Pencil and paper

Living on a boat offers many magical moments.
When I have time to relax my favourite spot is in the wheel house. A bird's eye panoramic view. It's like sitting in a tree with a dominate 360 angle look-out over the surroundings. You can watch people passing by on the tow path, fish jumping and basically have a very agreeable time.

So as to not waste these precious hours posted in the wheel house, I'll grab a sketch book and pencil, choose a view from one of the windows and start to draw the scenery.
As we move the barge up and down the rivers and canals, there is always something different to draw.

Not that I'm a good artists, not at all, I never even show my sketches to my wife. I'm also impulsive, so I only use coloured pencils which saves me the time of having to set up all the equipment if I was painting. I just open my pencil case, flip a A4 page and draw.

I remember the basics of using perspective from TD lessons in school, but some expert advice from a specialist would be very helpful.. The regularity of the canal with the tow-path, trees lined up like soldiers and the rolling distant hills are easily traced with a sharpened HB. I love the way the canal can be either so straight, vanishing into a far away spot, or serpentine with slow curves taking their time to meander along the slopes.

Shadows and shading are also interesting, changing with the seasons and hours. In Autumn the shadows are long and pronounced as the sun lays low in the sky line, or very dark and short at midday in the hot summer.

Up to this point, things generally work out well. Where my skills fall down to childlike drawings is when I try to trace peoples’ faces.

There are so many characters in the Burgundy countryside, with expressions, wrinkles and smiles, and I’m incapable of translating them on to paper. This is where I could really take a course in an Art School and benefit from some teaching, I’m even considering taking some time to take a course on line. If only I could trace the red wine stained nose of the lock-keeper, his puffy cheeks and that gapping smile with missing teeth! Or the rounded body of Miss ???? as she leans against the rails of the lock door. If only... then my drawings would come alive. Perhaps I should just stick to taking photos of these people and give them justice.

Talking of cameras, I’ve encountered an American who spends a lot of time in the Auxois region and is a professional photographer. Mike Long is displaying some of his photos on the web, if you have a few moments take a look and see how he has captured some of the magic of the canal, reflections in the water and the colours. Burgundy is not as spectacular in offering natural light as the Provence, but it is a second best. Anyhow, if you’ve not had the chance to visit this area or know the canal like the back of your hand, have a look.

Cold steel in a heated world

The canals and barging should be a hot topic for all of us. They're now telling us that the world is warming up. The motorways and roads are jammed with trucks and cars driving in all directions, burning our precious fossil fuels at an alarming rate.

So why do they not take a closer look at the old fashioned canals and rivers as a method of reducing heat and C02 emissions?

There are already thousands of miles of waterways which were constructed more than 100 years ago, but they are in a poor state.
A typical freycinet barge which can carry 250 tons of cargo and is the equivalent of 10 trucks. This also means 1 diesel engine instead of 10, that's much less pollution. Plus you can use a 200 HP engine, whereas most of the modern day trucks are 350 and more, that's a lot less oil being burnt for the same job. The life expectance of a cargo barge is easily more than 50 years with three motors being used, whilst the average truck last 5 years.

You can also consider the difference in material which is necessary for the construction and maintenance, between canals and motorways. An efficient canal can be built out of stone and earth, you use vegetation to preserve the solidity of the banks. Try and do that with a freeway.

The canals provide an important reserve of water and rapidly create a natural biological reserve. People can use the tow paths for pleasure such as walking and cycling. I'd like to see you take a family stroll along the M6!

Most canals and rivers I know are falling into oblivion, state finance is almost zero and the people employed are on the bottom end of the civil service (no offence). Simply up-keep is a very low priority and in many cases non-existent, as the dykes and feeding streams to and canals are abandoned and over-grown. The locks and sluice gates leak and the loss of water is very important. The reservoirs are silted up and unable to provide the quantities of water for which they were originally designed. I even know of a reservoir from which the water cannot be used for the canal, but is reserved for a nearby camping site and the canal officials receive a yearly bribe!

Barges instead of trucks?
What about the loss of jobs you shout aloud ! Well just think a bit more, I reply. Imagine if the canals where operating 24/7 this would create jobs. If we replanted the trees along the canals and rivers, this provides wood to harvest. The reservoirs provide natural sources of food. I can give many more example of job creation.

What about the difference in transport time you shout aloud! It takes weeks to deliver the goods! I say it's easy to anticipate ordering material such as sand, stone, wood and steel a few weeks in advance. Especially with all the technology that we have today.

So who is against the development of barges and canals? It's very easy to cite the huge corporate lobbies defending the interests of companies such as Ford… There would many less engines being sold… . The amount of road accidents which be greatly reduced as cars and trucks would not have to battle every mile (do they really care).
Such short sightedness on their behalf… once again.

But they, whoever they are, will have to begin to seriously consider thinking.

Dry dock, wet feet

A 38 metre hotel barge has just arrived for the dry dock at Saint Jean, she cruised down from Dijon after spending winter in the city's port.
Once the dry dock is ready, the barge enters and is moored in place with ropes keeping the boat in the ideal postion, whilst a diver places 8 steel "chairs" underneath the barge in line with the water tight compartments. Slowly the water is emptied and the barge will sit on the chairs.
During the last week of the 2005 season, the barge and hit an "unkown" object on the canal, which made a hole below the water line, she has been pumping water ever since.
Now the repair work can be done, the crew will also clean the hull with high pressure steam cleaners and "re-tar" the metal.
Saint Jean de Losne, on the river Saône and the entance to the Burgund canal is a strange place. The smallest town in land size of France, very friendly and intreseting because of it's importance to barge people.
Generally you hate the idea of having to go on to the dry dock, more often than not, it means you have a problem with your barge. Once your there, you'll have to wait your turn, as the other boats always spend more time then planned due to unforseen reasons. Finally its your turn and when your boat is succesfully mounted in the dry dock, you're relieved. Whatever the problem was, it can now be repaired, or maybe you're in for a surprise.
The whole is much bigger then you thought...
Worse, you can't find the hole even tough you where taking on water!?
The rudder is also bent.
There are many scenarios.

Well for me the best thing about Saint Jean is going to the cafe, after a day on the high pressure cleaner, spraying all the alga off the hull. No matter how water-proof your clothes are, you're always soaked, but at least you have clean feet when you take off those soggy socks.
Cheers...
P.S. It's raining.

Earth views of the Canal

There are some interesting views of the Burgundy Canal using Google Earth.

This link give a great view of the canal entrance at Saint Jean de Losne, with the basin and dry dock.

This link shows a 38 metre barge heading upstream.

This one shows a couple of smaller boats in lock 64.

For the moment only the southern part of canal after is available in HiRes images, from lock 63 down to Saint Jean de Losne, but I guess in the next few months more will be available. It's still possible to see the trace of the rest of the canal, but trying to place the locks is slightly more difficult.

You can also connect Google Earth to a GPS for real time navigation, but its very difficult to get lost on canal.

I've almost finished plotting every lock along the Burgundy canal, plus some of the interesting places along side. I'll publish the file in the next few days...weeks.

Let me know if you also find interesting places on these incredible images.

Water levels

I've been driving along the Ouche valley almost every day for the last few months, there are many pounds between the locks which are empty of water. Some of the locks are being repaired, which is a valid reason for emptying the water, but I'm surprised to see other stretches which have been empty for weeks, apparently for no reason.
I've walked around the reservoir of Chazilly which is extremely low (even if it is never filled to more than 2/3).
Also, it has not rained very much over the past 3 months. There was a bit of snow at Christmas and the New Year. The snow fall has always been an important factor in filling the reservoirs and increasing the water in the rivers, which is then transferred into the canal.
So at the moment I'm quite pessimistic about the duration of the 2006 cruising season.

First of all, low rain fall this winter.
Secondly, the reservoirs are low.
Thirdly many empty canal sections which have to be filled before the season opens.
For this to change, during February and March it will have to really rain...

So get ready to change your cruise program for early September 2006, the section Dijon to Saint Jean and Tonerre to Laroche will probably remain open, but I think you'll be doing some river cruising.