July 1, 2006 – Sept-Saulx to Chalons-en-Champagne
It is a very beautiful morning – clear and already warm, promising to be another hot day.
We will encounter the tunnel in 2km, after then 12 locks to our destination of Chalons-en-Champagne. I thought I would prefer the down locks, but I think, instead, I prefer the up locks. It is simple to get the line on the bollard in a down lock but the trick there is to keep the lines from locking up when going down. The aft bollards have three pins to wrap the line around so the line doesn’t get caught on itself, the forward bollard only has two pins – one on either side. If you take an entire turn around the forward bollard the weight of the boat (80 tons) going down pulls the lines up tight around the pins, if you can’t release the line then the boat can get hung up on the side of the lock – obviously not a good thing!! When the water comes into or goes out of the lock, the boat moves fore and aft in the lock, sometimes rather violently depending on the force and speed of how fast the water is moving. It is like being in an enclosed space and encountering a waterfall. As the boat goes up or down it is necessary to keep adjusting the line to keep the correct amount of tension on the line to stay in place so we don’t bang into the other side of the lock, or another boat in the bigger locks, or to keep the boat from going so far fore or aft as to get in the way of the lock doors. Isn’t this more than you ever needed to know about locking procedures?
Well – OK – I almost crashed the boat today. We were in the very last lock of the day going up and somehow the line slipped off my bollard the boat lurched forward – hard and fast – the boat continued to go forward, the line kept slipping through my hands and I was unable to get a purchase on the bollard – Dave put the boat into reverse and I was able to get the line around the bollard about 10 feet forward, fortunately the lock was long enough that we didn’t go crashing into the forward lock gates. To make matters worse (Didn’t think they could get any worse? Well, read on.) It was in the high 90’s – hot; I was wearing one of those tank tops with the “built in bra” – that means the “bra” goes with the shirt, not your body. Of course I was leaning over at a 90 degree angle and when I glanced up I saw a whole line of people watching me – a little version of “I see London, I see France… went through my mind. In view of my lousy line handling skills I wished I had been able to give them a better view. When we got through the lock and got tied up – I went into town in search of a train station to find a train home. Instead, I bought a (thirty year old used and with the instruction book en francais, but just what I wanted) sewing machine, and a gardenia plant for my boat garden. Is this the definition of adventure??
When we arrived in Chalons-en-Champagne we were fortunate enough to be able to tie up next to some friends of David’s (Dave and Marty) who are from California and have been barging here for 3 years and who have had a house in France for 15 years so they were able to provide us with some very useful information, during a lovely cocktail hour (make that 2 ½ cocktail hour). Tomorrow we will all go to the local market together then head out again.
If this all sounds very adventuresome and romantic, let me assure you it is some of the above but it is also very hard work and physically tiring. To not only steer 80 tons of steel requires constant adjustment at the wheel (which is like turning and un-turning a 30 inch wheel on a water valve), but we are standing all day and ever vigilant. Going through the tunnels requires my standing outside the wheelhouse (it is about 50 degrees in the tunnels), and letting Dave know exactly how far from the side of the tow path we are. Getting the boat into the down locks is difficult because sometimes there is a weir of rushing water at the front of the lock which pushes the boat sideways as we enter – we have knocked off pieces of the locks, we have banged the forward bollards with enough force to push the boat sideways, we bent the handrail about ten degrees going into one of them. During the course of the day while we are in between locks, I dash below to clean, do laundry, prepare breakfast and lunch and try to tidy up. Today we left at 9, arrived at 5:30, socialized til after 8, and were too tired to even want to prepare dinner so we just had poached eggs on toast – so much for the fajitas that we had planned. If we wind up mooring together in the next place tomorrow night, Dave and Marty will join us for a fajita dinner. Since our cabin is behind the engine room, it is quite hot in there after a day of running the engine – about 90 degrees when we go to bed – so it is a bit toasty since there is no air conditioning on the boat. Jealous, yet? Fortunately two fans eventually do their work and by morning we are reaching for the blanket.
As Scarlet said: “Tomorrow is another day.”