Skipper’s Log2006 – Part 6 Canal du Midi
Tuesday, 19th September, at 8 am found us ready
at the mast crane in Sete. Two men came to operate the crane and help us get
the mast down. I had constructed two wooden supports for the mast – having
brought timber across town strapped to the bike! The de-masting went like
clockwork – the two men knew their stuff.
As soon as
we were ready, we set off through the Port of Sete,
but had to wait in the Nouveau Bassin until 6pm for the bridges to open, (our
guide book said the first three opened on demand).
The First
two bridges opened together followed by the canal lateral and railway bridges
which opened just after 7 pm, after a high speed train had passed. This gave us
just an hour of daylight to cross the Etang de Thau to Bouzigues. We moored
alongside a canal barge, and Paul and I went off for a meal at a local
restaurant ( Rie had an early night as she wasn’t feeling very well). I sampled
the locally grown oysters and mussels – the northern half of the lagoon is
given over to oyster and mussel beds.
The next
day, on 20th September, we sailed the 15km along the length of Etang
de Thau to the entrance of the Canal du Midi near Marseillan. The canal was
very shallow up to the first lock, and the banks in poor condition. We bought
our vigniette at the round lock near Agde. This is also the junction with the
canal leading to the l’Herault river. The VNF man in the office (Voie
Navigation de France) was very friendly and spoke good English. He gave us some
good advice about navigating the canal. We thought it would take three weeks,
but he insisted we only needed Two – he said it didn’t matter if we took an
extra couple of days. We were also surprised that the vigniette only cost 52€
for the two weeks, we had expected to pay more.
Although
there had been a lot of rain in the previous week, there was only 30 cm of water under our keel
and much less near the sides. We stopped the first night at Villeneuve-les Beziers, a pleasant
little town. We could not come really close to the bank though as we ran
aground
The next
morning, Poul went off to buy baguettes while we got up – this was to be the
routine every morning from now on. The next hurdle was a series of locks
through Beziers,
one section being a staircase of seven locks. We locked through with three hire
boats – we found their company nerve racking as they had little control over
their craft, but we came through unscathed.
After Beziers came our first
tunnel. We had arranged the mast so we could use the spreader light as a
searchlight, but were disappointed to find the tunnel was only 400 meters long! We
could see all the way through it.
We stopped
for the night at Capestang, where ahain we could only get within a meter of the
bank before we were aground. This was to be the pattern along most of the Canal
du Midi. We adopted the routine of putting Poul ashore over the bow before each
lock – we could not come alongside many of the landing stages. Just after Port la Robine ( too shallow for
us), we came to a quay called Port Minervois where there was a café. Here they
had a toilet and showers, and we could also fill up with water, and we stopped
the night.
The next
day we stopped in la Somail
for a supermarket. It turned out to be about 3km away beyond the outskirts of
the town. We were picked up by a local on the way – just as well, otherwise we
would not have found it! We tried to arrange a taxi back, but we were in the
country and there would be a delay of two hours – we decided to walk it. Le
Somail was a charming little place with a pack horse bridge and an ancient lock
up. The stonework of the village reminded me of the Cotswold villages.
Although
these little bridges look charming, they do not give much margin for error when
we pass under them. The next section contained several locks, including a
double and a triple lock. The surge of water into the locks was tremendous, and
the sills caused a back eddy which dragged us forward towards the gate. We
countered this by running the engine in reverse in the locks.
We stopped at Homps for a night, where there
was a nice quay to moor against. We had a fine meal in a canal side restaurant
that evening. We continued our steady climb through the vineyards, going
through three double and one triple lock
before lunch. The locks remain closed for a lunch hour from 1230 to 1330,
forcing us to stop also. At this time of year we can only navigate between 9am
and 7 pm, after 1st October the locks stop operating at 6 pm.
As we came
to Saturday (23rd September), there was hardly any traffic on the
canal and locking through was much easier. We put this down to the fact that
most hire boats are returned on a Satutday and the new hirers don’t set off
until Sunday. We sailed 63 km
and stopped at Carcassonne,
where there is a large bassin. Again, we couldn’t come right in to the bank.
The next
day we visited the old fortified city in Carcassonne,
la Cité, before
continuing. Today, Rie got her wish of having plants on board, two hanging
baskets now hang from the lowered mast!
There was
still little traffic as we continued our uphill journey. We had a night stop
near the village
of Villepinte, and Paul
cycled off to buy bread again. The locks in this area were close together so it
was easier for Paul to cycle ahead than being set off over the bow at each
lock. He had a break after the four locks just before Castelnaudary, as there
was a wide area without a towpath.
Today, we
cme over the watershedat the la
Mediterranee lock, which is 983m above sea level. Here the
lock keeper was very friendly and offered us a home baked apple tart -it tasted
very good. This was a turning point, now we would be descending the locks which
is much easier as we can just step off the boat in a filled lock to put our
ropes around the bollards. Also as there was less turbulence in the locks, it
was easier to hold the boat in place. The locks also became further apart
(about 5km), so the bike was on the side deck again.
We stopped
at Port Sud near Ramonville, just before Toulouse.
We were surprised to find many seagoing yachts laid up here. It was a proper
harbour, and we could get showers, water, electricity and fuel. But it was a
long way to the shops. Paul and I went off to shop at the Intermarché and it
took so long that Rie was convinced we had stopped at a bar somewhere – but we
hadn’t. We still saw very few boats on the canal and presumed the hire season
must be over.
The next
day, 26th Sept, would be our last day on the Canal du Midi. After
passing under the many bridges before Toulouse,
we came to a turning area where we made a sharp turn to starboard to enter
Canal Lateral la Garonne.
Toulouse
itself looked very pleasant, with some good secure moorings right in the
centre. We even passed an Irish pub!
The canal Lateral
has a very different character, it is deeper, with long straight sections
unlike the Canal du Midi which is very winding in places. In the section up to
the first lock, we met many row boats, which were all over the place making it
difficult to find a way through. Soon after the first lock, we hit something
hard and heavy which stopped us in our tracks in the middle of the canal. We
backed off and found a way around the obstruction and speculated that it might
have been an abandoned car. We reported it at the next lock but the lock keeper
didn’t seem very interested. The locks themselves were also very different on
this canal – they are straight sided whereas on the Canal du Midi they had
concave sides so that two boats could lie side by side. We continued to lock
no. 9, just before Saint-Rustice which had closed early for the night. We had
hoped to make it to Grisolles, just 4 km further.
On 27th
September we continued along a long stretch without locks until we came to
Montech. Here there is a flight of five locks, which can be bi-passed by
commercial traffic by use of the “water slope”. This has the appearance of two
locomotives on rubber tyres, each side of the of a long slope which acts as a
tug to push or pull the barges along the slope. They must open sluices to allow
ataer into the slope to allow the barges to float. It looked very redundant and
a bit of a white elephant as there is no commercial traffic these days. The
slope was opened as late as 1974.
After
Montech, most of the locks were automated. On arrival at a lock, there is a
long rubber pole hanging down which has to be given a twist to activate the
lock. When the lock is ready, a green light appeared, and we could then enter
the lock and set up our ropes. Then we had to press a button to close the gate
behind us, empty the lock, and open the down gates – all automatically.
All went
well until we reached lock no. 28, just before Pommevic. A boat coming the other
way warned us there was a problem ahead. When we reached it there was a hire
boat lodged under the lock gate, which was off its hinges, and the hydraulic
ram was bent. The VNF crash team were already there and said they hoped to
repair it before nightfall – or the day after! We met the unlucky couple who
had hired the boat – they said their rope broke – they had clearly been sucked
forward into the gate as the lock was filling. Being automatic, there was no
lock keeper to stop the lock filling further, and the hire boat ended up in a
spectacular nose down attitude.
At 4 pm a
mobile crane arrived to lift the 17 ton boat clear of the lock gate and to help
repair the lock gate. They lifted the gate clear and replaced the hydraulic
ram. The VNF team worked hard and just after 7 pm the lock gate was repaired.
We settled down for the night in a thunderstorm.
At 9 am
promptly the next day, we approached the lock carefully, but all went well and
we got away from lock no. 28. When we came to lock no. 32, we encountered a
different control system. We turned the handle to close the upper gate, and the
lock emptied fine –however the lower gate didn’t open to let us out! Rie
climbed the ladder and pressed the call button and explained the situation.
They said someone would come. We read the instructions again and realised we
had to open the handle a second time to open the gate. From now on the locks
were only semi-automatic. The morning was very wet and we stood in our dripping
raingear, almost until we reached Agen, where we would stop for the day.
Poul tried
to find an internet café here – without success. We couldn’t hack into the
strong university WiFi net either. We walked into town in the evening and had a
Chinese meal. On the way back, it poured with rain again and it continued
through the night.
On Sunday,
1st October, it still rained most of the morning. After Agen there
was an aquaduct over the Garonne river, followed
by four locks. We ran aground between the last two locks – the water level in
this pound being considerably lower. It took a while to work ourselves free of
this “bar”, caused by the overflow sluice water. Generally the water level was
at its highest, giving us 70
cm under the keel.
It cleared
up in the afternoon and we carried on through the “lunch hour”, unimpeded by
locks. Today’s stretch of canal was very natural looking, with trees and bushes
overhanging the water’s edge on both sides. We stopped for the night at a quay
just before the town of Mas
–D’Agenais. There were no bollards, so we hammered our iron stakes in instead.
Just beyond us was a boat hire place and some Danes came past us who were about
to return their boat. The skipper came back later to talk to us and shared a
beer. He came from Frederiksværk, just across the fjord from our home port of Kignæs. During the day, we saw many
kingfishers flying along the bank. We saw one catch a minnow, and fly off with
it. We have also seen many herons along the way. The next day, we continued for
20 km
and stopped early at a Halte Nautic in Meilhan sur Garrone. Here we could come
alongside the quay without going aground and had water and electricity for the
grand sum of 2€.
Later, we
helped a Tasmanian couple in and we got talking. We ended up going out for an
evening meal together at a canal side pizzeria – the only restaurant open. The
others had already closed down for the season. The Tuesday was wet, with gale
force winds. The wind stripped the leaves off the trees and even took complete
branches off. The VNF men were busy clearing up, and we heard there were trees
down across the canal. There was also a power cut in the area. We decided to
stay on in Meilhan for the day. In the morning the owner of a steel ketch
“Salamander” came over and we exchanged some books and maps. He wanted the
Balearics, and I got lots of good charts and information on Brittany. Don was over-wintering in Meilhan
on his way to the Med as his sister lived nearby. I gained some useful
information on the tidal part of the Garronne, which he had just sailed up. He
and Poul went off in a van to a supermarket in a larger town, armed with a
shopping list.
It dried up
a bit in the afternoon, and we went for a walk around the village. I also
studied the French Almanac I had been given for the tide times for the sail
down to Bordeaux
and Pauillac. After the strong winds, the canal was carpeted in fallen leaves.
Wednesday
was calmer, although it rained early in the morning. We said goodbye to Jeff,
Lis and Don and left Meilhan. We sailed the first 8 km to the first lock,
avoiding as best we could the fallen trees. When we got there, the lock was not
working. We called up VNF from the intercom panel, and they said there was
someone on the way. After about an hour, a man came and operated the lock
manually for us. The evidence of the previous day’s storm was clear, with
uprooted trees, some in the canal, and a mass of smaller branches and leaves
which clogged our propeller several times.
Just after
the little harbour at Fontet, we were waved to a stop by a VNF man, who said
the navigation was closed due to a fallen telephone cable. We motored back to
the harbour and inched our way in and waited. The rain poured down, but
eventually the VNF man came back to tell us we could continue. We were also
told that lock 51 was on manual and that it would be opened in an hour’s time.
When we arrived there, we had to wait for the lock keeper to come, but he
turned out to be the same man that would open the sea lock for us next day. We
arranged to meet him at 0745 the next day for our last two locks. After
eventually getting through lock no. 51, we found a nice Halte Nautic – a long
pontoon with water and electricity, and were helped in by Eric Walton. He was
moored further along in his Dutch built motor boat. We were invited aboard for
drinks by Angie, and the evening went by very quickly in good company.
Thursday 5th
October saw us through our last lock just after 8 am. It was still barely light
and a mist rose from the waters of the Garonne
There was a
good current, and we moved along nicely at 8 knots, avoiding the tree trunks in
the river. The river was not buoyed until Bordeaux,
so it was necessary to keep a track of our progress by crossing off the km
posts on our chart. We also had to take care of the shallow areas, particularly
on bends. As we neared Bordeaux,
the current increased as the tidal influence became more apparent, and we
actually covered the 42 km
in four hours. We moored to the waiting pontoon, near Hangar Quay, just upriver
of the marina lock entrance. There were many fairly new shops and bars on the
quay, and we found a place for our evening meal. The current rushed past and we
heard an occasional branch hit the hull. When we came back from the restaurant,
we fished a bushy branch out from our rudder.
The next
day(6th October), we were up early again to catch the tide down the
next section of river. Now, the river was buoyed and we could follow our
electronic chart, which made life much easier. The current was even stronger than
before and we checked our speed on the gps to be 11 knots at one time. That
meant a current of 6 knots. We arrived at Pauillac at 11am, having sailed 25 miles in 3 hours. The
tide was still rushing out. and there didn’t seem to be enough water at the entrance.
There was a pontoon on the outside, so we moored to that to wait for slack
water. Around 4pm, conditions became very rough on the pontoon and our wooden
toe rail started splitting as we bounced onto the pontoon. A local sailor –
Jean Pierre – offered to pilot us into the harbour, and we gladly accepted. By
this time there was about 3m of water in the narrow winding entrance. All went
well, and we moored on a reception pontoon near the entrance. We were very glad
to be inside, away from the strong current, although there was still an
appreciable current through the harbour.
After
talking with Jean-Pierre, we decided to over winter here. We had already
decided we would have Restless hauled out for the winter. The next day I talked
to the harbour master and we agreed to be hauled out on 12th
October, when tidal conditions were more suitable. They had a hydraulic trailer
for the job and the lift out went smoothly. I had to motor on to the trailer
front and then the hydraulic arms lifted the stern.
Hauling out.
We were
surprised how our antifouling paint had almost completely eroded away, leaving
a thick crust of barnacles to colonise the hull. We scraped the worst of it
away, we will finish the job next year before repainting her bottom. The fresh
water in the canals had got rid of all traces of weed and slime though.
We found Pauillac a very friendly place. It
lies in the heart of the Medoc wine area, and
the vineyards start at the edge of town. We saw famous chateau names
everywhere, and the local tourist office doubles as a centre for introducing
the local wines. They arrange wine tasting, and visits to the various chateaux.
We had a very pleasant stay in Pauillac, making the boat ready for winter,
although we were told it doesn’t fall below zero here – warm by Scandinavian
standards. We lived on the boat ashore for a few days before travelling home to
Denmark
for the winter.
The
disadvantage of stopping in this remote corner of France
was the difficulty of getting back to Denmark – no cheap flights here. We
ended up taking a taxi to Bordeaux, train to Montpelier, and a flight from there to Copenhagen. We could have flown with Air France from Bordeaux
to Paris, and then on to Denmark, but it
cost more than four times as much.
