Today were heading off to do the next leg to the canal lock at Castets – en-Dorthe and enter the Canal Lateral a la Garonne.

Martin on May Morning and ourselves were waiting this morning for slack water which we both calculated would be around 0930, but by the time 1000 came around the tide was still going out, but was getting noticeably weaker at the pontoon. Martin decided it was slack enough and slipped the lines on May Morning, to go out and under the bridge at Pont Pierre, and we followed suit.

As we approached the bridge I could see the tide was running strong, with Martin still heading for the arch under which we were to pass. On his approach both Sara and I were thinking “Christ turn back Martin” but O’ no our 70yrs+ companion was determined! Well when he hit the main force of the tide, his boat was skewing around, and at one point I thought he had enough time to spin his boat away before the point of no return. It was the point of no return because he was going through the arch (shown on a previous photograph) that has the barriers to save ships hitting the bridge, and as such there was restricted room to manoeuvre a boat.

Well fair play he booted his 20hp engine and fought his way through while Sara and I held our breath……..(I don’t have a good enough command of the English language to describe this scene properly) and he fought his way through and into the slacker water at the other side……..I think it was at this point that I started breathing again!!

We circled around for a time waiting on the tide slackening further, and during this time I took a couple of trial runs at the approach to check the strength of the tide, and both times I turned back to wait a bit longer.

Now, us blokes as most women will agree, have a side to us that beggars logic, and here comes my confirmation of that fact, and the flawed logic that was applied………..

A: Martin was on the other side waiting on us.
B: We have a 92hp engine against his 20hp and he made it through.

So after a time we started in earnest for the arch and into the point of no return, and I heard myself say “jings Sara isn’t the current a wee bit strong”…or words to that effect… If I thought I was holding my breath when Martin was going though, I think I was breathing in reverse at this point!

I had to gun our engine to maximum revs to creep through at 3kts over the ground with the current pulling away at the rudder. Sun Dog pulled through OK, but our speed over the ground meant that the tide at the arch must have been still running at 4/5kts, and how Martins engine pulled him through is testimony to his 20hp Yanmar engine and his own spirit.

Lesson learned……………….

Just a mile or so up river the boat carrying parts of the 380 Airbus came up from behind, and we both tucked ourselves in on the opposite bank until it passed. We then passed Begle which we had considered a possible stop on the way up river before deciding on Bordeaux, and what a good decision that was! As you can see from the photo it is pretty basic and like Pauillac sits in the full flow of the tide.

We enjoyed our time trundling along in glorious sunshine, with lovely river banks all the way. The next point of consideration was under the bridge at Cadillac, where the guide book says to be careful as the current can run strong under the bridge……doesn’t mention the current at the Point Pierre bridge, so you don’t get a prize for our thoughts approaching Cadillac Bridge!

As it turned out there was no real current and under we slipped and continued our way up the river.

Approaching (and exiting) through Langdon, there are a couple of places where one must ensure they are sticking to the correct side of the lateral markers (Red to Port Green to Starboard) as there would be nasty consequences if one went to the wrong side.

This photo was taking looking back at Langdon about a couple of hours before high water.

This photo shows the markers used up river from Langdon and if you look closely you will see the green buoy is attached to the top of this big post with chain……..obviously this is required at certain times, and I would therefore not fancy doing this leg of the trip on a spring tide. I would categorically not do it on an equinoxcial tide

We arrived at the waiting pontoon just before the bridge at Castets – en-Dorthe and the entrance lock is to the right of photo. The white building is next to the lock.

There was a bit of a kerfuffle phoning the lock keeper, and then a big Ovni yachts arrived fully crewed and with them being French nationals they explained that they had also spoken with the lockkeeper and he would open the lock at 1700.

We all went through the first lock which was very narrow with the Ovni in first then Martin on his 26ft Sadler, with us following. At the second lock the lockkeeper wanted me to come in behind the Ovni, and as I was getting Sun Dog tucked in to allow Martin to come into the lock I was surprised to see the gates being closed with Martin on the other side. We assumed the lockkeeper would empty and refill the lock so we toddled along up the canal to Bassane where we rafted against a 43ft Fairline. There was no sign of Martin and we guessed he may have stopped further back, so we decided we would wait for him in the morning and make him a cup of tea.