Baume-les-Dames to Sur-le-Daubs 32km 12 locks  with emails on the Red Box via Mailasail

Sunday morning Hooters sounding, we got in the queue with the campers double quick.

Even the horns had to come off the roof as the arm fenders rubbed concrete in the lowest bridge so far.

Stood on the bow picking apples in the lock.

A sleepy Saturday night without parties was as far from Lyon on the Soane river as could be imaginable. Sunday morning seven thirty lie in was broken with the sound of hooters. The Baume-les-Dames mini marina mooring was surrounded by camper vans, hooters roaring to wake the campers. The French, red Citroen van had arrived, this was the baguette van. Sunday morning delivery of croissants so fresh they were still warm. We got in the queue with the campers double quick. Next double quick arrival was the local Sunday morning running race as many French folk with yellow numbers jogged by with giant waves to the crazy English Sunseeker boat sat at the side of their running route.

Away for eight thirty starting at lock 39 with limestone gorge to our port and early morning fishermen all about the bankside. As we ran up the next five locks each and everyone is set against our run upstream in what is a river section, the locks help dam the river with weirs to their side, it’s slow progress, lock remote controller working well but we wait for every lock to drain and gate before we can enter. Each reach is strong, the river often shallow, very hard to read and the depth gauge alarmingly low as we follow the marker boards for distance off the bank, deep water is elusive so our speed sits under five knots down all five of the river locks.

So steady is our pace we meet a French lady in red, speed walking the towpath, she overtakes us at each lock. We leave her as we split from the river to join the canal proper, turn left and the next block of locks are all with us, magic. One lock run so straight we could see the next lock ahead, very narrow, very shallow but very still and very constant. The banks get even narrower and the reeds are over our guard rails. A particularly low bridge arrives, so low we err caution and come to a halt with the bow just under. ‘Let’s take a look.’

We step onto the side decks to get a vision and bump our head on the bridge, this is tighter than toothpaste in the tube, we edge up, but the horns will not go under. We have the fenders on the radar wing’s but the horns will just not pass. We are sitting 3.46m over water in a canal with 3.50 clearance, the canal is shallow but clearly not that shallow.

Time for the spanners, in this case a large flat head screwdriver, we remove both horns and the small riser pad they sit on. Edge even tighter and the fenders rub into the concrete bridge, a little power, well actually quite a lot of power, the boat squats with the big MAN engines powering, those squats never seem to be enough, the fenders on the roof drag under the bridge and the MAN engines win at the cost of the fenders. When was the last time we rubbed fenders on the roof! Woops and joy, pressed the horn button, the claxons lay backwards on the soft roof panel, they cheered for joy and howled good and proper in their escape from the homely bracket, lets not put them back yet.

Lock 33 we had some smoke from generator exhaust, the river had been very green with a lot of floating gloopy algae. Pit stop fit for Le Mans, stripped the gen set strainer in the lock, extracted green paste from top to bottom of the filter and had the water stop valve open for the green light of the lock gate, outstanding engineering work.

A particular treat in the next lock was free apples, fruit trees hanging over the lock delivered the goodies, we picked them while standing on the bow in a lock!

One more lock made for a short day to Sur-le-Doubs 42:27.08N 06:35.04E

A long bankside mooring with electricity and fresh water on tap. Let’s fill the tanks and get the boat down another half inch!

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