We don't move too early today. We are not going far. We will go the Castelsarrasin which is only 4 miles away, but does involve 7 locks. My new French mobile has more or less run out of credit. Richard tries to top it up (Recharge in French) on the internet, but has no luck working out what to do. We have finally worked out what is going on with the holding tank. It is full, the lights have just stopped working. So before we go we have to use the pump out here. There is a large barge parked in front of it, so we can't use it until they move and they aren't going until 10:30am. As we have found that we have an extra half an hour we go in to town and manage to top my phone up via the ATM at LCL.
The pump out is complicated and we need the capitain. With his help we do empty the tank. He confirms that most people don't have a tank at all, so I don't know why we are using it. I think I will just forget about it.
The weather is still rotten. There are bright bits, but the clouds are dark and threatening. I start out without my full waterproofs, but by the second lock it looks like heavy rain, so I put the full kit on. As it turns out it doesn't actually rain. However every time the sun comes out and I take off my jacket, the clouds come over and I have to put it on again!
The locks come fast and furiously. They are in groups which means only 5 or 10 minutes between them. The most infuriating part is that the ladder keeps moving from one side to the other. I have spent the whole morning madly moving fenders and lines to be on the correct side to get off. They also keep moving where the ladders are and they seem to be in the most inconvenient places. In one lock I just can't get off, but luckily an English walker is watching and helps us with the lines and pushes the button, so I didn't have to get off at all. By the seventh and last lock I have had enough. So I am very pleased to see an VNF man on the wall ready to take our lines. He starts to chat to me. He says the weather is terrible all over. There has been bad flooding and dozens of houses in the Basque country have been destroyed. He doesn't seem optimistic about the future weather either. Ugh...
We arrive at the port in Castelsarrasin. It is quite attractive and there are pontoon berths. So we berth up without much trouble. I couldn't jump off the boat, but instead managed to lasso a cleat! I am getting more adaptable. We have arrived just as the capitainerie has opened. The mooring fee with two showers is 12 Euro. Not bad. They also have washing machines and a dryer. I am getting desperate about laundry so we will do that later.
We walk in to town. I am fed up with cooking. We haven't been out to eat for over a week. I deserve a break. There is no Michelin recommended restaurant, but the Capitainerie (which is also the tourist office makes a recommendation. We walk in to town to suss out the restaurant. It looks OK, so we book for 8:00pm.
We then start the laundry. Well, that is a saga. The problem is that all they have are domestic machines and they are just not big enough or fast enough for me. I overfill both machines but still can't do all the towels; I have left a hugh bag of clothes in the boat and heaven knows when they will get done. One problem is that I have to finish everything before the office closes as 7:30. By 6:15 is is obvious that I will not get the second load of washing dried. So I ask Richard to take it to a commercial laundrette (which we would have used had we known it existed before we started here). The problem is that he has locked the boat and I haven't brought a key! So I am locked out for nearly an hour. But in the end we have washed our underwear and all the dirty linen, so that is another problem off my mind.
With very little time to spare we dress to go out to eat. I even put on a dress and makeup and feel halfway human for a change. The meal is fine. Not sophisticated, but very tasty. So back to the boat. We have a long way to go tomorrow. We are determined to make it to Toulouse by Saturday!
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