24/9/2012
Today : 18 locks in 21 km !
We had informed the last lock keeper
yesterday we were heading off at about 10.00 not realising another couple were
tagging on our lock cycle, so were surprised at the knock on the door at 10.20
in the driving rain asking if we were planning to leave or not ! Nice
French couple on an 11m Linssen, but as his side thrusters were out of whack he
asked to follow us into the locks (getting himself the easy ride!)
We set off together at 10.40 into two sets
of 3 manned locks – same keeper travelling between locks. In the second set the
keeper pushes us on to the second in the series before breaking for lunch –
which turns out to be where he lives!
We push right off at 1 after getting plenty
of info from our travel mates who are from further down the canals in the
direction we’re heading (Digoin) and reach the last in that series all of 500m
later! Our new friends are calling it a day, so time to say goodbye and slog on
alone – and slog we did!
The rain had cleared some, but the wind had
really picked up, with the VNF declaring it a ‘yellow day’ – travel with care.
Then we got to a serious chain of 5 locks, starting in Rogny les 7 Ecluses –
where there used to be seven, but they were bypassed by 5 ‘modern’ ones in the
1800s.
Once you do one in the chain you have to finish it, so despite the wind pushing us all over the place we had to keep going on the up – more than 20m jump over a distance of 1km which took us 1hr05... This was with a particularly bumptious keeper, who took our lines and then got back in his van – no way was he helping! Really challenging driving, and very thankful for all our fenders! And let’s face it, those strips of brass running the length of the boat are called ‘rubbing strakes’ for a reason ;-)
Once you do one in the chain you have to finish it, so despite the wind pushing us all over the place we had to keep going on the up – more than 20m jump over a distance of 1km which took us 1hr05... This was with a particularly bumptious keeper, who took our lines and then got back in his van – no way was he helping! Really challenging driving, and very thankful for all our fenders! And let’s face it, those strips of brass running the length of the boat are called ‘rubbing strakes’ for a reason ;-)
We are now on the plateau, having only
travelled upwards, so it’s time to cut our teeth on a downwards lock, but again
no choice how many as we’re straight into another chain of 5.
Not so bad, even though the wind is still
blowing, and that chain only took 50 minutes!
One more automatic lock to go and we
reached our planned mooring spot (again, free water and electricity), exhausted
but satisfied! We even got a helping hand with the mooring lines from a Brit
who looked scarily like Peter Stringfellow but we didn’t chat much – in fact A
had a quick nap before dinner!!
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