Rocks can ruin a plan!

Friday September 5th

 Woke up to our first foggy morning.  

Tied to the bank at Nargis

As predicted the automatic lock closed at 7pm last night, the only indication we had was that the red light went off.  This morning at 9 am the red light went on and we knew it was open for business.  We pressed our blue button and were on our way. Our sand plan today was to make it to Montargis, Nine locks and 23 km. Not a bad day in sand script.

Vanna, I mean Evelyn letting us know how far to the next lock!

It was all going smoothly until a VNF employee came to the boat at our next lock and told us the lock further up at "Buges" was closed until 2 pm.  That put a bit of a kink in our day but nothing serious. We decided to pull over in Cepoy to wait it out, we knew there were stores and restaurants .

We noticed a barge flying a California flag yesterday and he was also pulled over here. The VNF employees told him it would be 2:30 before the lock at Buges would be ready. He implied that the French were not known for their timing and it would be a guessing game as to when we would really get through.  We will keep our fingers crossed that no commercial barges come along as that would really delay us.

We rafted on the side of the bank directly beside or in front of a bees nest. Unfortunately, they were not happy with the invasion and it became a little like a horror show. They had us surrounded and outnumbered so after waiting them out we decided to let them have their spot back and we moved up the way .

At 2 ish we made the decision to head towards the lock. When we got there a man came down the side of the bank and informed us via gestures that a diver was in the lock. 

Once again rafted to the bank.

We all walked up to the lock and this is what we saw-

Getting ready, you could not pay me enough to get into that water!

Heading towards the door that was stuck open.

They are talking to the diver when he was underwater.

Down went a chisel and a sledge hammer.

The audience!

Arocknephobia

Rocks really mess up your day, eh Frank!  Big ones in Canada and small ones in France.

We were actually pretty lucky as there was a boat on the other side of the lock that had been there since the night before waiting.  We were well on our way to Montargis - less than five km.

It looked like it was going to be a good stop. We all needed provisions and some people, no names mentioned - Ginny - was desperate for a lavorie automatique as she missed the last one. We had one lock to get through and the harbor was just outside the lock. Once again, on paper it all sounded great. As we were in the lock two official looking men in uniforms came over to the boat and told us that we could not stay at the harbor and it was full! Great, they suggested we turn around and tie to a wall back where we had just come from. Little did they know that we are the "just carry on" gang and there is no turning around for us! All the captains scrambled to look on the charts and in the books for a place to stay. They came up with two options and the lock keeper gave a thumbs up to the one in the woods!

Our spot in the woods.

According to the GPS there was a restaurant less than a km away. Garth and Sid  grabbed two bikes and rode off . They came back PDQ with some good news and some bad news. The good news was that there was indeed a restaurant very close by but the bad news was that he only had a table for four people.
There are twelve of us, some of us have not had enough water for two days to have showers, none of us have much food left on the boats and we are all hungry. So, what to do, what to do, .....well ,we have wine. We all got drinks - the ladies got the picnic table and I use that term loosely. The men got the side of the boat. When all was said and done none of us went to the restaurant.  We all managed to scrounge up a meal - peanut butter and jelly works in a pinch, right Judy!

Life is good and boating is fun!