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!
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