Friday 10th May 2013 Panheel to North end of old canal through Helmond. 43.3 kms 5 locks.

Passantenhaven at Neederveert

Raining first thing, dry and sunny when we set off, grey clouds and chilly again later. Left the mooring above Panheel locks at 9.20 a.m. on the Kanaal Wessem-Nederveert. Mike called me to look at the passantenhaven (a square offline mooring basin with posts to tie to) at Nederveert, where two cruisers were moored. I didn’t think the Snail would get in there, but Mike reckoned that it would fit, but maybe next time, we pressed on. I noticed they were in the process of building a new road bridge at Nederveert. We joined the Zuid-Willemsvaart heading north to Den Bosch at a crossroads with the Zuid-Willemsvaart to Maastricht to the left and the dead-end Noodervaart off to our right. 

Leaving lock 13

There are four new locks on this section of the Zuid-Willemsvaart, all worked remotely by the lock keeper at the big lock in Helmond. As we approached lock 13 an armada of cruisers of all different sizes had just left the lock. But we had a red light as the lock was emptying and we had to wait while four more cruisers came up. Just us two to go down. The new locks replaced the double width chambers with offset gates (in on the left of the chamber and out through the right, designed to pass two 50m long barges - the offset gates were so they kept the same order of passage, ie the first one in moves to the right and is now in front of the exit gates). We’d heard that the canal is being upgraded with new even bigger locks and a detour around Den Bosch. The lock worked OK, we dropped down 1.8m and we were soon on our way down to lock 12. An empty boat called Marcel (50m x 6.6m) went by, following the cruisers up the canal. I made a cuppa. Into lock 12 and as the paddles started lifting to empty the lock a loud Bing-Bong, Bing-Bong started up from the lockside loudspeakers – how irritating! (the same happened on the next two locks) Dropped down another 1.8m and we were on our way again. 

Lock 10

Another 50m long empty barge went past, followed by a single cruiser on the run down to lock 11. The old lock houses were still there at lock 11, behind a fence, those at the other three locks had been demolished. Down 2.5m this time, a bit deeper lock, and on to lock 10. Another 50m empty barge went past heading uphill, but when we arrived at lock 10 the gates were closed and we had to wait while they reopened. Mike counted there were eight cameras at each lock. Bing-Bong and we dropped down another 2.10m. By now it was getting colder as the wind picked up, so I made a cup of soup. 

The lock controller's cabin at Helmond lock

The route through Helmond had been closed to through traffic for years as it had been a bottleneck with three more locks and several liftbridges. Lock 9 is only worked by request for traffic to the sand quays, marina or the Eindhoven Kanaal. There used to be good moorings in the lock approach, but we’d been told that a building project had been sanctioned to build mansions and charges were now made for the mooring above lock 9. The Snail stayed on the new canal while we went to have a look. A new sign board said 50c/metre per night. Just one cruiser on the moorings and he didn’t look like he was staying.  9€ just for just tying up overnight, no thanks. 

Can't say anything nice, so don't say anything at all!

Winded and rejoined the Snail and we cruised on round the ringvaart around Helmond to the east of the town. Saw our first oystercatchers fly up as we passed the loading/unloading quay at the start of the bypass canal. There was one DB moored at the end of the long, empty commercial quay, looked like it had been there a while. Had to wait for the new lock while it filled. An empty commercial was moored above the lock, Nimar (64.7m x 6.35m 652 tonnes) – don’t think that he would get any further up the canal until they make the new lock to replace the four remotely controlled ones. 

Moored at the north end of Helmond

Into the big lock and we dropped down 6.3m. Below the lock, at the end of the quay for waiting for the lock there was another DB moored with the worst conversion we had ever seen. It looked abandoned; Mike said there was graffiti inside the cabin! We continued to the other end of the now disused route through Helmond and tied to square wooden bollards among a group of Dutch cruisers who were over-nighting there.