCKS! in 3½hrs) Derivation de la Scarpe - Canal de la Deule - Canal D'Aire a la Bassee.

We left quite early and had no problem getting the same mooring spot we had last year. This is also a good place for being near to fuelling up with our diesel containers, so we went back and forth 4 times. The price of diesel here is good too. A bit of work for Ayhan, but we can at least use the supermarket trolley to put the two containers in. We had planned to do a supermarket shop, but it was a holiday today, which we hadn't realised, so the supermarket closed at noon. Luckily we had done some shopping at Douai, so no big deal. It is a quiet spot and some lovely birdlife too. We had explored the town last year, so knew the layout.

10th -13th June. La Bassee Pontoon to Arque Marina. (50kms, 3 downstream locks in 7hrs 20mins) Canal D'Aire a la Bassee to Canal de Neuffosse.

We had a long but good cruise. We had to share the first lock with a Commercial behind us, we then caught up with an even larger commercial in-front of us. We didn't think we would fit in, but the lock keeper called us in and helped us tie up to the only one bollard that was available and luckily it was a floating one by the wheelhouse. He told Ayhan to keep the engine ticking over in forwards and it worked well, I didn't have to do a thing, it was great. We seemed to be getting all kinds of locks today and one had a waterfall cascading over the gates which was a bit daunting. One lock had a drop of 13m!!! A big drop. We also went past the Old Fontinettes double boat lift which was assembled between 1871 and 1888 to replace 5 locks. We eventually made it to Arque marina. We had stayed here last year. We like it here, even though it is a bit far from town, it has everything we need, water and electricity. It gave us both a chance to wash the boat inside and out and do some laundry. These big locks make the boat and fenders very dirty. The weather was improving, which was a bonus. Arque marina is also used by the Commercial traffic. The Commercials have to do a very tight turn to get into the marina from the main waterway and then slowly cruise past the marina to get to the loading/unloading station further down, and then they have to reverse out once they have finished loading. We had one come and go whilst we were there, it was a fascinating watch, especially the reversing out onto the main waterway.

13th June. Arque Marina to Dunkirk - Pk 21 Jeu de Mail Lock. (39km, 1 downstream lock in 4½hrs) Canal de Neuffosse - Aa Grand Gabarit - Canal de la Haute Colme -Canal de Lynck a Coppenanfort - Canal de Bourbourg. So many different named canals today😵‍💫!!

We have had our name on a waiting list for wintering in Bruge for a couple of years or so, but they haven't had anything available, so we needed to find somewhere else for the winter. We decided look at some other options in Belgium going via Dunkirk. The journey to Dunkirk wasn't too bad with just one easy lock. Luckily the small pontoon that we were aiming for was available. There was a Lidl nearby and an Intermarche, so we did a bit of a shop not knowing how easily shopping in Belgium would be.

I had to phone to book a time slot for the lifting bridges on the route for the next day as well as buying a permit to cruise the Belgium waters. It worked out more economic to get a one years permit. I also had to find out how our French sim card in our router would work. Whilst it does work, we have limited data usage, so we will just have to be careful with it. This cruising certainly keeps you on your toes. Never a dull moment! We had a short walk into town too and saw a war memorial.

Looking forward to visiting Belgium!