After celebrating our health news on our second night at Port aux Cerises we were up in good time to see if we could get to Lagny in a day. Its difficult to tell on the river, as we wait at locks for the next commercial barge to arrive etc, and the Marne will be a whole new experience (Yay!).
As expected we waited at the first lock for a heavily loaded barge to arrive, and then suffered behind him leaving as with all that weight to transport his wash was vicious. He was super slow too (4.5kts) but suddenly put his foot down half way to the next lock, so we made good time overall.
We hadn't remembered the 'Port a l'Anglais' lock particularly leaving Paris, but it is pretty narrow (compared to the others on the Seine); another barge was waiting, and the keeper advised we could go in with them, but we had to get on with it. So the waiting barge went in on the left, not even leaving enough space for our lock mate on the right. After horn honking and arm waving they both got in, but then the guy at the back on the right didn't tie on so was drifting into the spot available for us - opposite him on the left wall, except opposite him was pretty much next to, in such a narrow space.
We tied our central line only onto a ladder as usual, and we started to lock down, accompanied by the gross mutilated corpse of a very large fish who aparently lost a fight with a propeller!
Schoolgirl error from J, who didn't make safe the line on a low enough rung at the end of the procedure as when the two barges started up their wash played havoc and we were all over the place. Lesson learned! This was our last lock on the Seine and it was not a comfortable one.
Not long later we come to the confluence of the Marne and the Seine, marked by a huge Chinese restaurant and hotel complex, and hang a right into new waters.
It seems here our guide book is really more about the tourism than the navigation, and we are lucky to have the notes passed on by Rival, which advise what VHF channel to use to contact the locks etc - not something the nav book thought pertinent. There is a waiting pontoon before the locks for pleasure boats to wait their turn at, but this time it was taken by a lovely barge Ome Jan - small, but with many crew (Dutch? Not flying any flags and all speak excellent French and English, who knows?!). We had to wait quite a while as these locks are no longer big enough for two commercials, so having arrived at 12.45, we were not through with Ome Jan until 14.00.
Next is the lock into our first tunnel! At 4m deep I can see why Ome Jan put a crew member on land to tie them on, but not envying the guy who has to shimmy up that slimy ladder! Locking out they let us past them thankfully, and we breezed the tunnel leaving them behind as we headed off.
There is a section of canal to bypass sections of the Marne which are too difficult to navigate, not super wide when you meet a commercial, and was really quite hairy when the barge in front waved us to overtake - did he realise how close we were to the lock out into the river again, where he had to wait for us to go through first?! Still, it was only 24cm deep, so not that long to wait ;-)
Houses on the banks of the Marne, and on the islands in the Marne are lovely, and many seem to have their own little ferries to take them to the 'mainland'. A pretty girl waiting on a tiny pontoon for collection by a ferry on the other side nearly got more than wet feet when we went past - under the speed limit, I might add! Oops!
And so we arrived at our planned stop, Lagny-Sur-Marne at 17.45, a relatively long day for us, but getting us time tomorrow to prepare for everything that is coming up - our first visitors!
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