Today was only going to be three locks, a couple of low bridges to look out for and 6km. Leaving Port l’embouchure there are three bridges. The one on the left being the one we came through last night (and turned right) The one of the right being Canal de Brienne, and the middle one being the one we needed.

As we approached the first lock there was no pole to turn, but the locks were activated as it turns out by the lockkeeper who has this area covered by cameras. The first lock was 2.6m and straightforward. The second lock was 4.5m and straightforward. The third one was 6.2m and, as it turns out not so straightforward, at least for me.

Approaching this lock under a bridge there is a strange sense of foreboding ( a bit of an exaggeration but it makes the point) I dropped Sara off at the stairs and entered the lock. I could only see one pole, but then saw a a bollard recessed into the wall which looked like it rose and fell so I put a slip line around this and then tried to get the bow line around the recessed pole, as per previous locks. Problem was the stern line was just a touch too short and I couldn’t reach to get the bow line round the pole. This meant changing the stern line for a longer one so that I could reach. Now all the time I’m looking at these not unsubstantial lock gates in front of me hoping that no one pressed the button, the consequences of which would have certainly spoiled my day. Sara went around to stand by the red button, which stops the process should anything go amiss.

When safely tied on, the locks activated (again via cameras) and thank goodness it was a gentle rise to the top of the lock, where guess what…….yep more folks down on their luck lining the lock. Sara came back on board and said the staircase where I dropped her off was stinking and full of old syringes etc!!! When exiting the lock there were more of these people “sleeping” on the grassy banks and others with their special brew. I’m sure this is not the image the city council would wish to portray – but it’s staring visitors in the face all the way from the outskirts of the city……………………………..the other reality is that with hindsight there was no need for Sara to get off the boat, and we would both recommend trusting the personnel monitoring and controlling the lock remotely.

Once through the lock we arrived at one of the low bridges, but made it through fine, and duly arrived at Port St Sauveur, where I tied up at the fuel pontoon. This port is run by “Sylvienne” whose reputation as a bit of a stickler is known all the way down the Canal Lateral, and she does not like boats turning up without previously making a reservation. Thus we had made our reservation, once we had sorted out the boys flights and knew we would be picking them up from Toulouse Airport.

She may be a stickler, but I tell you what the place is spotless and colourful with loads of plants and flowers, and seems like an oasis in a sea of misery. She could not have been nicer to us, and I guess her reputation is borne out of people not understanding the way she likes things done.

We visited the nearby Patisserie for breakfast food, followed by some food shopping, and then went into the city. Now as most folks know I’m not really a city person, but I have to say that it was beautiful in places and spotlessly clean. What a difference from our initial experience!! We have also spotted the VNF office which is open between 1000 – 1200 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and we will visit them tomorrow to buy our canal licence. This might seem strange as we have been in the canal since Castets-en-Dorthe, but this is the first opportunity for anyone travelling this way to purchase the licence……….

Anyhow here we are parked up with the boat all fuelled, provisioned, and ready and waiting to receive the “additional crew” who arrive on Saturday evening. If the boys are up to it we will be heading off into the lovely countryside on Sunday.

Here is photo of Port St Sauveur, and if you are ever travelling this way by boat, it is a well run, safe, secure and spotlessly clean port in the centre of Toulouse and recommended.

With the flights booked for Reyce and Prentice we thought it prudent to make a move in the direction of Toulouse. According to the books the only real stopping point between Montech and Toulouse was at Grisolles.

When we arrived at the first lock – heigh ho – double red lights, (which means lock out of service) so we had to park the boat and Sara went up to the lock. With there being no lockkeeper she had to press the VNF call button which is on the same control panel as the green and red buttons. Then in her best French she explained that “Ecluse Dix il ne fait pas, monsieur” and was taken aback when an English voice said, “OK I see, lock ten is out of service – I’ll call the lockkeeper”. Just as Sara arrived back at the boat the VNF van was coming along the tow path and within minutes the problem was resolved. Excellent service and response time, and full credit to VNF.

When we arrived at Grisolles it all looked a bit Spartan (see photo below) so we decided that the day would be a long one, and we would work the locks all the way to Toulouse.

When we arrived at Toulouse we went through the last lock on the Canal Lateral. As we were a bit tired we looked for a place to tie up, but this area seemed to have a number of people who were down on their luck. We then noticed a new concrete jetty with bollards and the perimeter was surrounded by security fencing. I thought to myself that will do nicely and we tip toed in towards this jetty. When we were about three feet away Sara shouted to back up, and as it turned out there were big rocks lurking just under the surface. We headed off again, and decided we would park up for the night at the Port de l’embouchure as there was not enough time left to get through the remaining locks to Port St Sauveur where we had booked four nights berthing.

On the way to Port de l’embouchure the canal banks had more and more folks down on their luck, and when we arrived at the Port there was a small group of New Age travellers parked up with their vans in the car park with their Alsatian dogs. Not exactly a nice “Welcome to Toulouse” experience. But to be fair to everyone, there was no hassle or noise during the night. This port marks the change from Canal Lateral to Canal du Midi, with the Midi starting once we pass the elaborate marble bas relief on the wall

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We had a bit of a day in front of us today as it was baking hot and we were going to work through some 14 locks. After the first three locks we were once again experiencing a trip over a river on a viaduct.

In this photo you can see the trees etc piled up on the left hand side of the river bank and after heavy rain these will float off down the rivers, and any of these meeting ones boat would certainly spoil ones day. This is why I was keen to get up the Giroronde before any heavy rainfall.

Most of the locks today were automatic, but we then hit a chain of about four in a row that had lock keepers. Now these guys don’t take your lines, are mainly surly in the extreme – which seems strange because if no boats used the canal they wouldn’t have a job – and they could learn a lot from the British Waterways guys on the Forth & Clyde, Crinan and Caledonian canals that we have gone through in previous years.

We manoeuvred the boat into the lock, Sara nipped up the ladder, I threw up the stern line and then the bow line so that we have both lines ashore. Now before we have even secured one rope, the lock keeper is closing the lock gate, we barely had both lines tied before they pressed the button to open the sluice gates. Some of these were again opened far too quickly. The following photo doesn’t capture the extent of the water flow, but will at least give you an idea.

Question I have is; As all the lock keeper did was press a button (something we have been doing all along) why are they there?……in truth it’s much easier without them……and safer. I could see the point in being so quick if the canal was busy but we were the only boat going in our direction! As our American cousins would say…….. “go figure”

The day was sweltering as the temperature hit 35 degrees, and I was pleased when we left the last lock and got tied up in Montech, and hit the showers for a long cold revitalising and refreshing shower.

18th & 19th May

We went to the local market, and whilst I won’t bore you with all the details, amongst the purchases were absolutely scrumptious Cherries which I believe were called Napoleon, along with some equally delicious Black Cherries…………….suffered later for my greed though exactly as Sara predicted!!

Sara spent most of today trying to sort out flights for my grandsons, Reyce and Prentice. Now we thought this would be straightforward but o’ no…

Airlines will not let youngster under 16 fly unaccompanied, so we thought OK lets go with British Airways to Toulouse and have an accompanied flight which BA’s web site calls Sky Flyer Solo. However their web site said this could be booked through them or through an agent – but it could not be done online.

We had two travel agent working on this as we couldn’t get an answer when calling BA, one of them being Thompson and the other being Ramsey Travel. Thompson said they couldn’t book these kind of flights unless they went through a subsidiary or a subsidiary of BA waffle waffle waffle…………We are still waiting on a call back from Ramsey Travel which was absolutely promised before close of business – and this after the third call we made to them.

On Monday morning Sara got through to BA and a really helpful chap sorted everything out – so the boys will arrive at Toulouse on Saturday….yippee can’t wait to see them. Can you guess which travel agents we will NOT be using for future holidays?

While all this was going on, the fresh water pump that had started to leak required my attention. When I stripped it down I found the diaphragm was torn. I then checked on Jabsco’s website to see if they still offered spares for this old pump, and was pleased to find out they actually had these in stock. Therefore I thought it would be an idea to work up a full list of parts and give the pump a complete overhaul. The cost of these parts and having them delivered by UPS was going to be around £100.

Now the Capitianerie’s office at Moissac is run by a smashing English Couple Iain and Kaz. Who according to their web site also service boats etc. Therefore I went to speak to Iain to find out if he could source the parts quickly in France. Turns out he had a new modern pump in stock, and available for sale – a wee bit of bartering and I came out with a new pump. I’ll repair the old one when we get back home. I needed to do the deal there and then as he wouldn’t be back till 1700.

Now us guys know that there is no such thing as a simple job on a boat. Because this was a different pump, the hoses didn’t fit. Now I was sure I had some braided nylon tubing on the boat, so it was turned upside down until I found enough to make new inlet and outlet hoses…..brilliant.

The fitting on the new pump needed larger “O” rings and I found those too…..brilliant
I installed the whole thing, switched on the pump and found water was leaking badly from the smallest length of the new hose and sods law it was in the most awkward position. No matter how much I tightened the hose clips I could not get this hose to seal…….not brilliant.

I worked my way along all the Brit boats trying to scrounge a couple of the right size (smaller than the ones I carried) of hose clips – everyone had the same size I was using and no one had the smaller size. There was blue language aboard Sun Dog this afternoon I can tell you!

I even tried using a ratchet and socket on the hose clips but no this wee bloody hose would not seal onto the copper pipe no matter what I tried…………………eventually it reached 1700 and Iain came back so I went to mooch a couple of the right size of clips. He was amazed I couldn’t get this to seal, but didn’t have smaller hose clips. He reckoned that it would have to be either the copper pipe having a leak, or the new piece of braided nylon I used.

Here comes your turn to laugh at me…………I checked this new piece of hose and found it had a hole on the underside, and this was where the water was coming out, and not through lack of proper hose clips. I was in the same breath totally exasperated at having spent hours trying to seal this sucker, whilst pleased I could cut a new piece (without holes) and get the job finished. This was all done within five minutes, with the new pump working perfectly and much quieter than the old one. Have you stopped laughing yet?? Well I’ll make you laugh a wee bit more – I actually started this job at 1130!!

After getting everything tidied away I saw this catamaran working it’s way down the canal – I wouldn’t have believed it would fit through some of the bridges as they have tow paths inside which restricts the width quite a bit.

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.