Auxerre to Vincelles

14 kkms, 8 locks, 3 25 hours

Auxerre from the lock upstream

Today everything went well.  Leaving Auxerre and heading south we are now on the Nivernais Canal.  The locks are a lot smaller (38m x 5m) and not mechanised.  That means there is a lock keeper at each lock who physically winds a windless to open the gates as you approach, closes them behind you, then closes the sluices on those gates with a winch handle, walks to the next set of gates, winds opens the sluices, then when the lock is at the desired level, he (or she) will wind open the gates so you can leave the lock.  This requires a great deal of walking around from one end of the lock to the other and from one side of the lock to the other and it all goes so much quicker if someone on the boat does the winding on one side of the lock and the lock keeper winds on the other side.

At the first lock there was a large tree branch impeding the gates and Ian helped the lockie to get it out of the water.

Winding

Isn't he beautiful? Mr Google tells me this is a White Shepherd, but there seem to be German, Swiss and American White Shepherds.

We were warned to pass quickly by this barrage and not to get too close.

The lovely town of Vaux, with flood defenses!

Here the canal is higher than the river which right alongside

Sometimes one lock keeper will operate more than one lock and we had a lovely young lady who took us through 3 locks.

Our lady lockie on the right, helping out a colleague who was bringing 3 boats downstream

Passing the three hire boats after we had left the lock

The Nivernais Canal runs along the river bed in the lower reaches (where we are now), diverting into canalised sections at the locks.  It is a truly delightful canal and there are many charter boat companies based on the canal.  We passed quite a few hire boats today, all very well behaved, no excitement.

We made excellent time, every one of the 8 locks was ready for us as we approached and we were in and out the other side in about 10 minutes for each lock.  We made it to the last lock at 11.45, just 15 minutes before the locks close for the lunch hour and we were tied up at the quay in Vincelles before 12.15.

Approaching the quay at Vincelles, really shallow on the downstream end

Last year Lynn and Shaun stopped here and there was water an electricity available (not free) from the little restaurant right on the quay.  Unfortunately it seems that the restaurant has closed down, so now the quay has no services.

This is a very small town with 2 bakeries, a pharmacy, a hair dresser, an old church (where a wedding was taking place) and quite a large supermarket with a laundry outside in the car park.  So guess what I did this afternoon!