Tuesday 16 July

I have not posted anything for several days because frankly there is not much more to say.  We have decided to just stay in Cap D'Agde until we go home and make a sort of holiday out of this last week.  On the first full day here we did all sorts of domestic chores including doing laundry (an awful lot of it), cleaning the boat and trying to find an electrician.  The latter was a problem because the firm recommended by Henri at Allemand did not have any free time until 14 August!  But they put us in touch with someone else and after nearly a week, the work has been completed.  So we have a working radio, and new LED lights on the top of the mast which work.  We are now all back together again.

We got friendly with an English couple who were just holidaying on their boat.  They now live in France and keep their boat here in Cap D'Agde, but are about to move themselves and the boat to Guadeloupe.  They gave us a lot of hints about where to go around here and where the shops all are.

We were here for the 14 July.  There was a big fireworks display which we could see from the boat.  On Tuesday we met up with Guy and the family and took them out for a sail.  We sailed for about an hour in very gentle conditions which was great for the boys.  We then anchored off the beach that is an extinct volcano and swam off the boat.  Ethan was willing to go in right away especially after we put out a small fender on a floating line for him to use to get back to the boat.  Michael was reluctant at first, but seeing his brother having so much fun he joined in.  Then they tried to catch fish with Richard's rod, but no luck.  We had lunch and another swim and returned to the marina in good time.  All agreed that this is the life.  We hope the rest of our sojourn in the Med will be as pleasant.

Now we are preparing to go home.  We have to do all the rest of the laundry tomorrow so everything is clean when we get back.  We will also need to clean out all the food and pack. 

Wednesday 10 July

We have a leisurely morning waiting to see if Henri will be able to go up the mast to sort out the light which isn't working.  It is very clear from early on that this won't be possible.  He is running all over the place.  By 9:30 he has already lifted two boats and launched another. The poor man is working himself to death.  So we decide it is time to go.  We pay up and find they have hardly charged us anything.  Almost half of what we paid to have the mast taken down.  I hope this man is making money.

So finally we slip the mooring and we put up some sails!  Yes, we are actually sailing our own boat in the Mediterranean.  For some time I thought it would never happen.  We are told that Cap D'Agde is only one hour away, but of course the wind is on the nose.  Anyway, we need to go 3 miles out to dump our holding tank.  So we have a gentle sail in modest force 3 winds taking two big tacks to get to Cap D'Agde.  We stop at the Capitainerie and they can give us a berth until early September.  We don't get an assigned berth, just the right to go on to the visitor pontoons just near the town.  But that is fine and it costs less than it would in the Solent, so we are pleased.  We choose a berth and settle in.  We have found the bakery and some of the shops.  We meet another English couple who have had their boat her for the last 6 years.  They tell us where the launderette is and give us hints about the shops and restaurants.

The marina is huge and there are thousands of boats here of all types, from small day boats to Mega Yachts.  It is broken up into different basins, so it does not seem like just a parking lot for boats.  It is surrounded by the usual seaside shops, cafes and down market restaurants.  But it is all sweet and quite pleasant.  We like it.  We make it to the chandlery and a sailmaker and buy the few things we need.  Richard needs extra bits for the rigging and little sliders for the new mainsail.  We also buy the French annual guide called Bloc Marine for the area in the Med.  Given there are no tides to speak of that should prove good enough for the next two seasons.  Richard even manages to buy a wind scoop and it seems to work!  As I write this in the cabin it is reasonably comfortable with a temperature of about 25C.

We wanted to eat out, and have done so, but there really are no decent restaurants just here by the marina.  We are told there is a very good one a fair walk from here, but when we try to ring them we get a recorded message that they don't open on Wednesdays.  Dinner is a simple meal in a very touristy place, but it is nice to get out and sitting at the marina side makes very good people watching.

Tomorrow we will try to do all the domestic things that need doing.

Tuesday 9 July

We had a fairly comfortable night, but got up early so we could make it to Cap D'Adge this afternoon.  So I go off to buy us French breakfast.  This town is well supplied with small shops including at least three bakeries.  We luxuriate in our first real French breakfast of pain au chocolat, croissant and bread for over a week.

After breakfast we wait for Henri, but it is clear he is very busy with other things.  He seems to be the only person in the yard working at the moment.  While we wait to have our bottle screws properly tensioned, he lifts at least 4 boats our of the water.  Richard makes good use of the time and puts back all the lines and the mainsail.  He can't do the enoa because the forestay has been put on backwards, so that must await Henri to fix it.

As planned fairly early I go to the market.  It is a small market, but the produce is very good.  There is excellent fruit and veg, fish, and some local cheese.  I buy up as much as I dare to be able to fit in the fridge including a nice looking bream type fish to BBQ for dinner.

Lunch time comes and goes and Henri is still not available to finish off our mast installation.  We have four problems, namely, tightening the bottle screws, repositioning the forestay, changing the bulb on top of the mast for the anchor light and soldering our radio cable back together.

It is clear Henri will not be able to see to us before lunch.  The problem with going to someone so well thought of is that they are very busy!  So we go to the beach for a dip to cool off and them back to the boat for quiches I bought in the market.  By 5:00pm we are still no further forward.  Then finally after 6 Henri comes.  He sorts out the forestay and tightens all the bottle screws in record time.  However he cannot solder our radio cable.  For that we need an electrician.  They give us the name of someone in Cap D'Agde, so that should be OK.  Henri says he can go up the mast to change the bulb in the anchor light, but doesn't making it before closing time.

So it is another night on the boatyard pontoon.  It could be worse.  The town is nice and we have sufficient facilities here, and of course it is free.  So we go back to the beach for a last evening swim and return to the boat.  We can now open our champagne and finally celebrate the fact that we are now a sailing boat and are in the Med!  Tomorrow we will go to Cap D'Agde (with or without help from Henri).

Monday 8 July

Up early to do some shopping and to see when we can go to the boatyard to put the mast back on.  I was getting a bit nervous because we hadn't heard from them confirming they were ready for us.  But when we rang after 9:00am they were there and told us to come down after lunch at 2:00pm.  So in the end we had a quite relaxing morning.  Richard rang around to see if he could find us a berth until we return in September.  Sete, which we thought would be most likely said they had no room, but Cap D'Agde thought they might well be able to do that.  So when we have sails again we will go there and suss it out.

Down to the boatyard and have a hard time mooring up in a tight space with a boat lift cradle on the side threatening to knock holes in our hull.  But Henri is very helpful and we safely tie up.  Then they go to find our mast.  They have really hidden it away.  Obviously it has been here too long!  But we get it and the boom and everything looks fine.  They crane the mast onto some old oil drums for Richard to put the spreaders and wind instruments back.  We first have to unwrap all the tape Richard put on it for transport.  That is a long job and we need to wash it all down with white spirit to get rid of the sticky bits of the tape that were left behind.

Everything seems to take so much longer than we expected, especially as it is another very hot day.  So it isn't until 5:00pm that they start to crane the mast back onto the boat.  Richard had hoped that we might make it to Cap D'Agde this evening, but that will not be possible.  By 6:00pm Henri wants to go home.  The mast is up, but all the rigging is just loosely connected and we will have to tighten everything up in the morning and connect the boom, not to mention putting the sails on.  But at least now we are nearly back to being a sailboat.  What a relief.  So tonight we stay on the boatyard pontoon.  At least we have electricity and there is water if we need more.

By the time we sort a few things out it is 7:00pm and we are very hot and sweaty.  There is  a beach not far from the boat so despite the time we decide to go there.  And finally, we get to swim in the Med!  It is great.  We cool off nicely and even find a shower to wash off the salt water.  The town is a typical French seaside place with loads of stalls selling the usual tourist stuff.  But apparently there is a good market and there are bakeries!  So while Richard works on the boat I will go into town in the morning and buy us some real food.

After dinner Richard gets enthusiastic and decides to try to reconnect all the wires on the mast.  He spends most of the evening and has more or less succeeded.  Unfortunately, there is one thing that is not working and that is the anchor light.  We are not sure if Richard just wired it badly or if the bulb has gone.  If it is the latter, we hope someone in the boatyard can go up the mast to change it.  It shouldn't be a problem as this afternoon, Henri, shimmied up the mast with nothing at all to help him just to disconnect the rope to the crane!

Sunday 7 July

Up fairly early to be ready to start the 6 lock ladder at 8:30.  The organisation is a mess.  At 8:20 we cast off our Danish family's boat in readiness.  We all move up and are a bit fed up with a French couple in a small boat trying to jump the queue.  But that is the least of the problems.  As we try to go forward we find that there are no less than three huge professional boats going through one at a time first!  So back we all go and tie up again.  However, it is not nearly as long as we feared.  The system is very clever.  The boats can go through every other chamber, so we go in before 9:00am.  But it really would have worked much better it there had been someone explaining and organising the boats.

We proceed through the canals.  We miss one lock because another boat joins in front and we are concerned that there is not enough room in the lock for 4 boats.  The first locks are very deep, one over 6 meters.  But all goes well.  We make it to lock 60 just before lunch and get through.  We can't make it to the penultimate lock before they close for lunch so we stop in a nice little town called Villeneuve les Beziers.  We first tie up on a little quay which just has bollards and is front of a restaurant.  Then we see the Danish family on the other side of the canal on a much better quay where it is even shady and they have water!  I am getting very concerned about the water situation.  We haven't filled for days and are showering on board every day.  The gauge is showing under half full.  Richard says this is plenty, but we don't know how long we will be at the boatyard putting up our mast and what we have won't last more than two days as the most.  So we move across the canal to an excellent berth right in front of the water, but there is a rub.  It needs a token to work and we can't get one.  The tobacconist where the Danish family got theirs is closed for an extended lunch, the supermarket and several other shops tell Richard that they had run out of tokens.  Finally he would up at the Police office who said that the only person who could sell us one was the local policeman who wouldn't be on duty until 6:00pm!  Another example of awful French organisation.  It is driving us nuts.  Although the spot is nice, we do not want to stay.  Richard is very anxious to get to Agde and be where the mast is.

So we press on.  We make it to the round lock at Agde.  Everyone told us it would be an experience and it is.  There is no way we could manage with the lines on our own, because the top of the lock to too high for me to get off and do lines and there is no place where I could re-board the boat.  Luckily the lock keeper is very helpful and takes the lines and ties them for us.  The fall on the lock is not great, but it takes a long time, I guess because it is a massive lock and there is only our boat in it.  Also getting our of it is awkward because we have a very sharp right turn, which is nearly impossible.  I almost think Richard will have to circle the whole thing, but he cleverly manages and we are off and WE ARE NOW OUT OF THE CANAL SYSTEM!  We are both so relieved.

After the lock the town of Agde is only less than a km along.  We first stop on a nice new pontoon, in the middle of the town, but it has no facilities and we really need water.  So we go on to try to find the Sea Port referred to in all the books.  We finally find it way down the river, but when we try to look for a space we are told most emphatically that it is full and we must go away.  Richard is now determined to continue down the river to find the boat yard where our mast is.  He has the idea that there might be a place to stop there for the night.  We do find the boatyard, but there is nowhere to stop. So we make our way back to the town and try to put the boat on one of the municipal pontoons where we started.  We find a nice one just near some restaurants and tie up.  As we are tying up I notice that the restaurant we are next to is washing the pavement in front of it with a long hosepipe.  I get really cheeky and ask the person who seems to be the boss if we could fill our boat up using his hose and water.  And much to my surprise he readily agrees and even helps us get the hose to reach the boat.  So now one of my worries is solved.  We have a full tank of water which should last us until we find a new home in one of the marinas in the area.

The day has been cloudless and getting hotter and hotter.  We are both now bathed in sweat.  So we shower on board.  To show our appreciation to the restaurant who gave us the water we go there for a celebratory kir royal each.  We also eat a small starter of sea food.  Six oysters for me and a dozen whelks for Richard.  We can't eat out because I have 2 fillet steaks on board which go out of date tomorrow, so must be eaten today.  It is just to hot to do any cooking yet.  So after our little starter and drink we have a walk around the town, which is very cute and old.  We find where there is a bakery (hooray), a small supermarket and a butcher, so we know where to go to reprovision tomorrow.

Eventually I manage to cook our steaks and some mushrooms, onions and green beans and we have dinner in the cockpit.  Then back to the restaurant for desert.  They make a nice fuss of us and we finally have cooled off a little.  However, I am now below and it is still too hot to sleep!

Tomorrow we hope to meet our mast and start to reconstruct the boat!

Saturday 6 July

Couldn't post yesterday because of poor internet connection.  So here is the background.  The hire boat moored with us turned out to be crewed by a perfectly competent group and we went through the last five locks with no problem.  Then we found that we just missed the last lock which closed for lunch as we approached.  So we tied up to the waiting stakes and decided to have lunch.  The problem is that we have been nowhere to buy bread.  We passed a town on the way here, so Richard offered to walk back and buy us a loaf to make up our lunch of cold meats and salad.  Well, it turned out to be a long walk for nothing.  We are in the area where all the shops shut at 12:30pm and don't open again until 4:00-4:30pm!  I still can't understand how the economy survives on this routine.  (Well, perhaps it isn't).  So Richard just comes back with a bottle of Minervois, the local wine, to say he bought something.  We have to eat our lunch without bread making it rather meagre, but we don't have much time to eat anyway, because after 15 mins the lock opens and off we go.

We are now in a stretch of canal that goes for 54km without a lock!  Phew, no locks for a bit.  But it is not clear sailing.  We are having trouble finding a place to stop for the night.  We had hoped to make it to a place called Poilhes, highly recommended by Nigel Gee.  But it is much to far away and we want to go there to have dinner at the restaurant he liked, and we would get there too late.  We pass two or three supposed mooring stations mentioned in the guide but they are full of permanently moored boats or reserved for hire boats.  We particularly wanted to stop at Somail, but that too seemed to be completely taken up by hire boats.  This is a real drag.  So we wind up at a very odd little private harbour called Port Robine.  It is pleasant enough and has a lot of facilities including fuel on the pontoon.  I am worried about the fuel situation.  Our fuel gage has stuck at over full and we have no idea how much fuel we have used since we left Toulouse where we filled up.  On the hours run we think we should have used about 70 litres, which leaves us over half a tank, but we cannot be sure.  So to be on the safe side we fill up.  We find we have only used 30 litres.  We can hardly believe it!  The man from the Capitanerie says that you use very little fuel on the canal - no waves.  Certainly, it is slow going and the engine is using very few revs.

There is nothing in the way of shops at this marina, so we decide to walk back to Somail to see if we can buy urgent needs.  We particularly need bread and milk.  On the way here Somail didn't seem to be very far, but it turns out to much farther than we thought.  It takes us nearly an hour to walk there and when we get there we find that the only shop is in a barge and he has nothing to sell.  You can only get bread from him in the morning if you order it in advance!  He has no fresh produce and although he does have milk, I don't fancy carrying that back on the trek to the boat.  Milk is the least important of our lack of food for the moment.

Fed up with the lack of ability to do any provisioning we stop at a very nice canal side cafe and restaurant for a cold drink.  As we are sitting there Richard suggests we just stay there and eat dinner.  I have nothing to go with the aubergine dish I hoped to cook or with the steaks I have in the fridge.  The walk back is long and it is very hot and cooking will be a pain.  So in the end we stay for dinner.  It isn't wonderful, but it is nice not to be on the boat cooking.  I have some Gaspacho, which is very good.  My main course is squid.  It is a bit chewy, but there is far too much of it.  I have two very large squid on my plate.

The restaurant is very crowded and by the time we finish dinner and pay, it is starting to get dark.  So we ask the restaurant to call us a taxi.  That turned out to be rather expensive, but it was good not to have to walk back on the canal after dark.  I must say that by and large the people here in southern France are unfriendly and sometimes downright rude.  The nicest person we have met in the last couple of days was our taxi driver and he was from Brittany!

So back to the boat.  We shower on board as the port charges for showers and everything.  In fact this night's mooring is almost back up to Solent prices being about 20 Euro to include electricity but not showers.

We had a nice quiet night and I am looking forward to a whole day without any locks to do.  I even put on a clean white tee-shirt!  The weather is perfect (well maybe a bit too perfect).  The sky is clear blue and it is hot.  We start out and decide that with our lack of food we have to stop somewhere to go shopping.  The next biggish town is Capestang.  But it is so far away that we arrive there after 12:15, when all the shops shut until 4:30.  Although it seems a nice place, we don't want to stop for three hours and would prefer to take up Nigel's suggestion and go to Poilhes and eat lunch there as we have nothing suitable on the boat that can be eaten without bread.  So we do that.  We find that all the hire boats and permanently moored boats are at the beginning of the town and no one is on the municipal mooring station which is very nice and convenient. So we tie up to the mooring rings.  The stop is right next to the restaurant, again a good convenient stop.  We also note an advertisement for an alimentation in the town.  Maybe it will open at a reasonable time.

We have a very pleasant lunch at the restaurant.  Not cheap, but good.  We indulge in half a litre pichet of local pink wine.  The bad news is that the shop does not open until at least 4:00pm.  So no chance to buy anything for supper or lunch tomorrow.  The restaurateur says they don't need much in the way of a local shop as the village only has 500 inhabitant.  We decide to press on.  We are told that there are shops at a mooring stop not far from here called Colombiers.  Nigel said he disliked this stop, but beggars cannot be choosers.  So we make for there.  The stop is a basin which looks like it only has stern to moorings.  We try to tie up to the bank just after the basin, but there is insufficient depth for us to get close enough to the bank.  So we go into the basin.  We see a space large enough to moor alongside, but we are sure they won't let us stay because basically we are using up three moorings!  There is a supermarket, but it does not open until 4:00pm, just over half an hour hence.  Richard speaks to the harbourmaster who says we can only stay where we are until 5:00pm.  So we will just stay to do some shopping and then go.  Richard is unwilling to try stern to mooring even with our new large round fenders.

The supermarket is just about adequate, but still doesn't sell fresh bread.  I just buy some more bake it yourself baguettes and a nearly at sell by date brown loaf.  At least that could be toasted to eat with cheese and or pate.  I am unkeen on baking baguettes because it is too hot to light the oven - but if needs must...

I must say I am really fed up with this bit of canal.  I don't understand how in the middle of France we can go for three days without buying fresh bread!  I have no idea what everyone is eating on their boats, but I do keep seeing people eating spaghetti!  Not my idea of suitable cruising fare.  Also not my idea of how the French eat.  I just can't understand it.  I expected that every town no matter how small in France would at least have a bakery.  How wrong can you be!

As we leave I am getting very worried about the last leg of the day.  It is very hot and I am feeling the heat.  I think it must be over 35C.  Richard wants to rush on to Beziers.  The problem is that to get to Beziers we have to go through a flight of 6 locks.  I am really nervous about doing these locks.  Firstly I am very hot and have no energy.  I will need a lot to do a flight of 6 locks.  Secondly, even if we can get through those locks, we have one more lock to go through before getting to the harbour in Beziers.  I feel certain we will not be able to get there before the locks close at 7:00pm.  Finally I am not convinced we can find a berth there.  We have tried to ring, but the number given in our guide is out of date.

Nonetheless we press on towards Beziers.  When we get to the locks it is 5:00 and perhaps in enough time to get through.  But we note that they are doing a upward opening.  We hope that means we will be able to get through.  We try to just hand around, but there is not enough room.  So we try to tie up to what we understand are the waiting moorings.  Some waiting moorings.  They are fully taken up by permanent commercial boats.  Further along they are full of boats apparently berthed for the night (many facing the opposite way to the locks).  We do find one spot to stop just behind a hire boat.  The skipper of that boat (a Dane) says that he too wants to go through the lock but has been told that there will be no more descending openings until 8:30 tomorrow morning.  So we are here for the night. With that news we manage to moor up in the space behind him.  Richard goes off  to look at the locks and see if we need to do anything to make it known we want to go in the morning.  Just as he leaves a commercial boat taking tourists on the canal comes up and tells me I must move because we are in his mooring space.  Now this is a problem.  I can't move the boat myself and I can't shout loud enough to get Richard back.  They are getting very impatient.  I don't know how we were supposed to know it was their mooring.  There was no sign at all as there usually is.  The Danish family come to my aid and rope the boat out to raft up to them.  They do a very good competent job, much to my relief.

So we are now rafted up in front of the locks waiting for them to open in the morning.  Other than our Danish family neighbours I have no idea how many of the other boats here want to go through the locks.  We have walked along the locks.  They are much bigger than the ones we have been in so far, so they will take quite a few boats.  We shall see in the morning.  If all goes well tomorrow by the evening we will be out of the canal system and in salt water!

Thursday 4 July

To all those Americans out there- Happy Independence Day!

Haven't posted for a couple of days, so must work backwards.  I last wrote about the problems we had with hooligans in Carcassonne.  That was Tuesday night.  We didn't get much sleep.  The mobs never came back to sit in front of our boat, but they were all around and very rowdy and noisy.  When you feel intimidated on the boat it is surprising to realise how insecure you are on a boat.  We could lock the hatch from inside but it would be very easy to break into for anyone determined.  Richard decided to put the keel down to act as an anchor in case anyone thought to let our lines off.

So we woke up to a very cool grey and miserable Wednesday.  We spoke in the morning to the harbour office and they agreed to move us to an alongside berth in the main harbour.  They seem to pretend that our problem was unusual, but we have now heard from a number of people that this rowdy element on the canal causes problems.  The space we have been given has a boat in it for the moment so we go shopping to provision up for the next few days.  I pass a shop having a sale on t-shirts and buy 6!

Back to the boat and we can see that our new berth is empty.  So we break one of our rules of this trip, being never to repeat a lock.  We have to go back through the lock this morning and then go down it tomorrow!  But that must be preferable to a night like last night.  As we go through the lock we realise that one of our ropes has been cut in the night.  We have lost about 5 meters of warp.  Luckily they cut the part that was not holding us on to the shore, but the extra end tied on the guard wires.  Also luckily they cut our oldest warp which we rarely use, so it is not a great loss in the long run.  However, in the short term it is a nuisance because it means I can't keep lines on both sides of the boat to go through locks.  So again at the last minute I will find myself swapping over ropes!  The new fenders have more or less solved that problem, but it raises its ugly head again with the lack of a fourth long line.

Anyway by the time we move the boat it is getting late for our posh lunch.  We are eating at Le Parc Franck Putelat.  It has 2 Michelin rosettes.  It is on the other side of the Cite, so we take a taxi.  I am in a bad mood before lunch, but the meal was divine and cheered me up.  I think it is the best food we have eaten so far.  We did not do the lowest priced lunch menu, but had their next up full menu.  I did not keep the menu, so I can't say exactly what we ate, but we had five courses all of many flavours and lots of truffles, which for a change I could really taste.  The main course was duckling cooked two ways, one just roasted and the other stuffed into a courgette flower.  The desert was a feast for the eyes.  It looked more like a hat designed by Philip Treacy than food!  It was a fruit, cream and biscuit concoction, but as I say, lovely to look at.    We spend over 2 hours over lunch and then walked back to the Cite to see the Basilica that we did not get to yesterday.  We also wandered a bit around the town, but found we were tired so went back to the boat before 5pm.

I was going to make us what looked like an interesting Aubergine dish for supper, but we found that we were so full with our lunch that we could hardly manage to eat anything for supper.  Just ate a very small slice of pate I bought a couple of days ago.

Then to bed for a good early start when the locks open tomorrow.

So today we got up fairly early and made it through the town lock (for the third time) just after 9:00am. We have set ourselves a hefty goal today.  Richard wants to get to Agde by Sunday night and that means long days.

The day started out cool and grey again, but the sky started to clear during the morning and it turned into a very nice day.  However, it was also a very frustrating day.  The plan was to do 12 locks and 39km.  However when we got to the first 3 chamber lock we had a huge delay.  It was our sixth lock and we were hoping to get through it to make it to a port some way ahead.  However when we got there we found 4 other boats waiting to get through the lock.  It was a long wait because there was an enormous barge coming the other way.  It took up the whole of the locks and being so large had to proceed very slowly.  When it finally emerged, and the boats could go in they could not even fit the four boats in front of us into the lock, let alone us.  We then had to wait for the boats going down through the three chambers and another huge barge came back up.  It took over an hour before we could even enter the lock.  Then our final frustration.  The other boat left with us to wait for the lock was manned by an English family.  It was a hire boat and they had no idea what they were doing and couldn't steer the boat at all.  We decided that they better go into the lock first, that way they wouldn't hit us!  That proved to be the sensible way to proceed, but because of their lack of skill it all took much longer than it would otherwise have done.  Further, they went and plonked the boat in the middle of the lock leaving no room for us to go behind them.  That meant we had to go to the windward side of the lock.  The wind had got up a lot and we had terrible trouble getting close enough to land me and then the boat was blown off and I had to fight the wind to pull it in.  This did not end at this lock.  We had to go along with this other boat in this fashion for two more double locks.

By this time it was nearing 6pm and the locks shut at 7.  We knew we were not going to make it to our planned stop.  When we got to the penultimate lock we had wanted to do (another 2 chamber lock)  he hire boat stopped at the waiting piles where they found the other boat they had been travelling with and which had got through the original delayed lock.  We thought maybe they would both be stopping there for the night to let us go through, but no, they both went into the lock.  There was no way we were going to do two more locks with two lots of hopeless charter crews.  So we gave up.  We tied up to the waiting moorings and here we are for the night.  It is actually quite a pleasant stop, and hopefully we will get a good start in the morning.  However, yet another charter boat has tied up to the same pontoon to do the same.  Let's hope they are more competent.

Before I close, a few words about the canal.  We have got to the part where the trees have been cut.  We have seen some felled trees before.  It seems that it is the lane trees which are affected.  They seem to have some sort of die back.  There are a lot of completely dead trees.  Earlier in the canal they hadn't been taken down and were just marked for felling.  Here we see more of the areas where they have felled the offending trees.  There was one stretch which had been replanted.  I noted not with plane trees.  But the banks are not bare.  There are a lot of other species of tree about including pines, and oaks.  It is just that the planes had been planted as avenues and that is now missing in places. A shame but not nearly as bad (so far) as we were led to believe it would be.

Sunday 30 June to Tuesday 2 July

I haven't written any blog for the past three days because we have had no internet access.  Richard kept thinking that the signal was too weak to make our Domino (the internet hub come dongle) work.  It turns out that our contract expired!  Yes, we have been messing around here in France for well over a month.

Anyway, after our night mooring in the wild we set out to Castelnaudary.  For the first three locks, which were still ascending, we were in the company of an English motor boat from the Hamble.  We had seen them earlier in this trip.  They had been back to the UK, so missed the excitement of the closed canal system.  They stopped off early to watch the BGP on their satellite tele and we carried on.  The excitement was that by then we had reached the water shed of the canal system and all the locks from now on will be going down, not up.  The importance of that is two-fold.  Firstly it means I don't have to be let off the boat before the lock or climb any ladders.  I just need to jump off the boat in the lock to deal with the lines and then step back on board when the boat descends a little.  Also it is safe for me to go aboard early because these locks have lock keepers who can stop the cycle if anything goes wrong.  More importantly is that there is no turbulence on entering the lock or when it descends.  That means Richard's job in controlling the boat is much easier.

On entering our first downhill lock we are really pleased to find how much easier it is to deal with.  However, then what seems to be disaster strikes.  The lock keeper tells us that there is a problem with the lock gates two locks ahead.  It is Sunday so they do not know if it can be fixed!  When we get to the next lock we find they are not letting anyone through because of the problem at the next lock.  Anyway, it is now lunch time.  Because we no longer are using automatic locks, the locks are closed everyday from 12:30 for an hour for lunch.  All very French.  We wait through lunch and don't hear anything.  We have reconciled ourselves to spending the night on the waiting posts before this lock so decide to take a walk instead.  As we walk towards the lock we notice another boat that was stopped behind us moving forward and note that the lock gates are now open!  We have a word with the lock keeper and she confirms that the problem with the next lock has been fixed.  So we dash back to the boat and cast off.  They waited for us in the lock, which was kind.  The other boat turned out to be three couples from New Zealand (although I gather one of the couples now lives in the UK).  They were very jolly and helpful.  They accompanied us through all the next locks and with their spare crew helped us with our lines.  We went through our first multi-chamber locks.  They are interesting.  They are all in a row.  When you leave the first lock you go straight through to another lock and so it goes.  On this part of the canal there are locks with up to 6 chambers!  The New Zealanders taught me how to walk the bow line through from one chamber to the other, which means Richard doesn't have to run forward to sort the bowlines out between chambers.

In this cheerful manner we make it to Castlenaudary in good time.  We seem to have left the New Zealanders behind when we arrive in the town.  We find an excellent berth right in the middle of the town with all facilities.  So we can walk into town in minutes and there is electricity, water and good showers and toilets.  Now all we need to do is find a restaurant open on Sunday night to have our dinner of Cassoulet!  I look for the New Zealanders, but don't see them, when we walk into town to sus out the restaurants.  We identify a few that look likely and then make it back to the boat.  The weather has turned really lovely.  It is sunny and warm.  When I get back to the boat I see one of the New Zealanders and he tells me the terrible news.  They decided to moor up on a bank and one of the women jumped off and fell into a hole breaking her ankle in two places!  She is in a terrible state and will probably have to be repatriated to New Zealand.  It was the last day of their canal trip.  How awful.  I feel really bad for them.  They were so good hearted and pleasant.

We do eventually wind up in a pleasant restaurant and have their slap up top of the range Cassoulet.  It is very good, but also very rich!   The confit de canard is particularly nice.  There is also a lot of it!  Nonetheless we also indulge in an cafe liegeoise for desert.  We will fast tomorrow!  With the meal we drink what is nearly the most expensive local wine on the menu.  A Minervois!  Haven't had one of those in years.  It was much better than I remember.  Actually a Minervois la Liviniere, a separate appellation from the stuff we drank when we were much younger.

On Monday we set off.  The first lock is a four chamber job.  Very interesting to manoeuvre, but all still much easier that the upwards locks.  We make very good progress.  Even with stopping for a lunch break, when we aren't eating lunch, we are well ahead of time.  But we do not want to try to get in to Carcassonne.  Firstly, it is too risky, we might not make it before the locks shut at 7:00pm.  Secondly we are told that we must reserve a berth there and we have only asked for a berth from tomorrow.  So we look for a 'wild stop'.  The guide we have suggests that there are three places were we might stop.  The first one is completely taken up by hire boats (even though there is supposed to be a public quay).  The next one has only one obviously permanent houseboat barge on it (it even has a garden planted in front of it!).  So we stop despite the fact that it says the berth has priority for commercial boats.  But we have seen no commercial boats all day, so we aren't concerned.  The problem is that there is little to moor to.  There is one convenient ring for a stern line, but only a cleat yards apart and used by the houseboat for the bow.  So we actually use the spikes we bought to tie up.  They work fine.  I never thought we would use them at all.  Mind you, they cost a fortune, much more than several days mooring here on the canal.  The average price to moor for the night with showers, water and electricity has been about 8-10 Euro!

So well settled, we find it is another lovely, if very hot afternoon.  We see a sign that says there are shops, cafes and a restaurant 500m ahead so we decide to walk there to see what is happening.  The answer is that nothing is happening.  The closest town is nearly 2km away. The village we are moored in is nothing more than a dozen houses!  So back to the boat for a meagre supper and to bed.

Today we set off latish to go to Carcassonne.  We have booked an alongside berth and we are really looking forward to seeing the town.  This was the one place we promised ourselves to spend a couple of days in.  We are joined on our way by another boat.  It has a French family on board.  It is a hire boat and they have no idea what they are doing.  In the first lock they let their lines go when the first lock doors closed!  We manage to negotiate all the locks with them in with us without mishap, which is something of a miracle.  We are a bit confused about where we will moor.  The books all show the port being just before the lock in the town.  However, the harbourmaster was quite specific in telling us that our berth would be just after the lock.  It becomes clear how it works.  The stern to moorings are before the lock and the alongside ones are after.  So we have to fiddle around for ages to wait to go through the last lock and find our berth.  But there it is and we seem happily settled.  We have arrived well before lunch, so we have lunch on board.  While the lock is closed a number of hire boats tie up near us.  Nearly all of them leave when the lock opens.  They can moor stern to.  One of them is in a crew of South Africans.  He says they want to move to the other side because they are told that there are Gypsies in the area that invade boats and mess them up if the owners aren't on board.  I don't worry about it too much because we plan to eat on the boat for the next two nights.  We are booked into a Michelin 2 rosette restaurant for lunch tomorrow!

So off we go to walk to the old City.  First stop is the Orange shop.  Yes, our contract expired and we have bought another month's worth.  We won't be here for that long, but Guy will be coming and we can had it over to him.  Anyway, we must have internet and there seems to be precious little free WIFI and that is very weak!

So on to the Citadel.  We buy the audio guides and spend hours looking around.  It puts Dinan in the shade.  It is grander than Mt St Michel, but the crowded streets and the shops reminds me of that.

We stop for a drink and then make our way back to the boat.  As we approach the boat I get concerned.  There is a group of 12-18 young people all near our boat and one of them is about to board as we approach.  When we shout at him he backs off, but they start to get very rowdy.  They are very drunk.  I think some of them are smoking dope.  I find them very frightening and it gets worse.  The one who tired to board before tries it again when we are on board and keeps staring and shouting.  One other puts his face up to one of the saloon windows.  We were supposed to be having a BBQ but we dare not go out in the cockpit.   We just don't know what to do.  In desperation I go to the Capitainerie.  It is manned with one young woman who can't really do anything.  So she phones the police.  We tried to do that, but obviously someone in authority makes them more willing to help.  I am not convinced that will be a good thing, but there seems nothing else to do.  I can't cope with these people there.  I am in a terrible state.

The police turn up fairly soon.  They do move the mob on, but I am still nervous they will return and realise that it was us who asked the police to come.  But they seem to have gone.  So we light the BBQ and make our dinner.  Richard gives me a rum and coke to calm down.  So now it is quite late and no one has returned, so I hope we can relax.  I hope tomorrow is calmer.  We shall see if we should move. It means going back through a lock, but if it means no repeat of tonight, I don't mind.

Saturday 29 June

We must now get a move on to get to the coast.  We have to wait for the office to open at 9:00 to pay, get water and fuel.  Having done that we are off just after 9:30, not bad!

By the way our scales show that our dinner last night was not a great help in the diet department.  We will make up for it later in the week.

We don’t go very far before our first stop.  Since coming on the canals we have been aware that we are woefully short of fenders.  This has caused me all sorts of trouble in running around changing fenders from one side to the other as the arrangement of locks changes.  We are also told to expect much more traffic on the Canal du Midi, which means we may well have to share locks and not be able to chose what side to tie up.  We have been told that the only chandlery for miles is just ahead.  So we stop there and buy 4 new fenders.  Two big round ones, which we will need for stern too mooring in the Med and two ordinary ones, which I don’t know what we will do with after we leave the canal system.  Anyway we are now fully fendered  on both sides of the boat and can manage to tie up wherever is necessary.  That will be important because the system of locks here in the Canal du Midi is different than before.  Many of the locks are automatic, but there is no cord to pull to start the sequence.  What you have to do is drop a crew member off at a little waiting pontoon in front of each lock.  That is of course me.  Then I walk up to the lock and tell it which way we want to go and it opens (and drains, if necessary) the lock.  I can’t get back on the boat, so I stay next to the lock and wait for Richard to bring the boat in.  Then I catch lines and tie us up.  There are some locks (so far we have only seen them if they have multiple chambers) that have lock keepers.  But the lock keepers do not take your lines and therefore I have to be put ashore anyway.  The upshot of this is that poor Richard has to do nearly everything single handed.  If he had to try to change fenders over at the same time, it really would be impossible. 

Today we did 8 locks, but two of them had two chambers.  That really just means that there are two locks together.  You go out the gate of one straight into another.  There are some 3 and 4 chamber locks later on in the canal.  So in effect we did 10 locks.  We had identified a mooring area to stay in, but it is completely full.  There don’t seem to be many boats moving on the canal, but it is full of barges, where people obviously live full time and they take up most of the mooring areas.  We go a little further on from the mooring pontoon and find a long bank with bollards on them.  However the bollards are not very close to the shore.  In the end I wind up jumping off the boat with a line and we tie up.  Another new experience.  So we are here on a wild bank.  We did have a walk along back to the lock, but there is nothing there really.  We have had dinner on board and hope to make it to the home of Cassoulet tomorrow.

Just a few words about the canal.  It has a different feel to the Canal de Garonne.  It is narrower and much greener and prettier.  It is very old, having been completed in 1681.  Most of the lock chambers are oval rather than straight sided and some are very deep with a difference of level of up to 6 metres.  We are disturbed to hear from a cyclist we spoke to at one of the locks that further along all the beautiful trees by the canal are diseased and are being cut down!  Apparently we will find the banks devoid of any trees.  What at pity.

Friday 28 June

Today we are on holiday.  We are going to do the sights of Toulouse and indulge in some of their good food.  So I shall play food critic for this entry.

We treat ourselves to real French breakfast of pastries and bread and then go off in to town.  The weather is not great.  It is grey and cool, but not raining or threatening.  We retrace some of our steps from yesterday and go to the Tourist Office in the dongeon of the Capitole.  It is a great building, but they can’t really help us.  They just offer us the same book that we got from the Harbour Master.  That tells us that there are public rooms in the Capitole that we can see.  However when we try to find them they all seem to be closed.

So then we go to the Basilica of Saint Sernin.  This is a very ancient Romanesque church first started in the 11^th century.  What is most unusual about it is that there is an area behind the nave filled with reliquaries from numerous saints.  The idea was that pilgrims came here in the middle ages and could visit the relics without disturbing the rest of the church!  There is also a fascinating crypt with a beautiful 11C casket said to contain a piece of the true cross.  All most interesting.

We then just walk around.  At just about every juncture there is a square, statue or ancient house with an explanation about it.   We wind up at the river - Garonne again, and walk to the Pont Neuf, which belies its name because it was built seven or eight centuries ago (though I can’t remember what century). 

We have now walked our feet off and it is lunchtime.  Yesterday we saw a sushi restaurant and thought that would make a good light meal for us as we are off to a posh dinner tonight.  But try as we may we cannot find it.  We wind up in Monoprix where we buy some bathroom scales.  We may as well find out if we are losing weight on our diet.  Richard asks them if they know where there is a sushi restaurant and they give us directions, but we still can’t find it.  We pass either very nice places offering full three course lunches or pizza places.  Nothing in between.  Eventually we find ourselves at one of the famous covered markets called Victor Hugo.  The market is about to close, but we see that on the top floor there are restaurants.  So we go up.  It is fascinating.  The whole floor is an open plan dinning area divided only by décor into about 6 restaurants.  They all say they produce food using the market produce.  It looks like fun and certainly it is just filled with locals, which must be a good thing.  It takes a while to get a table, because it is very busy despite being late.  I have a salad of warm goats cheese.  It is nice, if not surprising save that they have drizzled the toasted cheese bits with honey which gives it an interesting taste.  Richard has mussels cooked in a Spanish way, not in broth and with lots of garlic.  It also comes with excellent chips!  We both lash out with a glass of white wine (Gaillac again).  So after all that trouble we had a very enjoyable lunch.

So now it is getting late.  We have spotted a big supermarket in a shopping precinct under a station and go there to provision up for the next few days.  We are rather burdened down with shopping, but make it back to the boat.  We thought we would have time for a nice relax, but it is getting late and we must shower to go out.  I want to do my hair.

As I finish my hair, it starts to rain and it has got quite cold.  So I will not be able to wear one of my nice little dresses to dinner.  It will be trousers, again.

We venture out to go to the restaurant - Michel Sarran. Richard has told me all along that it isn’t far from the boat; that turns out to be nonsense.  We wind up walking about three miles in the rain to get there.  By the time I am there I am exhausted and we are a bit late for our table, but that doesn’t seem to matter.

I think this place has the best food we have eaten so far.  Again, we just choose the tasting menu.  5 courses, plus the amuse bouches etc.  First we get what look like Japanese crackers as nibbles, but they are clearly homemade and very good.  After that we get three more little tastes of things I can’t explain except one was a duck paste in a bespoke tube, like a toothpaste tube.  Finally there was the true amuse bouche - three little tastes including a small pot of cassoulet and a quiche lorraine in a tube of pastry instead of a pie crust.  The first course was the most interesting.  It was foie gras, but not as I’ve ever known it.  It was a soup!  The taste was divine and was set off by a Belon oyster in the middle!  That was followed by a fillet of sole with a ravioli.  That too was very tasty, but I would say the pasta was a bit too thick!  Finally we had roasted pigeon breast served with a wonderful dish of what looked like froth, but was petit pois and bits. Then perfect cheese and a dessert of apples done in two different ways.  With coffee we were offered miniature ice cream cones and three tiny but tasty chocolates.  All in all a great meal.  We even had a few words with the chef!

Got home very late and just fell into bed.