Thursday 16th June - Le Segala to Castelnaudary

We set off again just after 10 a.m., the others having left at around 8.30.  Crew was let off the boat to set the operation going - there was a lone sailor just exiting so, after waiting a couple of minutes she pressed the 'avalant' button (we are going down now).  After waiting a while nothing was happening. A French lady walking her dog suggested that it was broken so Crew went back to Aphrodite, whereupon  it was noticed that two boats were coming up, so the conclusion was that Crew had not given it enough time after the boat left the lock.  She'll be made to walk the plank if she does it again!!  We managed the next double and triple locks before lunch time in company with a hire boat with a German couple on board.  We had wondered if the automatic single locks also closed for lunch.......apparently they do!!  We had an enforced lunch stop!  We have not seen any vines yet - it's quite arable with wheat and corn and I think some sunflowers.  Our last two locks with just us and Henk went well and we tied up in front of David, with Henk alongside us.  Castelnaudary is a very pleasant old town and Odile, the Capitaine, a lovely woman with good knowledge of boat mooring.  Skip went off to Davids' boat to watch England v Wales, leaving Crew with only half a bottle of sweet white wine (a mistake buy!) or a small amount of Ricard!!  Henk took pity on me and offered me a decent white so I joined him for a couple of glasses.  With the football match at a 1-1 draw, the TV went due to the weather - a storm was passing over!  The weather has not been as good as we'd like for the last few days......room for improvement!
The others wanted a quiet night in, so Skip, Crew and Henk went for dinner at Chez David and enjoyed a very good meal.  A couple of digestifs on Aphrodite and bed!

11 km  8 locks  5 hours