We left at 10a.m. - a longer run with 8 locks. The first lock responded to the telecommande and gave us a red and a green light, then after a minute or two, decided to change to two reds, which means a malfunction of some sort......typical, the first lock! So after a few attempts to call an engineer, we managed to connect and help was on the way.
The canal is not particularly attractive, with not much surrounding scenery or many villages or houses to see, so a fairly boring cruise! As the locks were so dirty, Crew fixed a rubbing board to the side of the boat as the rope surround was getting filthy and indeed, rubbing away when the turbulent cascade of water coming in bashed us against the lock wall......not our favourite locks!!
We arrived at our final lock and were waiting for the red light to go out, allowing us to enter - alas, it didn’t but against our principles, we entered anyway. Unfortunately when we tried to activate the lock, the gates wouldn’t close! It turned out that there was a tree branch stuck behind the lock gate. So, another call to the VNF - Crews’ theory that if there is a problem to be had, it will happen at the first and/or the last locks was certainly true today!!
We arrived in St. Dizier after 2 p.m., got settled and had some lunch, after which Skip and Henk walked to the fuel office to arrange a diesel delivery. Since they were able to get fuel delivered around 8.30 in the morning we decided to only stay one night and move on to Chamouilley in the morning, which is a much nicer port.
After our usual aperitifs we walked across the road to the hotel where we had dined well last year. Maybe the chef had the night off sadly though as the food was nowhere near as good as our last visit.
Never mind-some you win, some you lose!
Digestifs then bed.
16.5 km. 8 locks 4 1/4 hours
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