Wednesday 27th June - Meaux to La Ferte-sous-Juarre

As we had around 20 km before the first lock Skip was keen to get going early so we left just before 8 a.m........yikes -what’s happening!!  The first lock we came to had a red light and indeed we had to wait for the lock to empty which seemed like an age as we were bouncing around in the turbulent waters of the adjacent weir - not to mention the shallows near the bank!  Skip had to abort his first attempt at entering the lock, so strong was the rush of water but made it on the second go.
The Marne was very wide here with a speed limit of 12 kph but although we slowed considerably when we spotted fishermen hiding in the trees, two of them still yelled at us in incomprehensible French -as far as we could see we were making hardly any wash at all.  So we just put it down to an angry fisherman area!!!
Our second lock also had a red light and indeed had to empty as well which we couldn’t really understand as the only other boat we came across was cruising in the opposite direction to us!  There are a lot of small islands on this stretch of the river which need careful navigation as there are a lot of hazards, shoals and rocks namely!  Indeed our mooring was tucked behind one of said islands -we were very surprised to find a large commerce moored on the first pontoon but we found plenty of space at the front of the second one and with power and water.  There was also plenty of room for the two boats coming later from Meaux.
A couple of hours later, just as we were going to have lunch, the two boats turned up - Pelican (a brand new 15m barge with Chris and Sarah on board and Kavan

a motor sailer with Steve and Lynne aboard.  After helping them in we continued our lunch, then settled for a siesta in the heat of the day!
Just after four o’clock, Sarah came over and suggested a pontoon party around 5.30.......haven’t attended one of those for ages!
So we turned up with a couple of chairs and a couple of bottles at the appointed time.  We enjoyed a good old chat, finding out about each others’ lives and before we knew it, it was 9.30 - one of the longest ‘apero’ meetings in history!!
Luckily Crew had defrosted some chilli con carne that she had previously cooked but we still didn’t eat until just after 10 p.m.
A bit of TV and bed.

44 km. 2 locks. 4 hours