Saturday 15 June

We have been away for a month.  It hardly seems like it.  But here we are now in the canals and a new adventure begins.

We did two locks yesterday, but they were not typical.  They both had a lock keeper who took lines and worked the lock mechanism.  The rest of the locks are different, they are automatic and have no lock keepers.  In fact they are very clever.  As you approach each lock there it a wire with a piece of hosepipe hanging down.  As you pass in the pipe you grab and twist it and that makes an electric connection to the lock to tell it that you want to enter.  It then sends out the necessary light signals to tell you to wait or to enter the lock.  When you get in the lock one person has to get off the boat, secure the lines and then push a button to start the lock operation.  It then all happens automatically.  When the lock gate opens the person on the lock gets on the boat and you slip the lines and away you go.  It sounds hard, but in practice it turns out we can use the same technique I use to moor to a wall.  We take the boat up to the ladder in the lock.  I tie us on to the ladder and then climb up to the lock wall where I take the lines and pass them back to Richard.  I push to the button and wait for it all to happen.  So far we have been climbing up so it is a doddle to get back on the boat when it has risen to the top.

So using this technique we did 7 locks today without much problem.  It has been a learning curve, but interesting.

Going along the canal is also different.  The speed limit is a very sedate 8Km an hour (4knots).  So it is very gentle.  There are places where boats are moored where the speed limit goes even lower.  This makes progress slow.  Today we were out for  8 hours (less half an hour when we tied up and had some lunch) and we still only went 21 miles.  No wonder it takes two to three weeks to get to the Med.

The weather was really nice.  Mainly bright but cloudy.  That meant it was not too hot and we had very comfortable at temperatures of about 21C all day.  We finally wound up in a little town called
Mas D'Agenais.  We are on the town quay.  It was obviously set up to have most facilities, but seems to have been closed for years.  There is a sign on the main building referring to it being closed for the winter and due to open in April 2012!  There are machines where you can hook up to electricity and get water, but they need tokens to make them work and there is no explanation as to where you can buy a token!  So we are basically without any facilities, but we are comfortable.  The town is sweet.  It is very old.  It has ancient ramparts and an 11th Century Romanesque Church with a Rembrandt painting of the crucification.  Very lovely, but we are not sure it is very protected.  We hope to get a bit further tomorrow now we have the hang of the locks!

There are some advantages to being inland.  The landscape is very pretty with the banks lined in lovely  trees.  Also we are surrounded by bird song.  However the main disadvantage is the insects!  There are some nice ones.  We have seen lots of water boatmen and lovely dragon flies.  But the mosquitoes are driving us nuts and I am covered in bites.  We bought an anti-mosquito candle this afternoon, which has helped a bit, but I still have at least three new bites.  Well, nothing is perfect.

Dinner in the cockpit watching a lovely brood of baby ducks (16 of them) swimming around with their mother.  Hope to manage a BBQ tomorrow.