Lock down and green bog monster

Kortrijk to Ouesnoy sur Deûle

34 km

3 locks

0 lift/swing bridges

8.5 hours

Finally, we left Kortrijk, and decided to take a detour towards Armentières and back round to Lille. We were again following our map and again found it more suited to be cut into small squares and hung from the side of a toilet.

After around seven hours cruising, with yet again no where to stop, we came across three or four narrow arms not indicated on the map with no signs to say whether they ran to a dead end (not worth taking the risk on a 57ft boat) or whether they opened up into a marina as our past experience. This was a big junction on the map, surely there will be signed we thought; it wasn’t. So onward we went, finally arriving at Ouesnoy sur Deûle lock with the realisation that, not only had we had missed our turning, but we were now in France!

As we entered, the lock keeper indicated to Tracy to come to the control tower and pay for the French license. So instantly, Tracy lashed the boat to the bottom of the lock, and set off up the slimy green ladder slipping and sliding, holding the ladder with one hand and her handbag with the other. As she was half way up the 20ft ladder, the lock began to fill. “Tracy” I shouted, but with the gushing of water she could not hear me and the boat began to nose dive. Just as I was about to grab a knife and run to the bow to cut us free, Tracy realised her error, and made her way back down like a marsh green bog monster and with moments to go the rope was slackened.

Once the lock was full, I hung around in it for as long as I could, while Tracy parted with €183 for four weeks on the French canal system. There was another boat coming from behind so I moved out thinking Tracy could meet me outside the lock.

After maneuvering out, Tracy came out of the tower asking for more paperwork and it seemed there was no other way to hand it to her but to reverse back in.

The control tower had tall wire fencing that ran all the way around its circumference so Tracy said to me “I’ll meet you on the other side when I come back out, there’s a foot bridge I can cross”, so I made my way out and across to the other side of the canal where there was no staging, only rocks. I pushed the bow end up as close as I could to ground it and waited.

Tracy asked the lock keeper, who had now finished his shift, about mooring overnight, as it was now fairly late (around 8.30pm). He agreed that we could stay as long as we were off fairly early in the morning.

Once Tracy was back on board, I noticed a ship starting to move out of the lock and to my dismay another approaching to enter the lock. With a ship coming at me from each direction and my stern half way across the canal, I quickly reversed back between them, desperately trying to get out the way. The wind was taking the bow end and we had a hairy moment between a wall and probably over a hundred tonne of ship.

After we had finally moored up the ship’s captain came to see me laughing, “I nearly crushed you” he said “I know, I nearly lost control of more than the boat back there I can tell you” I replied and contemplated cutting the map into squares once more.

We finally sat down for our tea. I had bought us lamb shank in a mustard sauce from a very nice deli before we had left Kortrijk and was really looking forward to it. It turned out to be smoked ham much to our disappointment, an appropriate end to a stressful day.                

Moorings in Ouesnoy sur Deûle

Cost: Free

Facilities: None, lock mooring, would only usually be one hour mooring.

Location: Lock keeper stated that the town was approximately 1km away with restaurants and bars etc but we were too tired to look.