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| 44 kms, 7 locks, 9 hours |
Not an
enjoyable day today. Probably one of the
most frustrating we have had on the waterways in 5 years.
It all
started off so well. The sun was
shining, it was not too cold, I did a baguette and pastries run to the bakery
at 7.30 and we left the lovely marina at Moret-sur-Loing at 8.00.
As we passed
the marina at Saint Mammés another pleasure cruiser joined us. Oh no, we just hoped they would be stopping
at Montereau at the confluence of the Seine and Yonne because the locks on the
Yonne have sloping sides and the first 3 do not have floating pontoons. For a small cruiser to negotiate these locks
is not easy and if there are too many boats it becomes a nightmare.
And that’s
how it turned out, because they did not stop. At that stage we were
in the front of the convoy. Entering these locks, the lock-keeper takes the
boats’ bowline, held out at arm’s length at the end of a boat-hook, and walks it
forward to drop over a bollard. No
problem with that but she walked us all the way to the front of the lock. As a small cruiser you really do not want to
be at the front of a lock when going upstream.
Then she took Ian’s aft line and dropped it over the same bollard. This was really worrying and I asked her
about the turbulence at the front of the lock. No problem, she says, it will be
“doucement”. So we accepted it. Then as Elle came in she told them to tie
alongside us! What? They are much bigger and heavier than
us. We knew it was a bad idea but you
are supposed to listen to the lock keeper, who is supposed to know what they
are doing(!), so we complied. The third
boat, a small private barge, biggest and heaviest of all, was given a place at
the back of the lock all by themselves. Well, of course, it was a
nightmare. As the water rushed in at the
front of the lock we swung like a pendulum with our fore and aft lines on a single
bollard and with a heavy boat alongside us it was impossible to push off the
sides of the lock with boat hooks, and in fact one of our boat hooks was
trashed in the process. Shaun tried his
best to use his engines and bow thruster to stop the pendulum motion but we
bumped and scraped our way all the way up the lock sides. Moral of the story – if you think the lockie
is wrong, do what you think is right!
They are not gods!
After exiting the
lock Ian was so annoyed he about turned, let the other two pass us and joined
the back of the queue. I am never doing
that again, he said. Well, of course,
the boat that had been at the back of the lock in the calm water was not that
happy with us and went slower and slower trying to induce us to pass them. Nope.
We would rather go into idle and stop completely. Which we did, many times. So Elle disappeared into the distance and had
to wait forever in the next lock until we arrived. After the last experience
they had a few words with the lock keeper when she wanted to take them right to
the front of the lock. But eventually we
all managed to find a spot alongside the wall with just one line to a
bollard. We left ours really slack and
Ian controlled the position of the boat with the engine and bow thruster well away from the lock side. Sanity was restored!
All went
well for the next few locks, until we got to the second last one where the
lockie took Elle’s bowline and lead them right to the front of the lock. There is a floating pontoon at the downstream
end of this lock but Elle was told not
to tie up there. The 16m barge,
Oldtimer, tied up to the pontoon and motioned for us to tie alongside, which we
did. And we watched in horror as Lynn
and Shaun battled the turbulence way in front.
All three boats could have tied alongside each other at the pontoon so
why did the lockie insist that they had to be at the front of the lock? Well,
they had an even worse time than we did.
It was just a miserable day!
9 hours
after leaving Moret we arrived, at
Pont-sur-Yonne; last year the same trip took us 7 hours!. The rain started just as we tied up and it is
going to continue well into tomorrow so we will stay here for 2 nights.
There is a
chip shop just 5 minutes’ walk from the marina so we had barbecued sausage,
chips and salad for dinner.
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