Sahula Cruising: Passage Report No 102 Paris to Epernay

Passage Report: 102
Sahula
Paris on Marne to Epernay: Canals Champagne

Sahula had "passed" her first test by cruising the Seine; Le Havre to Paris. Now, canals beckon - web or paradise? Will her draft and air height (water to top) allow a canal passage?

Skipper received varying canal advice. Sahula's draft per design specifications is 1.5m; waterline, measured ashore: 1.7m. Loaded in water -?

"You'll be fine, it's mud..."

"We know of a boat that hit the rocky bottom..."

"Have you checked...?" - with canal authorities.

"...every year two or three yachts are lifted out..."

"...we heard a yacht had to be towed..."

"...keep to the middle...the banks are rounded..."

Officially, the Marne route is 1.8m draft, 3.5 air height.

"...we've done that route...its ok..."

"...we've seen yachts going through..."

"...winter was wet..."

Locks are Sahula's forte cum Danube, Rhine, Maine, Holland, Kiel, Gota in Sweden. Tunnels, red bricked, black, arched and bridges, raise stress.

Sahula bristles with tell tale wires prodding possible disaster.

Tunnel de St-Muir (600m, built 1825, 5.60m height, 8.80m wide) followed the St- Muir lock slicing under a hill, across a large river loop (14 km).

Sahula slowly, gratefully, follows four pleasure boats, confidently, steaming through under eerie, mellow lights.

Paris outer, industrial, well to do homes, yacht clubs, calm, swans oblivious, flittering royal blue dragon flies, bird sounds mix with suburbia.

Large barges impossibly pass, brown river churning. Sahula offside, slides by. Sounder records 1.4m - 1.7m.

Tanya (engine) drives on, seemingly, unslowed; keel perhaps ploughing but reveals nothing.
Into a lock, then deeper, Canal de Chelles (Sahula's first) straightening where the River loops wander.

Sahula is slowly, ascending via the River partly canalised then into the "Canal lateral a la Marne," "Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne"(following, not using, the River) to the Marne's source, in the Haute (upper) Marne region, central northern west France.

All locks must fill some metres. Sahula is buffeted, infill boils, turbulently. Crew are tested. Large river barges determine large river locks, later less so in canals.

"...go port, go port...slow down, slow down..." crunch, trauma, fender caught in the lock door, stretches, pops, destroyed.

Sahula's long red paint trail begins.

Sahula swings, forward extended mast touches, like a bandage, roped on fenders, capped by a black protecting bucket, protect vital rigging.

Entry is determined by red and green lights. Commercial barges have priority. Lifting waters - a challenge when turbulence (forward end) tests lines moved to higher bollard.

Skipper (in large locks where bollards, fit for 40m barges, can be far apart) moors to a single bollard or ladder step, keeping to the locks rear, holding Sahula, in slow forward gear, pivoting on a spring.

Huge barge propellors create further turbulence when moving out.

Gates close; Sahula swings, ahead, behind, testing fenders, lines, crew.

"...tighten up, pull it (line ashore) in...look out..." Stern connecting the cement, rock side. Red paint evidences - "Sahula passed this way."

Crew improve with each lock's challenge.

Bridges arch over, untouched by prodding tell tale wires. Another lock raises the River. It is late but one more lock (Chalifert).

"...lockmaster, lockmaster (VHF) - yacht Sahula..." Silence!

Check "Flaviacarte" (canal guide - 29 vols - English, German, French) - "...locks open 0800 - 1800..."
At 1900, Sahula must find her first stopover.

"...you can stay alongside..." Sahula is welcomed by Isobel, Christian and family, of live aboard "peniche" (40m commerical barge) "Yakoma."

18 years their home. The interior "hold" is practical luxury. An idyllic, peaceful, river lifestyle. A 6 cyclinder "Tank" engine rarely moves "Yokoma" (with expert barge master).

Nearby, an aquaduct destroyed in 1939, provides white chalk stone for Jacques Servieres superb "plein air" sculpture garden (1987 - "...I watch the ...fields and the seasons change...a place of dreams and fantasy for... hikers, cyclists and boating tourists..."

Another tunnel engulfs Sahula

Sahula enters the Canal de Meaux a Chalifert leaving the River to wander until rejoined at Meaux.

Sahula berths at the municipal pontoon (free -water, electricity, large chandlery)

Historicially, a trading town, the 12 - 16th century, Saint-Etienne Cathedral, with soaring arched interior, dominates the twisting, cobbled streets.

Religious saint icons over the entrance were beheaded or removed during the French Revolution -
"...une baguette, deux croissant..." starts the day.

Town facilities do not include wifi or it is impossibly weak. Crew purchases from "Orange," a "Go," self, wifi gadget that allows multiple wifi aboard, anywhere in France.

Skipper works a pastel of Meaux by night.

Red roofed, stone villages on hills or adjacent, provide a passing parade from the calm, green lined, canal.

Skipper creates a pastel of the "Blue Bridge."

At St-Jean No. 10 lock, a VNF (waterway authority) official provides an automatic lock remote control (500e if lost) to be returned any locks hence. Pressed when near, lights, red, green, opens the gate, green light allows entry. When secure inside crew lifts a blue pipe on the lock wall, to shut the gate, fill the lock and open the gates to leave.

Another automatic trigger is a pipe suspended over the canal, before the lock. It is twisted by the crew on deck, to open the lock gates. Once inside the "blue pipe" starts the process.

Some 90% of locks are automatic. A few require lock keepers "... they will be automatic next year..."

"...you should not miss a visit to Jouarre...its imposing 7th century Benedictine Abbey (capacity 200 now an elderly 43)...3 km (inland) from La Ferte..."

Guide:"...depth 1.20m..." Crew "...give it go..."

At Ferte, Sahula enters a bouyed channel off River. Berths alongside pontoons - depth 1.7m (free, water, electricity). Guides are not infallible.

Hector and Hermoine (bikes) convey Crew to explore historic Ferte (19th Century, world grindstone capital, exported some 5000 to USA) and cycle 3 km uphill, in traffic, to Jouarre.

Jouarre Tourist Office staff, generously, conduct a late tour of the 7th century, royal tombs, in the Carolingian crypt. King Radon sacrophagus remains intact, too fragile to open.

Crew welcome James (Scot) aboard.

Marne wends though green hills, ochre villages (Saacy, Crouttes, Mery, Chezy... sur Marne, through locks (weirs provide flood control) to Chateau Thierry. "...clunk..." Sahula strikes a ledge jutting underwater from the river wall, moves further along and berths alongside town, water, electricity - no showers - free). Sahula is in the Champagne region.

"...they speak english...I will phone them...taxi is coming..." tourism office.
Vinyards stretch, lined, up evergreen hills.

Vigneron, Olivier welcomes Crew to a family owned vinyard where they (he and his wife) create some 4000 litres of Belin Champagne (wwww.champagne-belin.fr) on 8 hectares.

"...it is very expensive...buying hectares (some 1 million euros/hectare) where soil, hillsides, climate...suit our product..."

Large companies harvest some 2000 hectares. They forge new markets that assist small vinyards.
"...half the harvest goes to my champagne made here...rest to the mix used by larger producers..."

"...these are my babies..." - immaculate shining - the "machinery" of creation is explained - the growing, harvest, creation, bottling, turning, removal of waste yeast to marketing sparkling, efferescent, champagne. Only the spraying (anti bug) is mechanical, all

A large, oak ("...only local oak...everything is local...") cask sits centre room "...I am seeking different champagne... mixing different sugar, yeast, grapes...Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay..."

Belin Champagne: Brut Tradition, Brut Selection, Demi-sec lune de Miel, Brut Grande Reserve, Brut Rose, Brut Millesime 2007, Extra Brut Millesime 2007, Ratafia de Champagne..."

"...this is my father, mother (retired)...I work with him...he taught me all...I have bought new hectares..."

At "tasting," Crew buy, dry and sweet, superbly presented - to be opened on Sahula entering salt water!

The skill, passion, technical complexity, enhances appreciation of a "mere" glass of bubbling French champagne.

Musee Jean de La Fontaine: 16th century "...subtle and unequalled genius in poetry...," musee retains works illustrated by generations of great artists (Boucher... Delacroix, Chagall, Dali..."

France venerates her greats in literature and arts.

WW I memorials occupy each village, town, city. More so than WW II. Australia wartime contribution is rarely noted alongside USA, British.

High above, a grand US memorial to the madness of war and to wartime fallen particularly, WW I during nearby Battle of Marne (310,000, 4000 lost).

Villages, grey, run down, houses attached to large, ancient barns, often no shops - odd in wealthy champagne region.

"...they are communes...farmers and workers...they do not live on their land..."

Dormans ( pontoon is too shallow. Sahula goes alongside Dutch motor boat) scene of many battles, dominated by Louis XIII castle, amongst vinyards, infinite green lines, sweeping up riverside, chalk white, slopes. Grains wave endless yellow, ochre, on fertile river flats, spotted with red and ochre, grey villages.

Sahula moves along the river - shallow, keel soft mud ploughing, to a lock. The river curls off, cut free by a straightening canal; polluted, shallow, laced with green, clogging weed.

Tanya "breathes" air not cooling water - stopped. Weed clogs the engine water intake.

Skipper frequently cleans Tanya's (engine) water intake filter.

Canal barges pass (Sahula moves to side shallows) engines canal, brown, churning.

Epernay, wealthy, self proclaimed, Capital of Champagne - pontoon crowded, Sahula alongside US owned barge (24e, all facilities in Sports Club; fuel from visiting tanker - 1.42/lt, [1.29/lt at supermarket]).

Avenue de Champagne, Rue de D J Moet, Rue Jean Chandon...luxury HQ addresses of regions world renowned houses; guardians atop a "...sparkling gold mine..."; 110 km of cellars, chalk hewed, damp, dank, dark, storing 200 million bottles.

Silently, Dom Perignon, (c 1638-1715), monk, eulogised in stone, as creator, perfector of champagnes sparkle (second, in bottle, fermentation) piously, remonstrates the current luxury to his pious life in hill top, Hautvillers.

Hector and Hermoine (bicycles) visit hillside, Hautvillers narrow, cobbled streets, to Dom Perignons resting place.

Below a patchwork quilt of greens, yellows, blue, vinyards and wheat fields, amongst red roofed, yellow, ochre villages, paint the Marne Valley.

Crowds gather, the Tour de France is due to start (a section) from excited, festive, mid town Epernay.
First, a float parade of corporate supporters, then Mayor arrives, music crescendos, excitement grows. The slim, colourful, cyclists (including an Australian team) gather enmasse; they're off; past cheering crowds, along Avenue de Champagne followed by huge support trailors and cars topped by
replacement bycycles. Participation is a 20 million dollar business.