We pulled out of a Chatillon en Bazois after lunch and continued on our quest for laundry automatique! We all need a quest and we all need clean clothes! The Royals had pulled out ahead of us in order to get to the machines first. Ha Ha ... we knew there was at least one machine in Etang de Baye. Carrie figured she would get hers done and then when we arrived it would be free and available. Well, we did not realize that the french washing machines are unionized cause they do not work after 5. Even though the port office was open there was not enough time to complete a load so once again we were without a machine! We were told that he machine would be available at 9 am tomorrow morning but we needed to leave at 10 in order to make it through he tunnels! OH well !
We all got together on the Royals boat for docktails and hit the hay early!
The Royals cleaning up after docktails...they are called the Royals because the name of their boat is Royal Mystique! Judy aka Galley Wench seems to be the only one cleaning .
We were all up and ready for the tunnels! It is unseasonably cold for France this time of year so we were all bundled up. Sid was so anxious he kept yelling over - IS THE LIGHT GREEN? At exactly 10 the light turned green and off we went.....it was really awesome. The first tunnel was 754 meters long...dark and scary...but you could see the light at the end of the tunnel! Pretty cool experience! In all the 5000 + nautical miles we did on the loop we never experienced tunnels like this! We did three tunnels in all, the other two were shorter, one being 268 meters long and the last 212 meters.
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| Did I mention the bats in the tunnels! |
Once we came out of the tunnels we had a series of 16 locks to go through. The good news was that we were going down , so it is a little easier!
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| Sid and George became the lock keepers assistance for the day. |
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| Some very interesting lock keepers houses! |
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| Student lock keeepers in love - she lost her hat into the water and Sid retrieved it! |
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| Fisherman line the banks |
At lock 8 we asked the lock keeper (a student) if it was Ok if we stopped at lock 9 for lunch. He seemed to understand, and it was all good. We were having a leisurely lunch up on the flybridge. Now, this is France and from our experience they take their lunch breaks very seriously.
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| Clipper 1 - Gene, Evelyn,Ginny and Sid enjoying a peaceful lunch. |
It was about 12:50, Garth had gone back to talk to Gene and Sid about where we were stopping. Terri and I were on the bridge and we noticed the kid had closed the gates at the back of the lock. Then without notice he started to let the water out of the lock. Now keep in mind we had been there for lunch so the boats were both tied securely to the lock wall. Something you never do when locking through. Cause what happens is when the water goes out the boat starts to list and ends up on the lock wall.
Like this!!
Terri ran down the back steps and I ran through the front - we were yelling NO, NO, NO, STOP ,~ finally Terri had the presence of mind to scream ARRET!!! Talk about panic - the boat was listing on the lock, we were all yelling and screaming. The lockkeeper was panicking at this point, my heart was pounding, the stuff in the boat was all over the place!! AHHH - I will let the pictures speak to the panic but I think I can safely say that had we been wearing heart monitors the reading would have gone off the charts!!
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| I was trying to decide whether to go down with the ship or jump ! |
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| Oh la la!!! |
It all worked out ...there are certain phrases that are international and Garth used a few of them! The kid realized he messed up and we are none the worse for wear! Our troubles did not end there however, a few locks down the river we noticed that the lock wall had holes in it and the water was coming right out of the wall into our open door ....so we mopped up the salon floor a few times and all was well. At the next lock we almost lost our umbrella going under a bridge but thanks to a fast maneuver from George it was saved!
According to the maps and information we were given by Le Boat there was a full service facility at Chitry les Mines. We pulled in and dock with the aid of a Brit. Looking forward to finally getting some clean clothes...not so much.....full facilities does not include laundry.
All in all a great day, beautiful scenery, lots of work and lots of excitement. We all worked hard and got through the 16 consecutive locks then did 13 more. That has to be some kind of record -29 locks, one tipped boat, a flood, a twisted umbrella ..... wine at night and Ibuprofen in the morning is helping to ease the pain. At least we will have some interesting stories for the old folks home, if we live to get there!
Life is good and boating is fun!! Is that right Frank?
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