Friday 17^th April

We are back on Tesserae. We drove from West Kirby to Hull on Wednesday and took the overnight ferry to Zeebrugge. We unloaded the car yesterday and de-winterised the boat this morning already to stay onboard tonight.

Monday 20^th April

Yesterday we went by car along the Meuse valley to Verdun. Most of the moorings we visited were empty and we spotted only one occupied boat. Today D. changed the oil and fuel filters. A half-day job that took all day because of an air leak in the fuel line after changing the filters! D. was a bit stiff and creaky after a day in the engine room so we will stay in Toul until

Thursday so he can have a rest day, after all he is an OAP now.

Wednesday 22^nd April

Spent yesterday and today stocking up on provisions, water and diesel. L. has started gardening and the germaniums have been planted. The plants seem to have survived the winter, even the strawberries. We are ready to leave our winter mooring tomorrow. The weather has been hot a sunny since we arrived and we hope it stays like this as we head along the Meuse.

New lights for the back deck

L. doing the garden

Saturday 25^th April

We left Toul on Thursday morning and travelled 15.5 km along the Marne au Rhin canal up to Pagny-sur-Meuse. It was a refresher course in barging as there was a lift bridge, 14 locks and a tunnel to navigate. All the locks were working and ready for us so it was a good start to cruising 2015.  Yesterday we moved on to Commercy and locks that had been problematic last summer worked perfectly. We moored close to an Aldi and D. could not resist rummaging in the discount bins. He came away with sunscreens for the deck; that will be the end of the good weather!

As predicted it was raining first thing this morning. It eased off before we left Commercy only to return shortly before we arrived at Saint Mihiel town mooring. No other boats here, last year we could not get on this mooring as it was full with boats double berthed.

Raising the flags

St Mihiel

Monday 27^th April

It has been raining continuously since last night and we did not feel inclined to move on. A small hotel barge came in last night and talking to the skipper before he left this morning we found out the next series of locks are manual and we need to phone the VNF by 3pm the day before to arrange a lock keeper. L very pleased to be reading a book instead of barging in the rain.

Tuesday 28^th April

A sunny day today but not as warm as a week ago. Our lock keeper was waiting for us at the first lock and we travelled 18.5km to Ambly sur Meuse. We passed a dredging team with 2 commercial barges and a floating crane. They had to manoeuvre to let us pass. In the evening the dredging boats passed our mooring so we will have to negotiate them again tomorrow.

Ambly sur Meuse

Dredging team

Wednesday 29^th April

Today we left early as the fog was clearing. Again a lock keeper was waiting for us at the first lock and we had an easy passage to Verdun, a brief hold up to get past the dredging team. The mooring at Verdun is on the river Meuse and the correct procedure on a river is to moor facing upstream (we are heading downstream). As it was a gentle stream D decided to moor without turning round. Well the stream was not so gentle and despite having help form some friends already moored here we missed the mooring and had to turn upstream any way. Our friends had left Toul 4 days before us but had stayed at Verdun to recover from an inspection by the Metz river police. The police seemed unhappy about a number of things including the size of their SSR number and fined them over 100 euros. We hope they do not return to inspect us. Another British barge arrived and we had a jolly evening on Tesserae.

Foggy morning at Ambly

New canal banks!

Tuesday 5^th May

We are still at Verdun! Friday we could not move because it was a national holiday so no locks working and it rained all day (more book reading). It cleared up on Saturday, we walked around the sights of Verdun and booked a lockkeeper for Tuesday as we needed to do some shopping on Monday. On Sunday the rain returned and on Monday there were flood warnings on the upper Meuse also a forecast of winds up to 75km/hr on Tuesday and Wednesday. We rearranged our departure for Thursday and just as well. The river flow through Verdun has tripled and we have had to put on some extra heavy lines to keep us secure in the high winds; not good weather for barging. At least the sun is shinning and D is happy fishing logs out of the water.

Mooring at Verdun

D. removing logs from the Meuse