Cool start, hot and sunny all day. Poles in and planks, ropes and pins. Set off, first for a change, at ten a.m. Charley following us. We were the last two boats to leave the basin, the two before us also went in the same direction, a British cruiser and a Locaboat with British crew set off fifteen minutes before us and were just leaving lock 62 Parc (2.13m) as we arrived. Mike backed to the bank, sloping rocks and sloping grass, and said jump off to give the keeper a hand. No way was I doing that again, my leg still hurts from the pulled tendon last time, so he fetched the short light plank and I walked the plank.
The keeper was a large man n his sixties, puffing and huffing a bit as he wound the gate shut after the downhill boats had left. I closed the other gate, he indicated the paddle was already closed (ie he hadn’t opened it) and he opened the top end two paddles then went in the office on the end of an empty lock house to tell the next keeper we were coming down. I said it was warm again and he said yes, getting a lot hotter later. Busy? Yes, twenty seven boats through yesterday, ten lockfuls before lunch. He didn’t seem too happy about that. Mike brought the boat in and I put the rope on the nearest bollard which was in the wrong place and wouldn’t stop the boat from hitting the gates. I did a quick reverse to stop it and Mike chucked the rope back on the roof. He wound a paddle (it was a bit wonky and the keeper said put the ratchet on it – he said the same when I wound the top end one down and it also had a broken tooth on the cog) and opened the gate when the lock was empty. He couldn’t get the keeper to say much. Mike got back on down the ladder and we set off on a short river section keeping to the towpath side as indicated on the charts. We passed a lone fisherman, just missing the end of his rod. Back on to the canal again, 2.6 kms altogether to lock 63, Mailly-la-Ville (1.45m). An uphill private pénichette called Daeae Icunae (French flagged but probably Britsh crewed with a name like that) went past leaving the lock ready for us. The keeper was a young man and much more cheerful than the previous one. Mike did the paddles/gates and got back on down the ladder. We had our choice of places on the pontoons, one hireboat moored at the lower end of the downstream pontoon left as we tied up. A council workman was repairing the decking on the pontoon and indicated to us to go and moor on the other pontoon. I asked how long he would be, an hour and a half, that’s OK we’ll moor here – he was only adding new screws to keep the old wooden sheets in place. Mike spotted that the fasteners he was using in a powered tool had a short section of drill so there was no need to pre-drill a hole just bang ‘em straight in. Charley turned round so we were stern to stern and his stern was protected from landing bumper boats. It was 11.00 a.m. When the guy packed up work and went off to his lunch we ran the electric cables out, flinging them over the shrubs to keep them from trailing in the water as the box was up on the bank not on the pontoon. 10 Amps. I put some washing on and got on with the chores. We’d only come 3.5 kms so Mike walked back to get the car. He was back just after one p.m. as a Loca and a LeBoat came down the lock. The Loca had tied up in the lock for lunch. He said he’d gone up the towpath then scaled the railway bridge (a train had just gone past) expecting there to be a path that joined with the wide farm track we drove down to get to the basin, but there was no path! Not so many hireboats about today, the old guy at Parc lock must have just had a bad day the day before. 
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