After a fairly chilled morning, we were cast off by the 'Tracker' crew at midday; unfortunate timing since we had no idea the 'automatic' locks letting us out of the port were still closed from 12 til 1 - a lock's gotta eat, dont you know!??!
Apair of Danish honeymooners were stuck on the other side, and kindly let us up first (as the water was already in our favour), and we helped out by activating the lock for them from their side, saving them from a reverse procedure back to the activation point.
It was a remarkably uneventful day, with not a photo taken, and remained that way until the last lock just before our planned stop. We agreed this was the laziest lock keeper we had encountered so far, making no move to catch our ropes, even though J's rope throwing still needs improvement...
Still, we helped on the gates as usual and he opened up a bit - as far as to advise that rumour was the Canal du Centre was closing on Sunday night... Errr, so much for an uneventful day!
Indeed, after mooring in the lovely spot at Fleury sur Loire, about 5 calls to various people revealed that indeed the Canal du Centre would close in 48 hours and not reopen until 2013! This didn't come from the VNF by the way - we told them about it, and on further investigation they admitted they'd been told on the 20th September, but it had slipped their minds to pass the info on!
This is a bombshell we'll have to sleep on I think, and as Fleury boasts a little quayside resto and bar, we took advantage!
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