We left that lovely mooring under ominous, grey clouds. The van and the car do not belong to anyone on the boats moored there. They belong to folks who have come to fish. They are the bane of our existence. Some of them seem to take great joy in leaving their lines in the water as we approach – perhaps wishing they will get tangled in our prop and make life difficult for us. We slow and give them all a friendly wave – hoping that will convince them we are not the enemy and we can both share the waterway. On verra.
I am reminded of my 30-years in Saskatchewan as we barge through this part of France. We are constantly passing large, concrete, grain elevators. They have been in France for ages but were just being built in Saskatchewan while I was there. I must admit I prefer the old wooden ones that are now all gone.
This one had more grain than it could store.
Some days are easier than others. Today was 20-kilometres – with no locks! It took three hours. Jeannie and I were both thrilled. But we know tomorrow is coming.
We were lucky – not only because of not having a single lock to deal with today but because we were also able to find a free mooring spot. Free in the sense of available. We tied up in front of a commercial.
Wishing to leave room for someone to moor in front of us, we tied up as close to him as we could.
A good thing as a little later a commercial squeezed into that spot in front of us.
Tomorrow, we will leave the Canal Latéral à l’Aisne, turning right into the lock below, and passing yet another grain elevator. We will be on the Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne.
It is now tomorrow.
We like herons. They sit at the edge of the water as we approach. Just as we get there, they fly ahead and land in a similar spot a hundred-metres ahead. We like to think they are guiding us.
We like them so much, we have our own heron on Aleau.
We found this spot without the help of our friendly heron. Under the shade of trees and with bollards. All to ourselves.
It was just 12.5-kilometres to Courcy. But we had to pass through 10 locks and were following a very slow commercial – traveling at 3 km/h – half our cruising speed. It would take twice as long as anticipated to get to our next stop. As we couldn’t both fit in the locks together, we had to wait for him to get in and tie up. For the lock to fill. For him to leave. And for the lock to empty so we could get in. Normally, that would allow him to be far enough ahead so that at the next lock he’d be out as we were arriving. Not today. Even at “tick over,” the slowest RPM I can get our engine to run at, we were catching up to him. If there were anywhere to tie up, we could have stopped and had a bite to eat. But there wasn’t. Not until we got to Courcy. It was a lovely spot. Again, luck was with us. It only holds one boat and it was empty.
In spite of the short distance we traveled, we were exhausted. (Maybe having to do 10 locks while following that slow commercial had something to do with it.) There may have been a town to see or a restaurant to visit. We don’t know. We never stepped off Aleau.