Sunday 27th May - St.-Leger-sur-Dheune to Montchanin

As it was to be a heavy lock day, we left the mooring promptly at 9 a.m.   On Skips’ itinerary, it was stated that we had nine locks to work but when Crew did a count, it came to nineteen......quite a difference!!  For the most part, everything went smoothly but the Canal du Centre is probably one of the older canals in France and we’re not easy to work through.  The poles that needed to be pushed were situated at the far end of the locks, very close to the gates so Skip was climbing the nasty ladders to go to the top of the lock in order to push the pole.  This made Crew very nervous ( he’s no spring chicken you know!) so it was deemed safer to drop him off on the bank to walk up and operate the lock that way.  We were very grateful to have Gary and Tina on board as we would have struggled somewhat with just the two of us - how a lone sailor would cope, I don’t know!
We stopped for a 45 minute lunch break five locks before our destination just to rejeuvenate ourselves as it was by now very warm and humid.  Our last locks were very close together and we got through them pretty quickly. Then a three kilometre run to the mooring.  We passed a German couple we had shared locks with two days ago who were moored on some bollards but when we got to the recommended mooring it was very narrow with tatty boats moored each side so a very narrow entrance.  We decided against it and turned round to moor behind the Germans, which was fine but without power.
As it had been a long humid cruise, we all enjoyed a bit of a siesta until Gary decided to go for a bike ride.  We had had the bikes repaired last year but when the boys tried to pump up the tyres, they found it difficult to get any of the pumps to work.  After some difficulty they managed to get enough air in the tyres and Gary peddled off into the distance.  There was nothing much to be seen but he did find a garage and got the tyres pumped up properly!
As there was no possibility of a restaurant, Crew cobbled together roast chicken for dinner, unfortunately eaten below as a storm had decided to pay us a visit!  After dinner it abated enough for us to retire to the back deck for digestifs and a silly game.  It transpired at around 11 p.m. that it was Gary and Tinas’ 18th wedding anniversary.......neither of them had realised it until then!!

19 locks. 19 km. 5 1/2 hours