From sea to shining sea

From Royan

Well, against all odds, we made it from the Med to the Atlantic. It was a bit of struggle at times. The Canal de la Robine and the Canal du Midi are both just too shallow for a boat of our draught. We thought we drew 1.37 m which would increase to just over 1.4 m in fresh water. (Obviously you float higher in salt water, it’s being more dense.) Well, we must have gone aground about a hundred times. We were towed twice by holiday folk in rented canal boats, once by a car along the towpath!, twice we winched ourselves off with long ropes and the rest of the times we just pushed and shoved with our long bit of wood, which was left over from making the mast supports – and thank goodness it was, as it came in v. useful on a number of occasions. I used it several times as a narrow and wobbly gangplank for getting ashore with ropes, when we went aground just near to the edge, but not near enough to jump ashore. That happened a lot, as you get a build up of mud all along the edge. If we’d stayed in the middle all the time, we’d have done better, but you have to stop sometimes. If for nothing else, there are locks with big gates and they shut at 6pm.

At the big series of 4 locks coming into Castelnaudary the eclusier (lock-keeper) measured our draught with a big stick thing, and it came out at just over 1.6 m. Well the VNF (Voies Navigables de France) say that La Robine is 1.4m and the Midi is 1.5m and the Garonne is 1.6m. Still we managed it in the end. Once we got onto the Canal Lateral de Garonne, after Toulouse, it was better, except we still went aground at the edges quite a few times when we tried to stop.

Also, we had to keep clearing out the engine water intake filter, which got clogged with leaves and stuff all the time, because of the shallow water, and trying to rev ourselves off the mud. If the engine had overheated and blown up, we’d have been completely b***ered.

It was worth it though. It was a lovely experience, apart from the angst of not knowing if we were going to make it and whether we’d have to get craned out and shipped on a lorry. Also, the uphill locks were pretty hard work. I lost pounds in those first few days, running around at locks and hauling on ropes, the water boiling all round the boat, as we tried to protect the mast from getting damaged on the walls of the locks, not to mention other lock users. The peeps who rent the holiday boats get about half an hour’s instruction in how to drive them, if that. Luckily we didn’t see too many. There was a flurry of them around during the Easter week, but after that, we saw very few other boats. The canals were mainly peaceful and very beautiful. Inland France was a joy to behold as the spring unfolded before our eyes, with waterside flowers, trees coming into leaf, and lots of fluffy ducklings, not to mention the herons, flamingos and frogs – (obviously you’re going to get frogs in France!) We didn’t actually see any of them, but we heard them croaking – “Don’t eat us!” they said.

Shortly after Castelnaudary we went over the watershed and started on the downhill bit. The locks going down are much easier and more relaxed. One of the worst things was the plastic and other cack in the water in Toulouse, especially in the locks. We picked up some plastic bags on the propeller and had to stop 2 or 3 times to try and clear it off. Not easy. You have to tie up alongside somewhere and use the boathook blindly through opaque brown water. One time we tried to leave the lock and we had no power, as it turned out our accelerator cable had broken, due to the extra strain of trying to turn heavy duty plastic sheets through the water which get bound tightly round the spinning propeller. The nice eclusier filled the lock again for us and said we could stay there and try and fix it. Andy managed to rig up a system where the cable comes up through a hole in the cockpit floor and you have to pull on it to go faster, and push it back in to go slower. It was a bit in the way and you had to be careful not to tread on it, but it got us this far. Here in Royan, we were to buy a new cable to fit before we put to sea again.

Once we were out of the last lock, we did about 150 km of river, past Bordeaux to Royan. We did it in three days, using three tides. You can’t go against the tide, as the current is violently fast and strong. We tried to go into Pauillac to get the mast put up, but we went aground! So we ate dinner on the mud and waited for the tide to start coming back in and lift us, then we spent the night rolling around on a buoy – (tee hee).

This morning we had the mast put back up by crane and it’s now going to take us a few days to put everything back together. Andy’s busy trying to get the standing rigging (the cables which hold the mast up straight) all at the right tension, then we have to put the boom back on, refit the pole which holds the radar, the pole which holds the wind-generator, and re-fit all the electric and aerial wires, get the VHF radio and the Navtec working again and the GPS. I hope I can remember how to fit the sails back on, and get all the reefing lines in the right order. I’ve been trying to scrub the muck and filth off the boat which we gathered from Mediterranean moorings and the filthy muddy ropes from all the locks. The boat is now permanently stained green from the gazillion leaf-cases which fell off the plane and lime trees lining the canals.

I’d do the canals again, but next time I’d go by bike. There is a fab cycle track all the way along the old towpath, and no worries about trying to keep floating, or doing the locks, and there are some really beautiful Chambres d’Hotes.

Meantime, it’s back to getting the weather forecasts and studying the tides.

Life on the Canal

We're inland! Weird! Sally's never been above sea level before!

At the mo I'm in McDonald's in Carcassonne - the first bit of internet we've had for several days.

The canals are a bit shallow really. We keep going aground. We've been towed off once and winched ourselves off with ropes once, after I made a heroic leap ashore. We've got our lock technique off to a fine art now. But it's pretty knackering - a lot of rope handling - very very long ropes, too. I think the downhill ones, after Castelnaudary will be easier.

Carcassonne is pretty amazing. We had a look at the medieval fortified Cite today. The little French towns we go through on the canal are quiet, pretty and unspoilt. There are lots of wine chateaux, too. Lovely.

Shame it's been very cold a lot of the time.

Next stop, Toulouse.

Gotta get out of McDonalds.