Le Canal Lateral al la Marne - Part 2 Covers November 12 to 16, 2000 We left Chalons-en-Champagne (48 57.2N, 004 21.4E) at 0745 after early breakfast of coffee, tea, and fresh croissants and pain au chocolat from a nearby boulangerie. The weather was grey and misting, but with little wind. An advantage of going up these lateral canals is that there is no current, and we can go along at 5 knots as opposed to the 3 or 4 knots against the river current. We did 8 self-operated locks and 18 nautical miles, arriving at the Port de Plaisance at Vitry-le-François by 1630. It was closed, but we got into the finger docks by plowing a furrow along the bottom. However, we were quite concerned as for the last mile or two we had very little water pumping through our engine and were worried that the red warning light and buzzer would come on. We used minimal revs to negotiate the last bit and spent a frantic time trying to clear the line after we were alongside. No luck! The old dinghy pump down the water strainer line did not do the trick. We were looking for a plumber’s snake to thread down the opening to clear it. I found a "Bricomarche", similar to a "Home Depot" back home, but the only snake they had was too large for the opening. I even bought a length of stiff industrial wire to scour down it, but it was not able to negotiate the curves in the line. We phoned a repair facility for barges, Atelier Navale, just along the canal from where we were. The representative sent up did not have any tool that would thread through either, and suggested that, if we didn’t get it cleared by next day, we take Veleda to their location a kilometer up the canal and they would blast through it with a high pressure hose. Trying to clear it consumed the rest of the day, without any success. The next day we hoped we would be able to plow our way out again and get to their bank side repair yard without the engine overheating. Thankfully, the water level in the canal had not gone down, or we would have been stuck. We nervously went out, ready to shut off the engine and if necessary use Sprite as a towing vessel. However, the water seemed to be pumping OK! It had spontaneously cleared itself since our last attempts the previous evening. We went alongside the repair yard anyway and thanked them for their offer of assistance, and asked if we owed anything. No problem, and we could stay there until next day if we wished. We did, as Judy had to take the train back to Paris to pick up our computer which was in for repair. It gave me a chance to have Veleda to myself for the day, and to explore the town a bit. I filled our jerry cans with diesel (Gaz-oil) and when she returned later that day, Judy got a small wooden box to stand on while steering Veleda so she could see the water ahead to avoid floating debris, and we got a new type of coal, processed lignite in bars, packaged in one foot square cubes. These cubes were more convenient as they took up less space than the 25 kilo bags of coal, and could be left on deck until needed without leaking coal dust, as they were securely wrapped in stiff plastic. I would break up each bar into three pieces, keeping our small coal scuttle filled, and they burned quite well. Vitry-le-François is a pleasant town with all the amenities for shopping and supplies. It is at the junction of three canals; the Canal Lateral a la Marne which we had just come up, Canal de la Marne au Rhin, going over to the Rhine River in Germany, and the one we were going to take, the Canal de la Marne a la Saone, to get into the Saone and Rhone rivers. As a result the town has good repair facilities, and Bourse headquarters for co-ordinating barge cargoes. The facilities are cruiser friendly, and we found the people there most helpful. We liked Vitry-le-François. We left at 1000 next day, November. 15, a grey dull day, motoring until near dark at 1600, to St. Dizier, during which we traveled only 15 nautical miles, but went through 12 locks of various types. On this stretch, the eclusiers again accompanied us from one lock to the next on their motorscooters, with Judy helping where she could, and with the missing bollards to complicate our entry to each lock.  I enjoyed looking at the eclusiers’ cottages at each lock, as they were all in the same two story block style, built between 1872 and 1882 as inscribed in the sill of the second story window, but each quite different as to state of repair, gardens, flower boxes, shutters, and adjoining yards with or without livestock. Some were quite barren, so that it was hard to identify if the cottage was presently being lived in. Others were quite homey, with gaily painted shutters, sparkling clean windows, lawn ornaments of elves, anchors, or wooden dinghies brimming with foliage, geese penned up in the side yard, stacks of wood ready for the winter, awnings or full verandahs or sun rooms covering the three steps up to the front entrance, flower boxes with varying levels of plant life, and children’s toys, tricycles and swings littering the front or side lawns.  One of the houses was evidently deserted and open, so of course I had to explore it. The front entrance led directly into a large living room with a fireplace on the inner wall, and a kitchen off to the left. These two rooms constituted the main floor. From the kitchen a stair went up to two spacious bedrooms with walk-in closets. There had been vandalism, and debris was scattered all around. From the kitchen there was a back entrance outside and down to a full dry basement with concrete floors, and broken up into several smaller rooms for wood storage, possibly a furnace of some type, and storage areas for whatever.  Most of these houses were isolated, located outside of towns with only the canal roads linking them to the next lock or the local community. However, although over 125 years old many still housed eclusiers and their families. We went into the Port de Plaisance in St. Dizier, where we hooked up to electricity and topped up our water tanks, paying only 40 ff (£4.00, or $8.00 Canadian.). We were aground in soft mud, but managed. Perhaps we could have stayed on the banks free of charge but for such a minimal price it was not worth the bother. The town was a long single main street with a wide range of shops for food supplies and interesting narrow side streets fronted by ancient row houses in varying states of decrepitude. It was a pleasant stopping point for the night. We left at 0830 next day (November 16) for another long hard seven and a half hour day of motoring, to do only 18 nautical miles but pass through 15 locks to Joinville (48 26.6N, 005 08.7E), heading south at last instead of east! We met no other vessels at all that day, and stayed just beyond a bridge near the downtown, allowing us a pleasant walk through the town before dark. We had to calculate the distances we could make each day to arrive at a civilized location and to anticipate where we would be for a Sunday when the locks were closed. Joinville was OK.  Next Log