Valence to Caderousse Lock

9/11/2012



After yesterday we know an early start is vital in order to get to the port at Caderousse, which requires you double back on yourself up a branch of the river 5km.

We did a pass on the Capitainerie again, with no signs of life or opening hours posted, so we had to make a move, and be satisfied with calling them later to advise of our stay and get a price confirmation to post a cheque.

We arrived at our first lock before 9am, and were told to moor to the waiting pontoon while they carried out tests, but the light went green before we were secured, and after a buzz on the VHF we were told to go in; fingers crossed they’re not testing the security of the gates!!

This lock was surreal; as big as the others with floating bollards, but you had the impression there was a new age CD of whale sounds playing in the back ground! Actually, it was the bollards as they moved down the wall in their runners, but they were all creaking and groaning!

As we left the lock the current grabbed us, and we were posting 11.7 knots on the narrower sections of the river.


At the second lock preparation had begun even before we announced our presence on the VHF, but this was to be the end of our run of Lock Luck (good while it lasted) as the guillotine gate got stuck halfway open, and the whole procedure ended up taking more than 45 minutes, as opposed to the usual 20 minutes.

Today's journey including passing in front of two nuclear power plants, their cooling towers billowing out steam, and just next to one, a little crop of wind turbines. Along witht he fact that each lock is beside a hydro-electric power station you realise that on the Rhone its all about the power!

This afternoon we faced the mammoth Bollene lock – once the deepest in the world at 26m drop, it was now only to drop us 23m (and another elsewhere dwarfs it at 42m) – no photos of this one as we filmed the speedy descent – an unbelievable turnaround time of 7 minutes! And we locked out into fog...

Gate of the Bollene lock - 23m deep!

Once the fog cleared we found ourselves facing down a hotel boat (one of the chain with lips on the front, frankly a real eyesore!) but he courteously moved over to make space even though we had already backed off to give him priority. He did reveal himself to be the type of vessel to have given us a rough night though. In this canal section we found ourselves rocking to his wake and his aftershocks for more than 15 minutes!

At 16.15 we arrived at our intended destination of St Etienne Des Sorts, whose Coopeative of wine warehouse had particularly caught Js eye, only to find that they actually remove the mooring pontoon out of season, so it was a definite no go. Onwards we go but no too happy about it!

We called ahead to the next look, as dusk approached, this time by mobile rather than the VHF; we asked if the keeper would accept that we moor to the pontoon overnight, given the imminent darkness and the time it would take to get to the port, and he kindly agreed. He advised we remain before the lock for less turbulence so we followed his advice and settled in.


As darkness fell there was the sound of engines, but no wash, and we peered out of the windows to see a double barge being pushed out of the lock by a pusher – only he was no longer moving although the engines were straining. We imagined he had run the nose into a shallow spot wand was trying to fix it, but in fact he was mooring up alongside to the commercial waiting posts. There he moored up his two barges, before detaching the pusher and disappearing into the night! With thrusters going in all directions we were still in calm waters so all boded well for a quiet night, even if we needed to run the genie for a bit to warm the boat through.