At last the river is open and we are (more than) ready to set off on this year's cruise. The difference from previous years will be the presence of Daisy and it will be interesting to see how she copes with a moving home.
With a plan to travel only as far as Gurgy (5 locks and about 10 kms) we set off in a leisurely manner after lunch, with our friends Richard and Julie on Ettie leading the way. The locks on the Yonne are quite big enough to accommodate both of us, so we anticipated a journey lasting only some 3 hours. A gentle and friendly start after such a long winter at rest in Auxerre.
The first thing we noticed was the strength of the current. Although a much lesser flow downstream than during the time when the river was closed, it was still considerable, and we had to run at minimum revs to keep the speed in hand. One of the problems of such low revs and consequent low speed through the water (although normal or above speed over the ground) is that it becomes much more difficult to steer.
We duly passed through the first two locks, bumping a bit on the first, but nothing extraordinary.
Then we arrived at the third lock downstream. Here there was a long wall protecting the lock from the weir, which we thought would make it easier to enter the lock without problem.
Not a bit of it!
As we approached the upstream end of the wall we were seized by the current which was trying to sweep us away from the protected lock and toward the weir. Despite pushing the revs to maximum and turning the wheel as hard as I could, we were taken into the wall and hit it somewhere aft of the bow. Luckily ( I thought) it was not a hard blow and we had experienced many worse in the past.
Apart from passing on our apologies to the lock keeper, we though no more of it and continued though that lock and two others further downstream with no difficulty.
After the fifth lock of the day (the third since the bump) we were within sight of our mooring and going as slowly as possible to allow Ettie to get moored and ready for us, I suddenly lost control of the steering and Joli Coeur started to wander all over the river, ending up pointing up stream. I had no idea what the problem could be, but was even more suddenly aware that we were well down by the bow. Charlyn had a little previously said to me that the bumper tyres hanging down the sides seemed un-naturally low.
I called to her "We are sinking, come back to the wheelhouse"
By the time we had gathered ourselves and Daisy together we were firmly on the bottom at the bow and water was rapidly filling the whole barge.
Richard and Julie,who had been walking up the bank to meet us, realised that there was something seriously wrong; ran back to their barge, loosed their mooring and came back upstream to help. In fact there was little they could do except to take us on board and to abandon Jole Coeur to whatever fate might have in store for her.
A welcome strong drink on board Ettie made us all feel somewhat better and able to withstand the onslaught of first the fire brigade (who I had called by phone, then the police, followed by the VNF (the river authority), the two mechanics Jean Phillipe and Jurgens from Auxerre, Simon Evans the owner of the nearest boat yard at Migennes as well as Uncle Tom Cobley and his many relations.
It soon became clear that nothing much could be achieved, although the pompiers tried valiantly for most of the night to pump out JC with totally inadeqate equipment.
The only moment of relief came when I was required by the police to do a breath test, which initially I refused to do on the grounds that I had had several strong drinks since the accident. They insisted and I gave way - only to find (surprisingly) that my blood alcohol level was well within the limits allowed!
Richard and Julie very kindly offered us a bed for the night and a large omelette, both of which were very welcome and we went to bed exhausted but greatly relieved that we were all safe and dry.
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| Ettie and JC in the lock after the impact - no apparent damage |
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| Just an idea of the strength of the current |
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| Joli Coeur - the morning after |
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