Today was only going to be trip of a few hours to Moissac. The trip itself was fairly straightforward until, in one of the locks, a Frenchwoman pressed the button to activate the locks before we had our lines secured. Nimble work by Sara on shore saved the day. It was an honest mistake with no harm done, and apologies were quickly offered and accepted with a smile.

The approach into Moissac is rather neat as you can see by the following photograph

A short trip along this part of the canal, one arrived at the swing bridge where after toot on the horn (as per the book) the VNF chap activates the opening of the bridge.

Then a few hundred yards after the swing bridge we arrived at Port Plaisance where the Capitainere office is run by an English couple, who I have to say were very pleasant and helpful. They have a washing machine and dryer available and we took full use of these facilities. Whilst waiting on the washing etc some of the locals were fed by Sara…………….anyone any idea what kind of bird the big one is?

Here we are tied alongside at Moissac, and if I end up carrying much more on the top of the boat, we will be looking more and more like something out of the Beverley Hillbillies, and folks will no doubt, start calling me Jed Clampett!!

A fair chunk of the afternoon was spent on engine/boat maintenance, and it’s always a good feeling when this kind of work is completed. One thing I meant to say on previous entries is that the raw water filter (to cool the engine the sea water/canal water is drawn into the boat through a mesh filter before going through the heat exchanger) really does need to be checked and emptied fairly regularly. On Sun Dog I know when the filter is starting to get blocked with weeds/grass etc because the exhaust note changes, and a careful eye is kept on the engine temperature gauge until we either arrive at our destination, or alternatively go alongside somewhere to clean out the mesh filter.

We set off this morning in agreement that we would simply continue along the canal until we found somewhere that looked like a nice place to stop. We both thought that Agen would probably work out best. En route the scenery was lovely and the sun was baking hot today so drinking copious amounts of water was required, and regularly consumed.

We reached the outskirts of Agen where the canal turns sharp left – there is serious danger if one was to continue straight on. Strange thing is we saw no “No Entry” or “Stop you fool you are about to go over a Weir” signs.

There are then four reasonable deep locks in a row, we were entering the second one and just getting our lines sorted out when an English voice said “do you want me to press the green button?” (that starts the locking process) I replied no, no thanks – not until we have the boat sorted out. within seconds he was asking the same question and I was getting hacked off with him. Then Sara, being on the shore side was sorting out the stern line when 10 seconds later, matey boy said to her; “do you want me to press the green button?” The emphatic NOoooooo! from Sara that boomed around the lock left him in absolutely no doubt that we didn’t want the bloody green button pressed by him. It was quite funny, …….but there again perhaps you needed to be there!!

Immediately after these locks is the Agen Viaduct which goes over the Garonne River. It is a unique experience taking a boat high up in the air, and over another piece of water. The length of this aquaduct is 580 metres ……really neat.

We duly arrived in Agen but it was all a bit too busy for us so we decided to keep going, and decided that if we didn’t find anywhere nicer along the way, we would ultimately stop at Valance D’ Agen – a further 26km.

We eventually arrived at the last lock just before Valance D’Agen, only to find that the pole which hangs from a wire to activate the automatic locks was missing!! Unless we could activate the switch which is strung across the canal on a wire, we would be stuck this side of the lock until it was reported and repaired. Sara reckoned that if we got Sun Dog stopped right underneath the box attached to the wire, she could then reach it by standing on the wheelhouse roof. This was too much to ask and I decided that I should do this as I am a bit taller. This was duly done with me hoping, whilst about to touch this metal box, that I wasn’t going to turn into a bit of a live wire myself! I’m pleased to say I survived, and thankfully this did activate the lock, and in we went.

We set up as normal, however this turned out to be a really strong bitch of a lock and even though I was on the bow, I nearly lost the front end of the boat due to the pressure of water – this might be the difference/downside – between automated locks versus lockkeepers. Rhetorical question is – Who actually sets the flow rate and time cycle for these locks? In my humble opinion, there is no way that a lockkeeper would have let water in so fast.

A couple of kilometres further on, we pulled into the stop all hot and sticky after 8hrs in the baking sun. Watching anyone getting onto these pontoon to get the lines secured would be hilarious on Candid Camera, as the shakes that are induced are pretty much uncontrollable…………….I do hope no one had their video on me today as they could make money selling it to Jeremy Beadle ?

One thing we were really thankful for today was Sun Dog’s wheelhouse, as opposed to an open cockpit where one would have fried unless they had a bimini (canvas cover over the cockpit to act as a shade) as the only natural shade available is when going through an avenue of Plane Trees.

You can also see how much pressure the helm is under whilst transiting the canal, duly swathed to impress the locals in this years “must have” nautical gear….

We left this morning with Martin back to his usual effusive self, and set off for Buzet-Sur-Baise, and I have to say it was a really pretty stopping place. Four euro’s per night, two euro’s for a shower, and two euro’s for unlimited fresh water total for the overnight stop 10 euro’s – best price so far (apart from the free ones) and putting Sables D’Olonne into second place; as they had charged us 11 euro’s.

Martin decided that he needs to push on now, as he has fallen behind in his overall timetable to motor up through the rivers and canals of France to reach Calais and then up the east coast of England to home. We wished him the best of luck, and asked that he doesn’t take undue risks and keeps himself safe.

Sara and I then got out the folding bikes (a gift from John and Sue) and peddled up to the town to get provisions etc. Then it was back to the boat to watch the final disc of “Lost”. As you may recall we bought the boxed set of this series, and by watching the occasional episode it has lasted since we left Scotland – pretty good purchase at the sales. Perhaps we might strike lucky and find another boxed set of programmes we never watched when they were running on TV…..perhaps “24” or The Sopranos (?) would be good.

Today we set off again in company with Martin, and started working our way through the locks. Some (in fact most) locks fill nice and gently but occasionally there are some where the water rushes into the lock very strongly. In one of these locks the force of water was too much for Martin to hold onto his lines (he was trying to hold both lines from the coach roof of his boat) and he simply had to let go of his lines before his arms were out of their sockets. Thankfully Sara was on the side where the control box was and hit the stop button quickly.

Naturally despite hitting the stop button (which stops the complete lock cycle) the water takes a bit of time to calm down, and sadly this meant Martins boat was swilling around in the lock, and his pulpit (the guard rail on the front of the boat) smashed hard into the lock gates and it was pretty badly twisted out of shape. In a perverse way he was kind of lucky, as his mast went right through the hole in the top of the gate and it didn’t get twisted or broken. Or even worse the rocking and rolling might have put him over the side!

It was a real shame this happened, and he was, as one could imagine, somewhat disconsolate. I told him we would stop and fix it out when we arrived at Mas D’Agnenais, as it was only about another hour further down the canal, and there was no immediate risk of losing his mast over the side.

We duly reached Mas D’ Agnenais and managed to get his boat alongside at a spot where we could get his mast off the pulpit and assess the damage. The rest of the day was spent removing the pulpit and working away to get it straightened. This entailed many adjustments/fitting/removing/trial and error until eventually we had it looking pretty good – in fact if one hadn’t known it had been so seriously clouted you wouldn’t really have noticed. The final part was trying to fit a strong insert into the upright to give it more strength and I ended up using a hardwood hammer shaft and filed this to fit, thus giving as strong a joint as we could make.

It was evening by the time we were finished and I don’t know about Martin, but I was about out on my feet as all this had been in done in very high temperatures. Anyhow I hope that after he has a good night’s sleep he will feel better about things tomorrow. I shudder when I think what might have happened if he was going through the locks himself and there was no one there to hit the stop button.

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.

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.

Last night as I looked over to the bridge I could see “something” under the bridge arches, and this morning with it being low tide, I could clearly see that these are Armco barrier type structures, similar to those on the side of our UK motorways. These are obviously in place to stop commercial boats hitting/damaging the bridge.

We had a bit of a relaxing/lazy morning, before heading out to look around the city, and we both think it is extremely interesting with lovely old buildings throughout the area in which we were walking.

We also found the public park and think we might have surprised a statue by walking in so quietly……………………….

If ever anyone is sailing down the French coast, Bordeaux would certainly be worth the detour, especially as there is this visitors pontoon. Yachts can now sail down with their masts up and thus allow sailors to explore this lovely city.

O’ and by the way this is a shot of the surprised statue from a different angle 😉

Having looked at the information on the Gironde River, we have changed our mind and decided that we would go straight to Bordeaux and miss out stopping at Pauillac. As the tide was moving from spring to to neap tides, the river current is indicated at being 2kts (ish) on the flood (the direction we were going) and about 4kts+ on the ebb.

This meant that if we maintained a speed of around 6kts through the water, plus the added benefit of the flood stream we would make Bordeaux easily on the one tide. We also had the benefit of some information from a lovely couple Peter and Amanda off “Colinette V” who had driven to Bordeaux for a look around, and told us there was a new pontoon on the starboard side of the river, just before Pont de Pierre, for leisure boats to tie up and enable them to visit the city. This is good joined up thinking on behalf of the city, as it means yachts can now come down the Gironde to Bordeaux and stop without needing to drop their masts or find somewhere to stop prior to the Pont de Pierre.

Martin off “May Morning” who is travelling solo, wanted to follow us down to Bordeaux, even though it was going to be a really early start due to the tides. After dropping the mast etc I had removed the light boxes from the wheelhouse roof in preparation for the canals, but then realised it would be dark when we left in the morning to had to refit these and taped a small torch onto the horizontal mast to act as a steaming light.

At 0445 both boats left Royan and headed out to join the main shipping channel, and within a few minutes I admit that I was a bit confused over a single red light that appeared to be the port light from a yacht to our starboard, and therefore could have been cutting across in front of us – we would be the give way vessel. At the same time there was a big commercial boat on our port side, going out to sea on the last of the ebb, which was fine and easy to keep clear. The reason for the red light suddenly dawned on me –it wasn’t a yacht but rather the sectored light of Cordouan Lighthouse……………silly me!!

Following the channel down was pretty straightforward and once we had daylight we could see the banks on both sides of the river. Sara commented on how strange it was to once again have land on both sides of us, and she was absolutely right.

Passing Pauillac.

If ever coming down the river you can get “two charts in one” from the Navicarte Series Nos 553 & 554, and you shouldn’t really attempt it without these charts.

I was pleased we had decided to miss out Pauillac as it didn’t really hold much appeal, and from the pilot book it stated that we would be advised to arrive at slack water as the tide runs through the marina uninterrupted. Parking up a boat in a tight marina with strong current running through is not for the faint hearted, and could easily lead to an exchange of insurance information!

On the river bank we saw a ship loaded with a section of the new airbus, which must be manufactured locally.

At various section along the banks there were these fisherman huts built above the river banks.

Later we arrived at the junction of the Dordogne and Garonne rivers, which then merge and become the Gironde river and run out to sea. The following shot shows us coming down the Gironde, with the Dordogne River to the left of the photo and the Garonne River to the right.

The tide was way stronger on the way down that any of us imagined, and naturally varied when compressed between islands/narrow sections. The following shot off the chart plotter shows us travelling at 11kts over the gound i.e 6kts boat speed + 5kts of tide – by this time there was no doubt about arriving at Bordeaux before the tide turned!

Vigilance must be maintained going down these rivers and a good look out kept for branches/logs, and sometime entire trees – thankfully we didn’t come across any big lumps of vegetation and arrived safely at Bordeaux and tied up at the new pontoon.

The local municipal policeman came down to give us the codes to the combination padlocks and told us that the pontoon was officially opened last Tuesday, but as yet there is no electricity connected, but there are hose connections for fresh water.

Later whilst sitting in the cockpit I saw a strange thing coming down against the current, and at first I thought it some kind of eel (or perhaps Nessie’s wee cousin down for a holiday). As it came closer Sara and I thought it might be an otter, but we were not convinced. Just as I grabbed the camera it turned away and this is the best shot I could manage. Someone later said it might have been a Coypu……………..

We managed to get the books containing the information we needed on the canal system, especially the height and width of all the bridges on the way though. The narrowest and lowest height bridge (therefore the key one for us) is on the Canal du Midi, and whilst we will be OK on height at the centre of the bridge, the complication comes as this bridge is an arch, and therefore width reduces the higher you are vertically i.e air draft. From the photo below you can see the situation with us having an air draft of around 3 mtrs in sea water, and a wee bit lower in fresh water and we need to consider the width of the wheelhouse at this height.

So that’s it – decision made, it’s through France via the Gironde River, down to Bordeaux, and onwards to join the two canals (Lateral & Midi) to the Med.

We decided to drop the mast here in Royan, and I also decided to remove the navigation light boxes from the sides of the wheelhouse to aid our transit under the bridges. Dropping the mast is straightforward enough, but I needed to ensure that the radar and deck light fitted between the wheelhouse windscreen and the “tabernacle” that the mast sits into. The boatyard guys weren’t interested in helping, but thankfully a couple of French guys on the visitors pontoon gave us assistance, and I was so pleased when we had the mast properly aligned and secured.

Once the mast was secured, a final measurement from the end of the mast to the waterline clarifies we are OK on air height, and I am confident we will be fine – tight under the lowest bridge as above – but fine. Could however be “interesting” when we get there………..

We are now waiting on the right weather forecast to head down the Gironde, which is a seriously big tidal river. With the mast down and no mainsail to steady her, Sun Dog would roll a bit in waves, and I want to avoid any chance of the mast moving. It’s properly tied lashed down, and as we are on holiday it doesn’t really matter too much how long we need to wait on the weather window, as we need to be sure, as it will take us three days to get to the canal entrance.

Our first stop is intended to be at Pouillac, next one at Begles close to Bordeaux, and then down to the first lock at Castets – en- Dorthe.

We are now over 1,000 sea miles since the start of our trip and we have loved almost all of them. Going through the canal system through France will add a further dynamic to the holiday and will be interesting in its own way – hope my calculations are right!

Love to all G n’ S.

This morning when all the rafted boats started moving it was all a bit chaotic, with boats hitting the rocks on the breakwater and others hitting other boats, as they all fought for a bit of water to manoeuvre their boats……bizarre!

We left them all to it, and waited until the chap to whom we were rafted was ready to leave, and we then slipped our lines turned the boat as there by now plenty of room, and out we went to head for Royan.

As we had plenty of time to get to the entrance to the Gironde River I decided to keep well clear of the headland where I had watched big breakers yesterday. Our plan was to stay well offshore and keep clear of all the wrecks inshore and make a final decision on our entry point into the Gironde Estuary, until we were further down the coast and able to see the effects of the tide/swell etc at the entrance.

The sun was burning away in a clear blue sky as we sailed along at the heady speed of 3kts over the ground, until that is, we needed to get a bit more speed to ensure we arrived at the entrance at least two hours before high water allowing us to arrive at Royan at slack water as per the pilot book.

Now our friends that write these pilot books have a field day about the entrance and have dire warning about not cutting the corner over the Bank de Mauvaise/Banc de Coubra. Indeed one book suggested staying out to the BXA marker buoy which is about five miles west of the first lateral buoys…………………I deemed the conditions to be good enough that we could pick up these lateral bouys between numbers 2 and 2a, so that’s where we headed.

The leading lights/line on the run in through these first few pairs of markers takes you pretty close to the Banc de Coubra and we could see huge breakers coming onto this bank, and when I say close I mean close. I navigated more to starboard and went south of the cardinal marker, but even then I was struggling to keep my eyes off these breaking waves. We were bang on spring tides and the sweep of the current means close attention needs to be paid to maintain course, and a constant check behind looking at the markers we passed helped us stay on track. Now at this point I would have to say that the warnings in the pilot book are warranted and should be heeded – to attempt coming into the entrance in adverse conditions, could lead one to discover religion quite quickly.

Approaching Royan the sky went a really peculiar colour, and the contrast with the colour of the sea/estuary was something to behold. I tried capturing it in the following photograph, but didn’t manage it too well.

About half an hour after we got into Royan and tied up at the visitors berth, a few things happened simultaneously. The wind increased dramatically and spun around 180 degrees, fork and sheet lightning filled the sky, and the rain pelted down in Biblical volumes. Thank goodness we arrived when we did, and that didn’t have to contend with these conditions on our way into the Gironde.

When we left Scotland we had agreed that Royan would be our “decision making point” in that we could either cut across Biscay to the Spanish Rias on the North Coast of Spain, and then work our way down the western coast of Spain and Portugal. The alternative would be to drop the mast at Royan and go down the Gironde River to enter the canal system that cuts through France and come out at the Med. However we really needed to find detailed information on this canal system to ensure Sun Dog could make it through with Air Draught (height of wheelhouse etc) being the main consideration, but our draft will also increase as we will be in fresh (sic) water in the canal system so caution will be the watchword.

If she doesn’t fit then across Biscay it will be, as there will be no point in spending weeks going through the canal to find out we cannot fit through the lowest bridge on the route, and have to turn back.