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| Gantry and pull cord for auto locks to Decize & Loire (off to the left) |
3.0°C cold night, glad of the coal fire overnight! Clear blue skies, sunshine all day, chilly at first warming up to mid twenties later. A hireboat came up the automatic lock and turned right heading down the canal, we set off just afterwards at 9.20 a.m. heading uphill. A couple of kilometres to the first lock 15 Saulx (2.57m) and the canal was steaming as the sun warmed the air over the water making miniature upside down tornados spinning into the air. The lock was full and the keeper, a lady in her forties with short dark hair, started emptying it as we arrived. In through one gate and she took a rope for us, then refilled the lock. Ten minutes and we were on the 6 kms pound. A middle aged bloke had La Mothe lock 14 (2.45m) ready with one gate open, so we were in and up in about ten minutes again. 2.7 kms to the next. Lock 13 L’Huilerie (3.50m) was ready for us. The keeper, a young man with dark hair, took my rope on the end of a boat shaft hook as it was a deep lock.
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| Moorings by VNF yard at Decize |
Noted that he had a home made extension bar to operate the gate capstan, now that’s a good idea for a heavy set of gates! His black and white collie dog looked a lot like Bill’s Fanny (see www.billybubbles.demon.co.uk) only sturdier; she was a fussy dog and kept going back and forth along the lockside between Mike and me for a fuss. We wandered slowly along the 5.7 kms long pound to time our arrival at the next lock after the keeper’s lunch break. It was five minutes after one when we arrived at lock 12 Les Vanneaux (3.20m) and the young man had both gates open. He took a rope and put the loop round a bollard for me, closed the bottom end gates then started to open a paddle on the wrong side until Mike hooted and we both shouted open the other side first please! He asked if we were continuing and I said no, staying at Gannay for a few days, we’d tell him when we were carrying on. He said it would be his colleague not him and asked if we were doing a u-turn and going back down the canal.
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| Burnt out house near L'Huilerie lock 13 |
Wonder why he asked that? No, carrying on uphill. There was one Loca in the middle of the quay, plugged into the electric and an ex-Connoisseur called Melody at the edge of the port on the grassy bank, plus a Dutch couple in a campervan had their sun loungers out on the grass, watching us as we moored. Mike winded and reversed so we were across the corner of the basin behind the Loca. We put a tyre out to stop the bows catching and wondered what would be the easiest way to get the bike off across the gap. No need to have wondered, within five minutes the hireboat had packed up and carried on uphill, trying to take the rotten wooden fendering with them as the rope that was attached to it had tangled with one of their hanging sausage fenders. We helped extricate it and pulled the remains of the old wood on to the quayside, then we bow hauled our boat back along the straight quay to the fence that separated the port from the pay moorings at Entente Marine.
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| Derelict old house near L'Huilerie lock 13 |
As we finished tying up a lady walking with the aid of a cane came over for a chat. She was off narrowboat Kells, which was moored outside a Dutch barge at Entente Marine, and had seen us arrive. She’d been on the dry dock with another narrowboat at St Thibault. We said we’d seen the boats, four of them, on the dock about a month ago. She said she was waiting for the boatyard to do some work for her. Mike read the notice at the end of the moorings with their prices – 50€ an hour for work done on boats, 8€/metre per month for winter moorings plus 30c/unit for electric and 2€/m2 for water. She said she had come over from the UK in 2003 and was going back to Montceau-les-Mines for a second winter as it’s handy for the town. Connected up to the 5A supply, set up the TV then made a late lunch. Another Loca went down the lock, followed a shortly after by a small cruiser. After lunch I gave Mike a hand to unload the moped off the roof and at three o’clock he rode back to Decize to collect the car. Two cars had parked on the opposite bank and fishermen were setting up their gear. A Loca arrived and moored in front leaving almost a boat sized gap between our bows and their stern. A large Locaboat full of Germans from Frankfurt (and their three large yappy black Schnauzer dogs) came to ask us if there was a restaurant nearby or somewhere they could buy food? On Sunday, in France? Luckily the snack bar, La Vacanciére, was open. A British yacht moored behind us on the pay moorings and a downhill Loca moored in front.
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