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The bungalow was once the office of the Berrichon dry dock
which is in front of it and gradually filling with rubbish |
Hot and sunny with high hazy white cloud, becoming overcast mid afternoon. Mike fetched bread from the depot de pain (insurance office) in Herry, as the boulanger was on conges (hols). The neighbours set off first with the hire boat that had moored in front overnight. Mike painted the black at the back of the side step (fuel tank), then fastened the tank back in place. Connected the three pipes and the three control cables We left around ten. When two hireboats and a cruiser came down lock 30 Herry (2.90m) we went up. A young man (student) worked the lock for us. An uphill hireboat arrived below the lock as we left. Plenty of time for it to come up the lock and overtake us in the 7.4 kms before the next lock. A lone fisherman was fishing on the first bend and a hireboat was coming towards us. I was steering while Mike put the mooring pins back in their usual place, now nicely clean and painted, so I kept just right of centre down the canal. The hireboat almost went up the bank on the bend (at least 50m before we met) and was cursing and waving at me to move over! I smiled and pointed out there was a fisherman that I was avoiding and I was leaving more than enough room for the hireboat. Mike got annoyed and said I should have given him more space, that I was too close to the middle. Can't win!The fisherman looked quite happy, smiled and said bonjour as we passed.
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| Berrichon dock at La Chapelle Montlinard |
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| Lock 29 Rousseaux |
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| Concrete works before Marseilles-les-Aubigny |
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| Port of Marseilles-les-Aubigny |
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| Moorings quay at Cours-les-Barres |
I made a cuppa, then Mike checked to see that the Refleks tank (in the side step) had refilled fully. It had - and no leaks from the pipe joints. A large Dutch cruiser went past heading downhill at Passy. I took photos of the boats moored along the outside of the old berrichon dry dock at La Chapelle-Montlinard (we dry-docked there once, many moons ago). The quay with water and electric posts had been left free for the summer traffic. All the boats moored by the dock normally moor along the quay in winter next to an old masted DB. A new bridge had been built across the canal by the silos. The hireboat that was catching us up followed us through the bridge, saw the rest of the silo layby had sloping walls, so they did a u-turn and went back to the quay with water and electric posts. Looks like it’s just us for the next lock then! It was 11.20 a.m. A couple of kilometres and we arrived at lock 29 Rousseaux (2.10m) worked for us by the resident keeper, a burly bloke in his fifties. He opened both ground paddles, something the students rarely do, and I opened a gate for him when the lock was full. His house was a lovely old building covered in vines and the lockside full of flowers. In the field just above the lock there was an old barn and a very old car in it that hadn’t been moved in years. Left the top of the lock at 11.40 a.m. and with 2.5 kms to the next lock we thought we would be tying up below it for lunch. Past an old factory, a long time derelict, where a block of five workers houses and a barn had been converted into two very nice houses. Past the fuel depot, no longer supplied by tanker boats, and into lock 28 Argenvières (2.60m) which was empty with the gates open. We thought we would be mooring in the lock for lunch but the young lady student worked the lock for us (it was just gone midday) and she indicated to the hireboat, which had just arrived above, that they would have to wait. We left the top at 12.10 p.m. and told the American couple on the hireboat that it was lunchtime. The girl opened the other lock gate so they could sit in the lock chamber. 4.7 kms to the next lock. We had a look at the mooring at Beffes. One hireboat had just set off from there and another was still there having lunch. The quay had a loading ramp along it so we could see Nick wouldn’t have stayed next to that and also it looked weedy and shallow. We carried on up lock 27 Beffes (2.10m) where a student lad worked the lock. Several VNF men were dinning al fresco at the lock house (probably on holiday). They shouted au’voir as we left and we wished them bon appetit. 2.8 kms to the two locks at Marseilles-les-Aubigny. Lunch. Two LeBoats on their way downhill were racing towards us at the first bend by the modern concrete works. The second one started to overtake the first until Mike gave him a loud hoot. Charley was moored on the next bend so we slowed down to have a few words. They’d stopped to enquire what the winter mooring situation was at the port below Aubois lock. They said they’d follow on after us. The Nicholls hireboat they’d been locking with was in the lock, Aubois 26 (2.40m), waiting to go up so we went in and the young man pressed buttons to operate the “automatic” lock. He had the next one to do too, so he walked up to lock 25 Aubigny (2.50m) and pressed the buttons for us and the hireboat. We had a chat about the F1 from Spa, which was on this weekend, he was a big fan too; and then he rode back down to the other lock on his bike to check Charley was OK. They had done a makeover on the moorings at Marseilles-les-Aubigny with lawns along the right hand bank and a new Capitanerie. The pontoon finger moorings by the Capitanerie were occupied by a fleet of miniature paddle steamers (Diana said they were like pedaloes). We stooged on slowly through the old Gare d’Eau where the junction with the canal du Berry used to be, past loads of moored DBs and a few cruisers. DB Waterman was moored next to the sloping stone bank on the left. A hireboat was in the only space big enough for us and Charley on the right bank, but the quay walls were also sloping so we decided to carry on and check out the piling beyond the basin. Raimondo’s dock looked very busy with a fair number of boats moored waiting for work to be done. Most of the piling was set through the old sloping stone walls that originally edged all the canal, but we found a section of new piling where it was deep and we tied up by the last house in the village. Charley arrived a few minutes later and moored behind us. Nick said the guy at the port reckoned that they empty his pound or the Marseilles-les-Aubigny pound and seeing as they did the latter last winter then that should stay in water this winter. He said they just move the overwintering boats through the locks to whichever pound is staying in water. Sounds like Cours-les-Barres will be in water too this winter then. I gave Mike a hand to unload the moped down a plank and he went off to move the car from Herry to Cours-le-Barres, where we planned to move on to the following day. I put the laptop on and did the log then checked the Internet (OK on EDGE) and was about to catch up with the photos when Mike came back. He said the neighbours wanted to move on as the weather next day was going to be wet. Closed the computer down and we followed after them to Cours-les-Barres. The British yacht Fandango went past and we said we’d see them at the mooring. Charley had moored behind Morgenster, the hotel boat Anna-Marie IV was at the uphill end of the quay with an ex-hireboat sandwiched between the two. The yacht Fandango had moored behind Charley so we moored behind them. Diana had just connected up to the electricity box so I ran our cable and splitter out then we added the yacht into our cable. The couple on the yacht were off to Port St-Louis on the Rhône and were renting a house near Carcassonne. Later I set a fan blowing into the bedroom as it was still very warm and humid. Around five a.m. the fan went off as it started to rain heavily, someone had tripped the electric. The noise of the drips from the walnut tree alongside the boat made a loud noise as they pinged on the ventilator cover.
