Thursday 9th May 2013 Maastricht to Panheel. 42 kms 3 locks

Wheelhouse hydraulic lift at full extent
to see over the bulky cargo

Grey clouds and damp when we set off at 9.10 a.m. Sunny later, but breezy. Five large Dutch cruisers had gone past as we set off, they turned left for the lock on to the Zuid-Willemsvaart as we carried on down the river, through the floodlock and on along the Julianakanaal. I downloaded the photos from the previous day that I had neglected to do the day before. Made a cuppa and took it out as we were overtaken by Armira (110m x 11.45m 3,260 tonnes) loaded with coal. We got stuck on his stern wave and Mike had to reverse to stop us “surfing” and being dragged along with him. More cruisers were catching up. 

Following Marga into Born lock

Another big boat loaded with wood chips (lovely smell) was coming towards us with his hydraulic wheelhouse up at its full extent to see over the top of his cargo. He was followed by an empty called Wendy-Chantal. The first of the next bunch of cruisers overtook us at KP9.5. We met and passed an empty boat called Primair from Pappendrecht (110m x 10.5m 2,882 tonnes) under the bridge at Elsloo on a bend. A little further on we could hear motor cross racing but couldn’t see it as the banks were too high. The next cruiser overtook us at Scharnbergbrug, a busy road bridge over the canal. A police boat went past at KP12, heading towards Maastricht. Seven girls on ponies went over the road bridge at Stein, with a queue of cars behind them. 

Phone mast on top of a pylon

Another bunch of cruisers went past in the opposite direction as we were passing the port of Stein with many arms and basins where lots of big boats were tied up awaiting loading or unloading. Today is a holiday, Ascension Day, but not for the lock keepers. Born lock seemed to be reduced to only one chamber working out of the two new ones (an older lock stood off to the left, disused). The lock was filling and we had to wait, being blown sideways by the wind, while a whole armada of cruisers, plus one small commercial with Sluis Maasbracht on the side of it, came up. Two commercials had caught us up and went into the chamber first, Calanda, loaded with coal (another 110m boat) and a smaller Belgian empty called Marga went in behind the first one. We went in alongside on the left until a young woman came out of the lock cabin and said “No further” when we were halfway along the side of the last boat. There was enough room for the Snail behind us and a large Swiss cruiser on the opposite wall.

Leaving Maasbract lock

We dropped down 11.4m attached to floating bollards. Mike held on to the rope while I made sandwiches for lunch. It was 1 pm as we left the lock. The industrial haven below the lock on the left now had a row of houseboats at its far end and a couple of commercials moored in the corner. A German cruiser went past heading for Born lock followed by Allegonda (110m x 11.45m 3,344 tonnes) an empty Dutch boat from Ramsdonksveer. Four large German cruisers behind it were racing to keep up to get in the lock with the empty commercial, their wash was enormous – it washed our cabin windows, watered the flowers on the Snail’s bows and swept round both our stern decks. A few minutes later another German cruiser went past, but at a slower pace. Took a photo of a phone mast on top of an electricity pylon at Rooserenbrug, unusual place to see one but why not. 

Going into Panheel lock

The motorway A2 followed the canal on the right for a few kilometres but below the level of the canal. The wind picked up and was chilly as we ran along the elevated section of canal leading to the locks at Maasbracht. Spied our first windmill way off in the distance on our left. Maasbracht had two chambers working, the left was full with a green light, the right had a large commercial coming up in it. We went into the chamber and tied to the floaters on the left and only waited a short while before loaded boat Iduna came in and went down the right hand side to the bottom end of the lock and a large Dutch cruiser with a high bow came in behind the commercial. We dropped gently down another 11.9m. The cruiser lost a fender that had sailed off down the chamber and Olly managed to fish it out for them. They collected it from him on the way out of the chamber. 

Moored above Panheel locks

Followed the barge and the cruiser through the moored boats below the lock. At the end of the Julianakanaal we turned left, crossing the Maas and into the Kanaal Wessem-Nederveert. A short distance up the canal we came to Panheel locks and Olly called the lock keeper in his best Dutch – he answered in English and said we could go up in the starboard lock. The lock on the right emptied and a cruiser came out then we went up, just the two of us. No floaters, back to old system of moving the ropes up on to the recessed bollards in the wall. At 5 pm we moored above the lock to the grassy bank with piling and bollards at the top of the slight slope. Before we’d tied up we were joined by two Dutch cruisers. Gave Mike a hand to unload the fizzer down the plank. Waah! The back tyre was flat and it had a hole in it made by a piece of steel. Fortunately we had a new one in the engine room, which I retrieved, while Mike took the punctured tyre off. 

Wednesday 8th May 2013 Visé to Maastricht. 14 kms 2 locks

Geese at Vise

Sunny first thing, clouding over by lunchtime and rain again in the afternoon. Mike went by car to get some bread and parked the car on the far side of the river in Devant-le-Pont. It was 10.20 a.m. when we set off back up the river a short way then crossed to the opposite bank and into the lock channel, divided off from the river by stone walls with trees along it. There were dozens and dozens of geese, white ones, greylags, Canadas and Egyptians, besides all the seagulls, ducks and swans that are also lured here by people who feed them. What a mess, bird pooh everywhere, and the grass had been grazed down to next to nothing and there was a constant noise of honking and squawking. 

The bell below Vise lock

Past all the moored boats and a 90 degree turn to the left, noting that there was a new dark glass building that might be a pub, and on up to the lock which was open and ready for us (Mike had called round by car and booked it for 10.30 a.m. with the resident keeper) no need to ring the bell below the lock to summon the keeper (took a photo of the old bell). 5.5m deep and a bit larger dimensions than Freycinet sized locks (roughly about 45m long x 8m wide). The walls were covered in live mussels that were spitting water out all the time. As the lock filled we moved the centre rope up from one muddy recessed bollard to the next until the lock was full. The keeper wanted our papers. 

Controls from a bygone era at Vise lock.

I took my camera and took photos after I’d asked him if I could, as his lock cabin and the lock controls are unique. Anne came in with her papers too and we had our one and only stamp on the back of our papers. (In the days of “quittances” any boat entering Belgium had to fill in forms and get a toll ticket called a “quittance” and pay a toll equivalent to an empty commercial boat of a few centimes, the “quittance” had a list of canals for the route the boat would take. At many of the locks on this route the skipper of the vessel would have to take the “quittance” to the lock cabin, where the lock keeper would enter the details from the “quittance” in his ledger and then stamp the back of the boater’s “quittance” to say that the boat had passed through his lock. 

The boats in Vise lock

The system was time consuming and antiquated - even with computers - so they stopped it several years ago) It was nice to have one lock still on the old system. The keeper told me that the new locks they were building at Yvos-Ramet and Lanaye were going to be 250m long by 20-odd metres wide, BIG! Back on the boat, leaving the lock we were back on the Albert canal, turned right after checking nothing was coming. A police 4x4 drove along the bank at the same speed as us (we reckon they were taking photos!) as we headed for the last locks in Belgium at Lanaye. Ten minutes later the first boat went past, a cruiser. As we were being overtaken by a loaded tankership called Europe 03 (72.35m x 7.3m 1,087 tonnes) a crow tried to land on our roof, took off and landed on the handrails on the tanker boat. 

In Lanaye lock getting a free shower

Mike called Lanaye in French on VHF and had a reply in Flemish! He translated it as follow the yacht, then follow San Remo (in French, sort of) so we hung about while the commercials went in, San Remo from Maasbract and Misonda from Wessem went into the right hand big chamber and Parola from Wervik (53.24m x 6.23m 505 tonnes) went in behind Misonda on the right. We went in and tied alongside Parola (after asking the skipper’s permission) and the Snail came alongside us. The yacht (Swedish) had gone further forward, behind San Remo on the left, and tied to a bollard on the lock edge. Someone on the bank suggested that he tied to a floater as the lock was a deep one (14m deep) As the couple on the Swedish yacht pulled their boat back down the lock chamber Anne said they could tie alongside them. Slowly we dropped down 14m, getting a free shower from the leaks around the top end gate. 

On the wall in Maastricht

Slowly the two big boats left the chamber followed by the yacht then we followed on to give Parola room to swing out from the wall and get out of the lock. It was 12.30 p.m. as we headed towards Maastricht. There were lots of boats moored, mainly péniches and empty pans, along the high concrete walls on either side of the lock approach until we reached the lake on our right and the Dutch border. A Dutch thousand tonner, called Jan Van Orst, passed us heading for the locks as we were passing the long defunct customs offices. Mike and Olly changed our courtesy flags while Anne and I steered. Into the Netherlands at 12.45 p.m. Our Belgian police 4x4 shadow was parked at the end of the wall, maybe taking a last few photos! Just after we passed the lake a loaded sand barge called Gregory went past heading for Lanaye. Two very smart new trippers went past as we entered the city of Maastricht, there were more like it opposite the moorings on the wall. The Snail went into the only gap left that was long enough and we tied alongside at 1.20 p.m.