Maxilly to Piepape

Monday 18 July

We managed 13 locks and 1 automatic bridge this day.  The automatic bridge refused to open so I telephoned the vnf man who said it was broken but someone was coming, and at that moment a young man drove up in a van and lifted it for us.  We are most impressed by the service provided by the vnf.  There are little vans that run up and down the tow path, checking that everything is alright and they sort things out quickly if there’s a problem.  Most of the locks operate with the ‘telecommande’ remote, which you click when about 300 metres from the lock and that sets the operation in motion.   A few were automatic which means the operation is activated when the boat passes a radar beam.  At our first automatic, nothing happened.   I phoned the vnf man and he asked if we were a small, plastic boat.  Well, that sounds so dismal, but I agreed that we were.  He said, that’s the problem and you will have this problem all the way up.  Don’t you have a reflector?  Ah, yes.  We grabbed our reflector out of the locker and waved it at the radar beam and Voila, the green light went on.

The locks are endlessly challenging - slimy, weed laden, spider web laced metal ladders almost always on the opposite side to the operating mechanism, badly positioned bollards and sometimes turbulent water.  Mike holds the boat against the wall by the ladder and I clamber up (very carefully) hauling both ropes, slip them round one or preferably, if possible, two bollards, pass Mike’s rope back to him, snub mine off and then walk across the bridge to the other side, lift the blue rod, scuttle back across the bridge and take my rope, then hold on tight whilst the lock fills.  The ‘telecommande’ remote control locks are easier because I can use the remote to activate the process and don’t have to cross the bridge and lift the blue rod.  It’s a tiring, dirty business but we are becoming quite proficient.  Every day we bless our new fat fenders which hold the boat quite steady.   The canal is full to overflowing so the rain has finally made some real difference. 

Just after the lock at St Seine, and as we were beginning to worry about finding somewhere for the night because there was nothing marked on our chart, we found a small picnic mooring (PK197) scarcely big enough for one boat and tied up in another torrential downpour.  Half an hour of heavy rain was followed by brilliant sunshine for about an hour, then it clouded over again and has remained cloudy, occasionally drizzling.

Tuesday 19 July

Next morning, still gloomy and cold, we set off and only had six locks to our next stop at Cusey (PK 181) an extremely nice Halte Nautique free with electricity and water, where once again we arrived in torrential rain.  Rain is good but we’re getting a bit weary of it now.

There is a small mobile home functioning as a restaurant open midday and evening serving salads and snacks, but although there were four boats here, none of us availed ourselves of their services (which I felt was a shame).  We took a walk into the little village but found absolutely nothing commercial – there’s the inevitable church and Mairie and I saw a post box, but that’s it.  The New Zealand sailing boat, Isis, took their bikes on a long search of various villages in the area and found not one shop.  Isis has a very long mast and trail a dinghy, making them a bit unwieldy, and they also have 1.8m draught so they get grounded rather often.  They are a laid back and resourceful bunch, particularly their teenage son Sam, and they manoeuvre their way out of all sorts of mishaps. 

Wednesday 20 July

Once again it was gloomy and cold, but we set off at 11 am and took in 11 locks.  Along the way, in the middle of a lock manoeuvre, we were approached by a lady from the lock keeper’s house and sold a jar of Acacia Honey.  It wasn’t cheap but Acacia trees are common in Zimbabwe so we know this honey.   We also admired Madame’s sense of commerce.  Although some are derelict, many of the old lock houses are now inhabited by ordinary citizens, some of whom are friendly and like to pass the time of day and others who ignore us.  I don’t get too many opportunities to practice my French any more so I chat away to anyone who will oblige.  No one has ever offered to take our lines or lift the blue rod.

Curiosity stops many people passing by in cars, on bikes or on foot, to watch the boats struggling in the locks and it’s nice to have a little chat, except when you’re having problems tying up, in which case you’d prefer not to have an audience.  I complained, quite gently, to the pretty young woman in the vnf van who’s been monitoring us for two days now about the fact that the ladder is always on the opposite side from the blue rod.  She agreed that it is totally impractical and offered as an excuse that the locks are very old – the implication being that folk were less logical back in the early 1900’s.  Basically, of course, the locks are designed for large commercial peniches and not small pleasure craft.

We arrived at the Halte Pique-Nique just beyond the lock at Piépape (PK169) at 3.30 pm.  We’d been told about this picnic spot by two yachts and assumed the depth would be good but it wasn’t and we’ve tied up with the keel firmly in the mud and our stern sticking out.  It’s a long bone jarring jump to the shore.  At least today it has not rained, though it has remained mostly cloudy and cool.  There are sunny bursts, we peel our jackets off and I get the camera out, but they never last long.  We hear it is going to stay this way till the end of the week.

Tomorrow we have a continuous chain of 11 automatic locks, which will bring us to our highest point and the last of the up locks.  We have been coming upwards since Port Saint Louis.   It is rumoured that going down is easier than coming up. 

We are hoping so.

Auxonne to Maxilly - into the canal

Bastille Day

The welcome in Auxonne had been so good and we felt so comfortable there we decided to stay for the Bastille Day celebrations.  The open air picnic planned for the evening of the 13^th became an indoor picnic in the town hall as it continued wet throughout the day.  That day the 31 foot sailing yacht Banyan came in and we met English Adrian and Giselle who have just come down the Marne to Saône canal.  We sat together at the party, each taking our own selection of food and talked about the canals.  They worried us a bit with tales of very low water and slow moving barges kicking up clouds of mud and weed, even though they draw only 1 metre. 

The rain held off for Bastille Day itself which was relatively quiet, apart from lots of jet skis and water ski boats flying up and down and a solemn parade of chanting French police.

In the morning, we took our bikes and went for an energetic cycle into the countryside.  Later, a Dutch 45 foot steel sailing yacht Heindrikje Visser arrived and berthed heavily on the mud in the shallow spot where we had grounded, and we met John (who grew up in Cape Town) and his Dutch wife Carla.  They had just come down the Canal de l’Est and with a depth of 1.75 m they assured us they had no problems and when there was a shortage of water they simply waited - eventually the VNF obligingly let sufficient water through to allow them to pass.  They all came to Forever that evening and we swapped notes on where (and where not) to stop along the way.  We exchanged our Rhône chart with Banyan for their Marne to Saône chart.

Later that night, Mike and I walked across the bridge and watched the most amazing fireworks display we’ve seen since Palma, New Year 2001/2 – remarkably fine pyrotechnics for a small town.

The next day, Friday 15^th, I asked Isabelle (Elodie’s colleague, another charming young woman) to phone the VNF for me who confirmed that there is enough water in the Marne to Saône canal, then we did a bit of shopping, bid all our new friends a fond farewell, untied our lines and headed north up the river.  One kilometre up I noticed that the raw water cooling system wasn’t operating so we went into neutral whilst Mike sorted it out (he’d cleaned the filter the previous day and obviously left an air lock), and then put the engine into gear again...... and nothing happened.  No forward gear.  Reverse would work, but not forward.

We had no choice then but to reverse back the way we’d come – very comical I’m sure and we got a few funny glances.  Steering in reverse is weird and difficult so we decided to tie up initially against a large barge Jake, owned by Peter, and Mike was doing very well and until the last moment when things went a bit pear-shaped, though not tragically.  Another Dutchman, Dick, came to help us and then Peter spotted us and he came out to help, and then Adrian came along and joined in and, with a little help from our friends, eventually got rafted up against Jake. 

Peter came aboard and we all had a cup of tea and discussed our options.  Then South African John arrived and he and Mike took a good look at the gear box, poked about, tried forward gear – and it worked!  Later Mike dived to check the propeller which was clear and we all decided that whatever had been blocking it was now removed (perhaps by a kilometre of reversing). 

We sat drinking a few beers on Heindrikje Visser that afternoon and every time a ski boat shot past and rocked the boat she would clunk onto her steel bottom with a thud.  Later on though, the water level became very high and the boat floated and we took heart that the rain had lifted the level of the river.  We spent a sociable evening with John, Carla and Peter.

Next morning, we once more did the rounds to say goodbye only to find Heindrikje Visser, happily floating last night, was now sitting with her water line at least one foot above the water and thoroughly grounded!  Elodie said they must have opened the ‘barrage’ just beyond the bridge and let water through.  Worried that the water level would continue to drop, John wanted to get out, so Dick brought his barge, which is like a little tug with a 149 hp engine and, with Mike as crew, they managed to pull John off the mud.  The tug was a bit forceful and Heindrikje Visser swung sideways and slammed her forward hull hard against the dock, causing Elodie and I to make a cowardly leap backwards.  Carla, to her credit, stayed put and pushed her boat as best she could off the dock, but not before a long streak of paint and steel were scraped off.  A nasty moment.

After John had re-berthed further up in deeper water, we said our goodbyes again and finally left the very nice town of Auxonne. 

Goodbye waves between Heindrikje Visser and Jake.

The gear box behaved mostly well (there has been the odd delayed reaction but it always finally clicked into gear) and we passed uneventfully through Pontailler-sur-Saône and our last two Saône locks and then turned west into the Saône to Marne canal - this is still how it is described on all literature as well as the overhead banner as you enter the canal, but for some confusing reason the authorities now want to call it the Canal between Champagne and Burgundy (Bourgogne).  The canal is 224 kilometres long and includes 114 locks.

There was a new system to the locks now.  The first lock was open and the green light was on so we entered, I climbed up the ladder and we tied up.  On the dock I found the stand where there is a phone – you just press the button and it calls the vnf.  He told me to wait for a ‘telecommande’ – a small remote control box – and to call him back in 10 minutes.  Reading the instructions properly, I noticed then that we should already have lifted the blue rod before calling, so I did and the lock filled.  By then the ten minutes was up so I called again, noticing that the remote had popped out the bottom of the phone box in the interim.  I gave him our boat name and the number of the telecommande, he gave me scanty instructions and then opened the exit gates for us by remote control.  Fortunately, Adrian and Giselle had given us a leaflet with fuller instructions.

There was a second lock almost immediately which we managed without too much of a problem.  The blue rod was placed on the left side, but the ladder was on the right, so I scuttled up and then realised that the only decent bollard was on the left.  I crossed over on the bridge, Mike threw up the ropes and I tied us off.  Of course, I now wasn’t able to return to the boat so I lifted the blue rod and then remained on the dock and held my rope from up above.  That worked perfectly well and it was easy to get aboard again when the boat had risen to the top of the lock.   

Just outside this second lock at the small village of Maxilly (PK222) we found a very pleasant Halte Nautique where we stopped for two nights.  Berthing is free but electricity and water cost €3 for 3 hours.

We’d only intended to stop one night, but the rain came down heavily again that night and most of the following day so we just sat tight, read books and watched dvds.  By the tow path was a tree groaning with small sour apples, so we picked a whole lot and I’ve made a new batch of chutney - sour fruit makes good chutney.  I took a walk into the village to buy the token for electricity and found a bakery, a grocery, a fishing store, a Mairie, a church, a school and a hairdresser.  It is a very rural village.



We saw no traffic at all in either direction until late that second afternoon, when three other boats came in and shared the mooring with us for the night.   I spoke with one of the neighbours and asked him how he’d found the canal.  ‘Weedy’, was his reply.  However, he said the water level was ok and about 1.8 to 2 metres all the way.  Mike is checking the raw water filter every day.

St Jean to Auxonne

Monday 11 July

Friendly welcoming committee

We were subjected to violent thunderstorms and heavy rainfall in St Jean on Thursday and Friday, but it cleared briefly on Saturday morning so we took off.   Histoire d’Eau had a safety inspector visiting them that day and were going to have to leave the pontoon for a while so it seemed a good time for us to go. 

The lock on this stretch was our first automatic lock and we had been fully briefed by Peta and Steve on how to operate it, but our thunder was stolen somewhat by another boat in front of us with whom we shared the lock and who did all the automatic bits.  Anyhow, we could watch them and it all seemed easy enough.  Once in the lock, Mike stopped at the ladder on the left hand side and I climbed up carrying the rope (Mike and I had decided that, because of the fat fenders, we would in future only use one line at the centre of the boat) slipped it over the bollard and passed it back to Mike who held on to it.  I stayed up on the wall and watched the proceedings.  The other boat pushed the blue rod up to start the automatic process, the gates closed and the lock began to fill.   Despite being the smallest and shallowest lock yet (1.85m) the turbulence was terrific and Mike struggled to hold the boat onto the wall.  In future we will go back to using two lines and I will return to the boat, it’s safer.  I heard the lady on the neighbouring boat tell her friends that this was the ‘most exciting’ of the locks and we were pleased to hear it.

Shortly after the lock we reached the town of Auxonne where we found the usual long pontoon with electricity and water points.  After a brief, heart stopping moment of grounding on a shallow patch, we managed to find deeper water and tied up with the help of a friendly neighbour.  Shortly after, a dear young girl, Elodie, turned up and introduced herself as the welcoming committee from the tourist association of Auxonne, presented us with a map of the town and informed us of the facilities.  Berthing was free but we could pay for electricity and water at €1 for 2 hours, so we have taken a euro’s worth each day.  Elodie spoke some English and German as well as her native French and couldn’t have been more obliging, including telling off a ski motor boat for passing too close to the boats and creating an uncomfortable wake.  She sits in a little wooden building on the banks beside the pontoons, but leaps out to welcome each boat as it arrives.  It’s a summer job for her.

The town of Auxonne is old and historic with a very beautiful church ( all set out for a wedding later in the day).... 

Wierd shops  



... ancient houses....

and Napoleon...     



It has continued to rain heavily for two days, particularly Sunday so we spent practically the whole day sitting on the boat, reading and watching dvd’s.  I do hope some of this rain is falling in the north and filling up some of the rivers and canals.  Today it’s nice and sunny again.  Mike went out to buy gear box oil and we changed that, gave the boat a scrub and then we visited the Chateau and museum, Napoleon on the ground floor (he lived here for some time as a first Lieutenant at the garrison) and the history of Auxonne on the next two with this amazing Charpente at the top. 

For the first time on this trip we have made no new friends nor met up with old friends.  We are surrounded mostly by hire boats that charge in and out again very quickly.  Further up the river there is a H2O marina and we saw our German friends’ boat Carolin there, but they have gone back to Germany for a couple of weeks and were not in.

Opposite the church is the tourist office that allows unlimited wifi at €1 if you take your own computer.Good stuff.

Opposite the church is the tourist office that allows unlimited wifi at €1 if you take your own computer. Good stuff.

Chalon-sur-Saone to St Jean de Losne

Really got the hang of it now!

Tuesday 5^th July

We got going late, after a coffee at MacDonalds to use their wifi connection.  We’d planned a short hop (with no lock) to stop at Verdun sur le Doubs but when I phoned there was no space.  They said we could come in if we could tie up at our back only which we declined – not such a good idea for a sailing yacht - so we had to continue and now take in a lock.  This was no problem at all with our new fenders which worked a charm.  It had turned into a very long, hot day, though it was only 5 and a half hours travelling.  The Saône is an extremely nice, tranquil river to travel on and very rural and pretty, the banks dotted with cows, sheep and fishermen, but it lacks the dramatic beauty of the Rhône. 

There are some beautiful houses too, with their own private jetties and lawns that are beginning to look like African lawns in the winter – brown and sparse. 

However, just sitting and motoring along is tediously boring, the monotony broken by the short, stressful and physically demanding periods in the locks or when entering or leaving a marina/pontoon.  Sailing, or perhaps more specifically, boating, is a sport (if you can call it a sport) of extremes.  Long tranquil (tedious) periods interspersed by moments of extremely violent activity. 

Where possible we are trying to stop every twenty or thirty kilometres, but it all depends on the stops available.  We are rather jealous of the shallow keeled motor boats and flat bottomed barges which can just slide up to the banks and park almost anywhere they fancy.  There are lots and lots of hire boats in this section of the river and they are a bit of a menace.  Some are quite adept, know how to handle their boats and have good manners, but not all, and most privately owned boats dread having one of them parked next door or sharing a lock with them – their locking manoeuvres can be quite extraordinary. 

We finally arrived at Seurre at 5.30 pm, where we’d hoped to find a free Halte Fluvial but found the whole area has been turned into a marina.  Within minutes we were greeted by a remarkably unfriendly capitan who charged us €13 for one night including water and electricity but not showers which cost €2.60 each - presumably because of the water shortage.  (We are no longer allowed to wash our boats.)  Chalon-sur-Saône marina was much nicer with good showers included at €17. 

Paul, a friendly Belgian helped us tie up and then came aboard and we swapped notes on the canals.  He has come down the Saône and Marne canal which we intend to take, and though he has no charts he was able to give us information on good places to stop.  He said the canal is very easy, with a good level of water and almost all the stops are free.  He managed without a chart and we have decided that we will have to do the same – unless we meet someone who wants to do a swap.  Paul also warned us that Seurre was the last stop where we would get free water so we topped up our tanks (he said water costs €6 at St Jean de Losne), and that St Jean de Losne is the last good place to get diesel.  We still have pretty full tanks, but we will buy a couple of jerry cans worth.  We gave Paul all our notes on the Saône and Rhône. 

Seurre is a nice but ordinary town and in view of the cost and unwelcoming capitan we left the next day at lunch time.  A hundred yards up the canal we went into our next lock, once again without trouble.  We seem to have finally totally got the hang of these locks and for the first time I wasn’t hyperventilating as we went in.  Later in the day we were told that that was the last of that type of lock.  Ha ha.

It was only a three hour 16 kilometre journey to St Jean de Losne.  As we were coming into the town we were approached by a small motor launch with three French Gendarmes, one of whom boarded the boat to carry out a check.  A charming, handsome young man, he wanted to see our boat papers, passports, vnf vignette and driving permit (Permis Plaisance).  This last is a new requirement (by law) for all craft under 20 metres in length and one has to pass all sorts of tests to get it.  Bizarrely, as these things always are, skippers who hire a boat are not required to have one whereas all us privately owned and very experienced skippers are!  I read somewhere on the internet that if the skipper has an International Licence or something from his home country then that will do, and as Mike has a Skippers Licence from South Africa, we produced that.  I pointed out that it included some hours experience of tidal and inland waters and our Gendarme was perfectly happy – good man. 

However, he wasn’t so happy with our very aged (never serviced) fire extinguishers and made a report insisting that we replace just one at the soonest possible.  He also wasn’t too happy with our life jackets but he let that pass.  There’s nothing wrong with our life jackets, they’re just old.  After a happy little chat in French and English he shook our hands and left the boat.  Upon arrival in St. Jean de Losne we went to the hardware store and bought a new extinguisher for €30 (groan) and then presented ourselves at the Gendarmerie Fluviale where we found the same delightful chap and showed it to him plus the receipt.  Back at the boat we took the old one off and before chucking it we tried it – worked perfectly, of course!

We couldn’t find space on the quay in town so carried on a little and saw a large barge tied to a pontoon outside a camping and restaurant area.  There was space ahead of the barge so we went in but hit bottom just before the pontoon and Mike pulled back.  The Australians on the barge (Histoire d’Eau – great name) came out and very kindly offered to let us moor against them which we did.  We’d met them, Peta and Steve, at Macon.  They had helped us tie up as we came in and introduced themselves but they’d left the next day and we hadn’t seen them again.  Very nice people, we went aboard (I’d been dying to get inside one of these big barges – lovely and spacious inside) and had a cup of tea with them, then again in the evening we all had drinks on Forever.

St Jean de Losne is a central spot for various canals and home to the ‘Le Boat’ hire company.  There is a marina here where many boats are left for the winter and there are boat yards and chandleries providing the necessary services.  The town is very nice and I’ve found a laverie where I did a big wash including bed linen. 

Friday 8^th July

We had a very enjoyable evening with Peta and Steve – aperitifs on Forever followed by a shared dinner  of paella on Histoire d’Eau, drinking port till the early hours. 

The view of St Jean from Forever.

We have one more stop at the town of Auxonne, then we’ll pass Pontailler-sur-Saône  and turn west into what they now call the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne (224 Kilometres and 114 locks), which will take us up to Vitry-le-Francois and then we join the Canal Lateral a la Marne (67 Kilometres and 15 locks) to Conde and a brief part of another canal to Epernay and the Marne River to Paris (182 Kilometres and 18 locks). 

The black stars mark Port Saint Louis  in the south, Lyon where we left the River Rhône, St Jean where we are now and nearly the end of our journey on the River Saône, Epernay at the end of the canal, Paris at the end of the River Marne, Le Havre at the end of the River Seine and finally Carentan across the channel in Normandy.  As you see, most of our trip is in the rivers with only one canal.

Macon to Chalon-sur-Saone

Happy Happy Days

We spent a very pleasant three days (you’re not allowed to stay longer), in almost perfect weather, on the free Halte Fluvial pontoon in Mâcon with good friends Willem and Renate on Acquarel.  Ren is a gifted artist.  She has a book of their travels which she illustrates with her wonderful drawings.  She very kindly drew a sketch of Mike and me to put into our scrapbook.  We are very honoured.

On Saturday the 2^nd of July we browsed round the most wonderful market we’ve yet seen, bought a local cheese and saucisson sec (both delicious), as well as vegetables and fresh bread.  Our journey to Tournus was uneventful and happily without a lock.  We arrived at lunch time with Acquarel right behind us and once again tied to a town pontoon, free with water and electricity.  We are very impressed with the facilities that are available on the Saône for boats – there are plenty of them and usually free, though one can only stop for two or three days. 

Tournus is a charming town with a particularly beautiful old Abbey, l’Abbaye de St Philibert - a masterpiece of Romanesque art from the 11^th and 12^th centuries, according to my leaflet.  The light inside was wonderful.

Wandering around the town on Saturday afternoon, we found a local fete celebrating a bygone age, everyone in old costumes, performing ancient arts and crafts, singing and music.  Very funny. 

Our 13^th wedding anniversary is today 4^th July, but since it is a Monday and many French restaurants are closed on Mondays, we decided to have our dinner out on Sunday night in Tournus.  Our dear friends Ren and Willem came by with a bunch of flowers for our anniversary and to say goodbye as they were leaving that day and taking a different path to us. 

We took a long walk later in the day and found what looked like a small restaurant in the town called Le Bourgogne, made a reservation for later and went back to the boat for a couple of aperitifs.  Returning at 8pm, we found the restaurant packed (thank goodness we’d booked) and were placed in a large room at the back.  We chose a three course menu for €15 which was the cheapest we’d seen.  Mike had herrings with potato and olive oil and I had a salad with poultry livers – things I would never think of preparing and neither of us would have chosen except for the limitations of the menu but both were delicious.  We both had a Jaret de porc (slow cooked pigs knuckle, same sort of thing as braised oxtail) with potatoes, I took the cheese board (Madame was exceedingly generous and gave me four large slices which Mike helped me with) and Mike had two scoops of chocolate ice cream.  The usual baskets of fresh bread and carafes of water and we had a pichet (50cl) of good Beaujolais wine all for €39!  We ate so much we thought we’d pop and everything was utterly, utterly divine.  Excellent choice of restaurant.

We have looked at property magazines and found a few likely looking farm houses to restore with land in our price range and got quite excited ... but have been warned that it gets VERY cold here so we will forget that.  Pity.

Chatting with neighbours on a sailing boat, we discussed the problem of our boat swinging.  They pointed to their large globe-like fenders, one each hanging at the front and back of the boat with numerous smaller tubular fenders in between and said that’s what we needed.  “The fat ones at the front and back make a straight line and stop the boat swinging.”  Elemental physics, really, and we should have thought of it as most of the yachts we’ve seen have these fat round fenders front and back.  So, we bought two – expensive, but worth it.  We left Tournus this morning for the marina at Chalon-sur-Saone and had to pass through one lock.  Admittedly, it was a small lock (2.6 metres) but Forever sat snug and firm against the wall - what a difference those two fenders made.  We are very pleased with ourselves.

Here we are in Chalon – one big fender at the back

The really unfortunate news though is that Harry has phoned us to say that a boat (1.8m depth) he knows who has already passed through the Canal du Centre and is half way up the Canal Lateral de la Loire has been turned back due to lack of water in the canals.  We feel so sorry for them to have travelled so far and now be turned back.  He says anything over 1.6 m is being turned back and we are 1.67m so that’s us scuppered.  It is not a disaster, it just means that we have to take another route – for us this will be the Saone and Marne which so far are OK, and thank goodness we found out now and not after starting along the Canal du Centre.  We can;t get offic ial confirmation from themarina here which |I think is very bad.  The VNF should advise all marinas who should advise all sailing boats.  Anyway.  All our charts are for the three central canals and we have nothing for the Saone and Marne.  Now we are madly chatting up everyone trying to swap charts.

I'm sitting with a coffee in MacDonalds, using their free wifi.  Off to Verdun sur Doubs now.

The Saône – Lyon to Mâcon

Lovely days!

Lyon is extremely nice and we had a good time here.  After our officially permitted 4 days in the marina (though we could have stayed longer) we prepared to leave, doing a bit of shopping at the Lidl nearby.  We left after lunch, saying hello to Harry and Denny (Malua) who arrived as we were about to go, and started up the Saône River, weaving slowly through the city of Lyon, which is very big.  We are not good tourists and had not visited the old part of the city, but we could see quite a bit of it from the boat.

After 17 kilometres, at a place called Couzon-au-Mont-d’Or we met our first lock.  Our guide informed us that most of the locks in the Saône were automatic and then proceeded to give instructions on how to operate an automatic lock.  We’d all studied these instructions and thought we’d got the hang of it, sort of. 

Well, of course, it wasn’t automatic and having hung around for a bit wondering when the radar spotter was going to get things going, we noticed water gushing out of the lock and both red and green lights were showing (meaning the lock is currently emptying).  We waited, and finally the gates opened, no boat came out but the light went to green only.  Go – I said to Mike.  So we started to enter and then someone whistled and when we saw him, it was the man in the lock house waving life jackets at us.  Life jackets are obligatory in the locks but since we thought it was an automatic we’d hoped to get away without.  I rushed downstairs and we put them on, now in a bit of a panic.  It was only a 4 metre lock but I’d spotted bollards set on the quay way up at the top and we are down at the bottom.  I tell Mike to bring the side of the boat to this long slimy greenish black ladder, grab both our ropes and start to climb.  Once again a whistle, and the lock keeper wags his finger at me and shouts no climbing the ladder – use the bollards.  We now notice there are bollards set into the walls of the lock.  They don’t float, like in the Rhône, but there are three - one right up high which we can’t reach, one in the middle and one low near the water line.  We picked the middle one and after a bit of faffing around on one bollard we noticed there was another set further along, so we managed to fix one line each from the back and the front to each bollard and got the boat settled.  The gates had already closed, water started to gush in and the boat began to rise slowly.  The turbulence wasn’t too bad and everything was going fine, but the higher we rose the lower the bollards holding our ropes were.  Once well below the water level, Mike’s rope slipped off the bollard.  Horrors!  Thank goodness it was his end because he is strong.  We were quite high by then and could reach the slightly curved lip at the top of the lock.  Mike grabbed this lip with both hands and clung on, keeping the front end of the boat against the wall.  Finally the lock was full, the water settled and the gates started to swing open.  We hauled our ropes in and exited with relief, but confident that we could now handle these locks.  Next time we would use the boat hook to try and reach the top bollards.

We continued motoring pleasantly, but under a very hot sun, through pretty countryside.  Here’s a boat very well prepared for his touring needs – why bother with a dinghy when you can get a car on board?

Late in the afternoon, we reached the recommended stop at Trévoux, at the 31 kilometre marker.  The Halte Fluvial here is managed by a camping site and the charge was €5 per day including water and electricity.  It was a very nice spot and we found friends we’d met in Lyon – Dutch, English and Swedish.  Evening brought blessed relief from the sun and we spent a quiet and pleasant evening. 

The next day we visited the lovely town of Trévoux, bought post cards and some fruit and sat over a cool beer on the terrace of a bar near the water’s edge.   

The day continued so hot that we took cushions and sat under the trees on the bank to get a bit of breeze.  That evening Mike and our Dutch neighbours went swimming, bravely I thought, in the river which is not as clean as one would like to imagine.  Refreshing, anyway.

Later on clouds built up and in the morning there was a brief but tremendous bout of thunder and lightning followed by a shower of rain.  It didn’t last, but the day remained cool and cloudy, so we set off at about 10am intending to travel about 24 kilometres to Belleville.  However, Belleville mooring was crowded, so we continued another seven kms and got to our second lock at Dracé.  Quite confident we knew what we were doing this time around, we entered this lock of only 3.2 metres quite fearlessly, only to find that the bollards, though the same structure as the previous one, were set much further apart.  With the best will in the world we couldn’t use two, so we tied ourselves with two ropes to the one bollard in the same fashion as we had done in the Rhône.  Stressful.  Sailboats have such a curved shape that they swing badly, no matter how tight you hold the ropes and our solar arch at the back is very vulnerable.  Once again, it got bashed, but survived the experience and so did we.  Though not much fun, these locks are infinitely preferable to those in the Rhône.

We carried on, through lovely countryside and in pleasantly cloudy conditions looking for somewhere to stop and decided on a nice looking place called Crêches-sur-Saône which had been recommended by Irish friends in a motor boat.  Bearing in mind that motor boats have very low draught and can moor just about anywhere, we entered very cautiously, watching the depth sounder.  It dropped to two metres and then began to flash between 1 and 2 just as we scraped our bottom.  Mike back off quickly churning up a cloud of mud and we got out of there. 

After that there was only the large town of Mâcon at the 80 kilometre marker.  We’d been recommended spots in the centre of the town (again by motor boats) but we are still very afraid of tying up against town walls, so I phoned the marina which is a kilometre or so beyond Mâcon.  The man quoted me €15+ per night with €2+ for electricity and we decided to go for it but not bother with electricity – our batteries are still in immaculate condition.   However, passing through the town we saw a bunch of yachts tied up on a pontoon so we went over and snuck into the last available space.  There are no facilities but it is free, seems safe, is right in the centre of town and we are surrounded by friends again.

Over cups of tea with Bob and Brenda (motor boat Kandalishka) we were pleased to hear they find the locks equally stressful as their boat, though a motor boat, also swings badly and they spend their entire time fighting off the lock walls.  Bob had a nasty scrape on his hand to prove the point.   Amazingly, Bob and Brenda were in Finike, Turkey, the year after we were there and are well acquainted with a number of our old friends from Finike.  The evening was pleasantly spent over a few glasses of wine with Ren and Willem (motor boat Acquarel) and young (15 year old) Sam from the NZ boat Isis. We are assured by everyone that the locks are all different and we must be prepared for any eventuality. Great.   

We’ve just had lunch time drinks on Kandalashka and now we have found the Mediatheque, which is a full on library.  Internet access, sitting in a quiet comfortable room on the second floor at a desk, is free for as long as I want.  Perfect.

Les Roches-de-Condrieu to Lyon

A Very Good Day

Jean Pierre and Jacqueline drove all the way from south of Montpelier to Les Roches de Condrieu to visit us.  They arrived in driving rain, and JP was not feeling well, so they did not stay long.  However, we had a good chat and it was really good to see them again.  We have promised (threatened) to take them up on their offer to visit them at their farm sometime in the future.  They were shocked to hear our tales of woe and JP who is a lawyer will write to the CNR (Compagnie Nationale du Rhône) to complain about the speed boat that caused our damage, and the underwater wall that we and Malua hit in St Vallier.

The fact is that Forever is too delicate a boat for this type of trip.  She is perfect out at sea, but not designed for these inland waters.  Most of the boats in the canals are squared off motor boats, flat bottomed (it’s our keel that causes us to swing about so much in the turbulence) and with very low draught.  And many of the other sailing boats we have encountered, have no mast to contend with, no solar arch and a strong steel toe rail.  Even if they had been banged on the quay wall they would not have suffered as much damage as poor old Forever has. Some boats we’ve seen have really scruffy steel or concrete hulls which are absolutely perfect.  I deeply regret all the work we put into Forever’s hull, topsides and toe rail – what a waste of time!

Today, Thursday 23 June we had a very good day – no problems with the locks.  The first , Vaugris (only 6.7 metres) was beautiful and no problem at all, the Second Pierre-Bénite ( 11.8 metres) was ok and the normal turbulence, but we managed fine.  Our timing at both locks was perfect and we never had to wait at all.  Unplanned, we made the whole journey in company with a Swedish yacht and a French yacht.  The French one (Gazouille) was manned by a single hander with whom we became quite friendly and chatted along the way – he made all the contacts with the ecluse and kept us informed.  He was very casual in the locks – having tied himself off (not without difficulty) he would disappear below for the entire filling time, presumably to make himself a drink or something to eat.  Being alone, this was the only time he could leave the cockpit and he took advantage.  The rest of us stood on our decks, worrying about swinging.

We are delighted to get to Lyon and so very pleased to leave the Rhône.  Here we come to the Confluence of the two rivers – the Rhône to the right and the Saône to the left.

We’d been told about the new marina in Lyon and went straight there.  Brand new, the marina is built into a dug out canal off the river and there’s a low bridge at the entrance which the Capitain will come and lift if you call him on VHF18.  The man in charge on that day was a charming and helpful young man, with the unlikely name of Cyril, who speaks perfect English.  He spent many years in the UK (mostly it seems in Bucks) running restaurants.  It’s an oddly designed marina with the smallest pontoons you’ve ever seen – even Forever, which is smaller than many of the boats in here, is twice as long as the pontoons.  However, it is quite reasonable at €12 per night, including water and electricity and showers, but no washing machines or wifi (boo hoo).  We have booked four nights. 

Friday 24 June

Though our trip to Lyon was pleasant and uneventful we’d noticed a leak of water in the salt water pump which worried us.  On Friday Mike had a look and decided he needed some Volvo spare parts.  Unable to find a Volvo dealer, we called a mechanic – a young chap called Karl who turned out to be originally English.  He came by, helped take the pump apart, ordered the parts and returned the next day with them.  He helped Mike put the whole thing together again – perfect.  It was an unhappily expensive little operation (as these things always are), but Karl was helpful and his side of the bill was very acceptable.  Later, we walked into the town of Lyon (the marina is well placed to the centre of town and various shops, including Lidl and a good bakery) and did some shopping, bought ourselves some new sunglasses and checked out the MacDonalds which has free wifi.

The other yachts in the marina are mostly very friendly and we have passed three merry evenings over numerous glasses of wine with two Dutch motor boats, one Swedish yacht and one English barge discussing where next to go, travelling the canals (everyone agrees the Rhône is the worst), life in France, and our trip around the world.  We may have one of the smaller and definitely the scruffiest looking boat but we are everyone’s heroes, having sailed around the world. 

Our Dutch neighbours (Valerie and Marcel), on a palatial motor boat, very kindly took our bed linen and washed it in their washing machine and then dried it on their enormous deck.

Saturday was very festive in the marina with lots of market stalls selling ice cream, farm produce, wine tastings, barbequed sausage and chips, etc.  There were children’s playgrounds, kids kayaking and learning to ski in the canal beyond the marina and a lot of live music.   That night there was a big party on the quay and we went along after dinner joining Lindsay and Mike from the English barge.  At about midnight there was a bonfire when an effigy of St Jean was burned (we presume Joan of Arc who was burned at the stake).  It was a wonderful evening, till 3 am next morning, and we met loads of French people, including a gorgeous bunch of youngsters.

Sunday we have hangovers, but worth it for such a good evening.  Valerie and Marcel, who don’t drink, are very smug.  We will leave tomorrow and hope to keep meeting these same people along the way, as we are all travelling up.