Cambrai

After Hil’s troubles we decided to stay in Cambrai until she was better. The hospital had prescribed tablets for a week and told her to speak to her GP with a view to having a scan on her kidneys. Fortunate really, as she was due to fly back at the end of June to visit her GP in any case. So, the die was cast and we booked a months berthing with the Capitainieré. Not bad really, as the €10 per night reduced to only €3.

The Port du Pleasance at Cambrai is lovely. If you can forget that it is really an overflow pool for the local canal (and all that comes with that), it really is a pleasant place to stay. The pool is quite large and comprises of a stone quay around one side, ending at a road bridge, and then recommencing as a grassed area towards the entrance that forms a spit between the Port and the canal. The stone quay is the mooring side and is equipped with electric pods giving 16 amps. The grassed area opposite serves as an overflow with only one pod but, when we arrived, there were four boats already on here as the main quay was lined with boats and barges, some rafted. A total of perhaps, 16 boats.

Cambrai Port du Pleasance

After spending two nights on the diesel cum water quay at the entrance (diesel here being €1.50 per litre – no I didn’t buy any, the local garage was only €1.28), we moved over the quay and rafted to plug in our electric. In time we slotted into our own quayside berth. The quayside is cobble-stoned and tree-lined. Within 30 paces of the boat is a restaurant/café, with a bar a few paces further. Within a five minute walk is an Aldi, a Lidl and a chip shop (well, fritterie) a little further. All basic amenities close at hand.

As Hil got better, we ventured further and crossed the bridge leading up into the town. A good 40-minute walk for us old ones to the centre-ville, but, as with all French city’s, it’s the place where everything can be found. I was surprised how large the place was, and how old some of the buildings were, clearly a place of history. Apparently (useless knowledge for you), Cambrai was the scene of the first WW1 tank battle, and St Gery’s church still has the bullet holes in its outer walls! We had some lovely meals in the centre-ville, and lunches, and coffee’s. I must say that steak tartar is not the same as in the UK. Having ordered what I thought was a beefsteak with a tartar sauce all over, it came back as rare-cooked, chopped beef and veggies with a topping of a raw egg! Not what I expected, but looks can be deceiving, as it tasted pretty good.

Cambrai l’Hotel de Ville

Over time British, French, Belgium and Dutch, came and went and we got to know the long-stayers quite well, particularly the Welsh barge and Scottish narrow boat. A couple of English motor boaters had over wintered in Cambrai, using their car to travel back and forth, and had a good time. They were now moving on to find another winter berth further south.

A couple of problems have cropped up while I’ve been here. Firstly, I have found that internet access by dongle is not as good as I had expected. I hadn’t changed mine to roaming (the dongle program manager said I had, but Orange disagreed), which can only be done within the UK. And, with Orange at least, the roaming data rates are vastly different, changing from £10 per Gb in the UK to £4 per Mb on roaming. Orange in France do a little better at €9 per 250 Mb, but you need a French address to purchase one – local canal won’t do. Luckily there are free wifi hotspots in the cities, in addition to the usual MacDonald’s etc. SFR (the French Vodafone) is the one I’m using (having been given the access codes) but there is a Free WiFi and Orange (if you can pick it up). I tried to register with ‘Free’ but they wouldn’t take ‘Port du Pleasance’ as an address. I intend to rely on wifi as we travel down – but this may change.

Camping Gaz is also a problem. I have always found in French ports and marinas that Gaz was most easily available. Away from the coast, the smaller sizes used by yotties are relegated to the local B & Q (Monsieur Bricolage over here), whereas the larger sizes are in abundant in variety everywhere you go, or so it seems.

You may remember that I had been having overheating problems with my engine. I was also concerned about the excessive smoke being emitted. In fact, it became a bit embarrassing, as whenever I started up, the poor boat behind disappeared in a cloudy haze. I’d been having thoughts about the problem for sometime but was struggling to find an answer, particularly as no faults were obvious in all the recent work I had done to her. I found an old printout describing injector pump faults, a leftover from the time I’d taken the pump and injectors off for servicing. In the blurb was advice on re-setting the pump timing. When I’d removed the pump, the ‘scribed line’ on the pump housing, the one obtained by special tool blah blah to set the timing, was missing. I think there had once been a riveted plate bearing this ‘scribed line’ but this had long since gone. I’d made by own mark before removal, and was now wondering whether this had been correct – perhaps the overhaul had changed the setting somehow. The method in the article suggested rotating the pump a millimetre at a time until the engine ran smoothly. Since I was at a loss to come up with an alternative solution, I decided to give it a go. Well, after several attempts, bingo! No smoke! It appears that the timing was, on my scale, 2mm advanced, so the exhaust valves were opening before combustion was complete. She even sounded spot-on. Perhaps his was the fault all along – I hope so.

Hil flew back home for the third week of June to sort out her medical appointments. We found a good deal with Flybe, but it meant taking the train to Charles de Gaulle Airport and flying to Birmingham from there. A little more expensive than the alternatives, but a much simpler (and quicker) travel-plan. Within a few days of her return, we were once again transforming the ‘caravan’ into a boat fit for the canal.

On Sunday 3^rd July, we set off from Cambrai heading up the St Quentin Canal towards the Grand Souterrain – a 5.7km (3½ mile) tunnel where boats are towed, in convoy, from one end to the other!