Learning
Friday, April 17, 2009 at 09:31AM One of the things we've done recently was to go on a barge handling course in France. There were a couple of reason behind this. The first is that Misterton is much bigger than the narrowboat we've previously been used to, and therefore the potential for damage is much greater. Secondly, we do have long term plans to take her to Europe one day, so this would be a taster of things to come (hopefully). I sold the concept to Mary with the idea of French sunshine and cuisine. Of course it was cold and wet and the food wasn't great, but hey, its the thought that counts.
There was another couple on the course, Ken and Rhonda from New Zealand and Australia. they'd already proved their worth by arriving at the course in their own barge (shown below)!
The instructor's barge was only slightly smaller than Misterton, so it was good to learn about how to manoeuvre and steer a ship of this size. We were shown how to correctly enter locks and throw ropes onto bollards etc. It sounds fairly easy, but in reality it wasn't. We were split into obvious teams, with Mary steering and me doing the ropes and then the same for Ken and Rhonda. Mary even looks like she was enjoying it, possibly as she was sheltered from the rain and I wasn't.
The canal/river we were on was unusually busy, due to the temporary closure of a much bigger waterway nearby. As a result the 'smaller' French and Belgian commercial barges were all around us.
The picture above shows a loaded one going past. Drakar in the photo below is unloaded and can only just make it under the bridge before the lock.
The car on the roof of this one gives an idea of scale.
At the end of the two days, we had a written test on the CEVNI signs - basically the European equivalent of the highway code. We all passed, and in conjunction with the practical work means that we now have our ICC of International Certificate of Competence for inland waterways craft of us to 24m. In reality, like passing your car test, its just the beginning of learning.......
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