The morning did not start too well as there was a lot of boat traffic so timing our departure was tricky. Just as we decided to leave two boats arrived, going our way.......thus it was that we didn't depart until almost 10 o'clock! As we are now on the Canal de l'Aisne a la Marne the system is different although our first lock had a pole to twist. Unfortunately after twisting a couple of times we still had a red light. An English chap on his boat told us that it was normal......we found it disconcerting to say the least as there was no indication that the lock was preparing for us. The second lock was worse as there was now no pole to twist so we assumed there was a sensor somewhere although we couldn't spot one. Again a solitary red light greeted us so after waiting a while we moored on the bank and Skip went to call the VNF. Eventually the lady eclusier who was at the last lock arrived and emptied the lock for us. The system seemed to kick in after our first two of this chain of eight locks but as they were built for commercial barges the bollards in the locks were rather far apart. Also as each lock was almost 3 metres deep it meant quite a stretch to get our lines secured (not very good for Crews' still aching neck!). A couple of kilometres after the eighth lock came the tunnel of Mont-de-Billy, 2.3 kilometres in length. As tunnels go it was pretty good - fairly wide and straight as a die. A couple of kilometres out of the tunnel we were surprised and delighted to find that we were now going down......obviously not paying attention to the chart!! Three locks later and we arrived in Sillery and managed to get the last available mooring.
No fresh bread of course (remember the boulangerie closed for the month!!) so cheese and biscuits for lunch. After his brief siesta, Skip went to the supermarket again......am really getting worried about this obsession!! Our Trip Advisor info tells us that there are three restaurants in the area but repeated phone calls to what looks like the best one, got no result so Skip walked into the village. As he couldn't find any other hostelry of any sort, he just caught the boulangerie before it closed and came back with bread and quiche.......makes a change from pizza I suppose!! Crew is really looking forward to a nice lunch or dinner out sometime but France seems to be closed at the moment!!
Weather wise, it has been a perfect day for cruising - sun and cloud and no wind. We 'dined' on the aft deck with a temperature of around 24c.......lovely!
24 km 11 locks 1 tunnel 5 hours
No comments:
Post a Comment