1 November - The canal is closed
Sans Peur
Grete & Fred Vithen
Sat 1 Nov 2014 21:22
Leaving Soissons. A promising day. Turns out it’s another fantastic summer day, 1 November!!!! You know by now that we like it.
46 km and 5 locks to day. Berry-au-Bac, the junction towards Reims and the Champagne district, was our destination today.
We made one easy lock, just about 1,5 m and loads of space.
Suddenly barge Destiny is in front of us, moving at exceptionally slow speed. VHF, channel 10, “This is Sans Peur can we pass?”
Of course, but whats the rusch? Next lock will be closed until tomorrow 9 o’clock.”
Surprise, surprise ...
So here we are now trapped at the lock in beautiful summer day (again, weather is just amazing). No complains.
One barge in front, Destiny from Friesland NL.
Tomorrow we are facing a very narrow (5,2 m) double lock. I’m, Fred Skipper, that we are going upstream. At least he walls will support our narrow entrance.
We will have about 30 cm at both sides. Fenders fixed accordingly to this, not sticking out to much.
Then this guy moved in silently behind us. I think we have problems managing these locks, but these barges just fits in. Means 7,5 cm on each side and about 30 cm in front and back.
How do they do it? And the only help the skipper on Destiny is this little worthless dog!
Max is arriving back to the boat on one of our minibikes. His mission was to find some nice French bread (Baguette Tradinitionel). But he failed.
Believe it or not, we had some nice BBQ this evening. Enjoying our meal on deck. Live is good.