We had a delightful couple of days here in Chagny, relaxing, and we set off this morning at 9am, heading for Chalon Sur Saone which is 22 km away with 12 locks to consider.
As predicted, the weather is hot and sunny again (the forecast for the rest of the week at least) and we meandered through to the end of the Canal Du Centre at the usual 5 knots.
At the first lock, there was a queue, there were 2 bumper boats in front of us. The first one went in and then locked through without the other one! Then, the lock wouldn’t reset because the radar had already been broken by the second boat. I had to go ashore and sort things as the Germans on the bumper boat hadn’t a clue. I spoke to the VNF controller through the intercom and they sent a van to re-set the lock. Eventually we locked through at 10am with the Germans, who rattled each side of their boat off the gates getting in, and what a laugh we both had at their expense. I know we shouldn’t have laughed, but it was like a comedy. Firstly, they didn’t know what the floating bollard was, so I had to show them how it worked. Then they didn’t realise they had to get back on the boat before the water started dropping. And lastly, they didn’t understand they had to pull the Blue Cord to operate the lock. So after giving them a lesson on lock operation, we started our descent. After the second lock, they pulled alongside and stopped (or so we thought). They tied up alongside the bank, and we overtook them and waved cheerio. Thank God, we thought, and we continued to the third lock ourselves and then started locking through when, next minute, they appeared on cycles just as we were descending! Then the boat arrived at the lock, but they were too late, we had already closed the doors, so they would have to wait until it was re-set once again. That will learn them not to stop!
We continued through the remaining locks that were all in our favour (and I graffitied one of the bollards with our names - I will never go to Heaven now!), until we came to the penultimate lock which needed to be re-set too, and I had to again go ashore and sort this. After I got off the bow, the boat caught in a current, and the stern was dragged into an overflow and it hit a concrete pillar which cracked the fibreglass slightly, so we will need to get a wee repair job done on that! That was God likely getting us back for the graffiti!
We arrived at Fragnes at 1pm and stopped for an hour for lunch aboard.
After lunch, we set off again and went through the last, huge 10m fall lock, and out into the very last of the Canal Du Centre and then onto the River Saone. What a lovely sight the River was and it was great to be back to seeing red and green buoys again! We sailed under the Pont de Bourgogne and around and into the Port De Plaisance in Chalon Sur Saone. It is a lovely setting with good finger pontoons and full facilities, and yes, they have fuel at an extortionate €1.60 per litre. This will be the first we have fuelled up since St. Mammes so it will be interesting to see how many miles we are getting per litre.
We will relax here for a few days before we head to St. Jean De Losne and then to Dijon.
Chalon Sur Saone is 46’46’.633N 004’51’.612E and we travelled a total of 11nm today. To date, we have come through 173 locks - wow!
As predicted, the weather is hot and sunny again (the forecast for the rest of the week at least) and we meandered through to the end of the Canal Du Centre at the usual 5 knots.
At the first lock, there was a queue, there were 2 bumper boats in front of us. The first one went in and then locked through without the other one! Then, the lock wouldn’t reset because the radar had already been broken by the second boat. I had to go ashore and sort things as the Germans on the bumper boat hadn’t a clue. I spoke to the VNF controller through the intercom and they sent a van to re-set the lock. Eventually we locked through at 10am with the Germans, who rattled each side of their boat off the gates getting in, and what a laugh we both had at their expense. I know we shouldn’t have laughed, but it was like a comedy. Firstly, they didn’t know what the floating bollard was, so I had to show them how it worked. Then they didn’t realise they had to get back on the boat before the water started dropping. And lastly, they didn’t understand they had to pull the Blue Cord to operate the lock. So after giving them a lesson on lock operation, we started our descent. After the second lock, they pulled alongside and stopped (or so we thought). They tied up alongside the bank, and we overtook them and waved cheerio. Thank God, we thought, and we continued to the third lock ourselves and then started locking through when, next minute, they appeared on cycles just as we were descending! Then the boat arrived at the lock, but they were too late, we had already closed the doors, so they would have to wait until it was re-set once again. That will learn them not to stop!
We continued through the remaining locks that were all in our favour (and I graffitied one of the bollards with our names - I will never go to Heaven now!), until we came to the penultimate lock which needed to be re-set too, and I had to again go ashore and sort this. After I got off the bow, the boat caught in a current, and the stern was dragged into an overflow and it hit a concrete pillar which cracked the fibreglass slightly, so we will need to get a wee repair job done on that! That was God likely getting us back for the graffiti!
We arrived at Fragnes at 1pm and stopped for an hour for lunch aboard.
After lunch, we set off again and went through the last, huge 10m fall lock, and out into the very last of the Canal Du Centre and then onto the River Saone. What a lovely sight the River was and it was great to be back to seeing red and green buoys again! We sailed under the Pont de Bourgogne and around and into the Port De Plaisance in Chalon Sur Saone. It is a lovely setting with good finger pontoons and full facilities, and yes, they have fuel at an extortionate €1.60 per litre. This will be the first we have fuelled up since St. Mammes so it will be interesting to see how many miles we are getting per litre.
We will relax here for a few days before we head to St. Jean De Losne and then to Dijon.
Chalon Sur Saone is 46’46’.633N 004’51’.612E and we travelled a total of 11nm today. To date, we have come through 173 locks - wow!
No comments:
Post a Comment