This morning we were chatting to the two guys on the Fairline, it transpires this is their first boat, and they said they had never been through a canal before. They then took us by surprise and pulled out a newspaper report showing them on the rocks at Langdon. They were not making excuses, simply stating it was a mistake as they went the wrong side of the markers. Furthermore, at the time they had wives and children on board, and the emergency services had to get them off the rocks. The photos in the newspaper showed the boat on its side with all the kids in lifejackets etc………scary stuff.

Their generator apparently wasn’t working so we made them a cup of tea, for which they were most grateful. In conversation they asked what they should do when they go into the locks. I asked what they had done in the previous locks, and their reply was that they simply held the boat in the lock with engine and bow thruster to maintain position!

Then we were asked to show them how to tie on fenders, and also “how do you tie a loop into a rope?”…….I was, by this point beginning to think this was some kind of wind up, or part of Candid Camera!

It then transpired that this was not their first attempt at going up the canal. Apart from the near catastrophe at Langdon, they had tried to go up before and at one of the bridges they had snapped off all their aerials and almost took off the targa style arch on the back of their boat. They had to turn around in the canal and go back to Castets, where a French chap helped them remove the arch, and lay it on the bow so that they were low enough to get under all bridges.

They were really nice guys and freely admitted they were learning from their mistakes, and not trying to make any excuses – and explained that they were looking forward to getting out into the flat waters of the Med. When I asked what they meant; they said that the Med was akin to a big boating pond, and as it was fully enclosed and had no tide, therefore there would be no waves, and they could blast about to their hearts content.

You couldn’t make this up, and I’m not being smart or smug, because I actually liked the guys but dear me…………….

We slipped our lines to let them out and then went alongside the pontoon to wait on Martin and help him, where we can, through the locks. He duly arrived and rafted alongside to have a cup of tea with milk, which is his joy because he doesn’t have a fridge on his boat. He told us that after we went through the lock last night the lockkeeper turned off the lights leaving Martin on the other side for the night.

From here on the locks are automatic and they are really neat. If you look at this photo you can see a pole hanging from a wire across the canal.

One approaches this pole and gives it a quarter turn, and this starts the automatic process. At first the lights at the lock is red, and once the pole has been turned there is still the red, but also a flashing amber light to let you know the process has started. Once the lock is ready the gates open and the light goes to green.

At the side of the lock there are steps to drop someone off the boat so that they can take lines, and once the boats are secure, it’s simply a case of pressing a green button on the control panel and the lock then starts filling. The real bonus is that it fills slowly and gently with no big rush of water. Once the lock fills and the boats are at the top the gates open and off you toddle to the next one……..simply brilliant in my book, and so easy.

Our day was a short one as we only intended going a short distance to Meilhan, tying up there for the day, and get showered etc. It was lovely trundling along through avenues of Plane trees listening to the birds singing their wee hearts out – simply delightful.

Here we are alongside the canal tied to a tree root at Meilhan.