An Unpleasant Encounter

Woke up to the serenity of our perfect surroundings. The waters were still and the reflections in the canal were stunningly beautiful.

Set off by 10am, just infront of a loaded peniche from Holland.

The canal sparkled in the sunlight. We were happy and relaxed as we notched up lock after lock. 

But things went sour at our fifth lock.

Swimming is obviously forbidden in the locks. However, as we approached this lock we could see that the canal bankside was littered with rubbish and very close to a “campsite”. There were kids jumping into the lock even as we entered it. Thankfully they climbed out in time, but then gathered en masse above us on the lock edge. We sent Dan and Callum inside. The kids on the lock wall realised we were English and the abuse began. Spit rained down on us and their legs dangled perilously close to the slack ropes which quickly become tight and have the ability to sever fingers. I yelled at the kids to move. I yelled in English, French and Spanish. They moved enough. The lock filled slowly and we drew level with the kids. I tried to chat with them and they tried to get onboard. The spitting continued – mostly from the girls! The boys seemed much more relaxed. Eventually we gained an advantage – we were higher than them. I decided to give them a taste of their own medicine and used gravity to great effect. I think they were a little surprised. Andy was delighted!

We motored out of the lock and watched them sabotage the gates.

We wondered if they would follow us up to the next lock, so used the time to prepare ourselves. We shut down the hatches, locked the front door (though the wheelhouse is down, so the boat is still open) and set up a water cannon.

Thankfully they did not follow. But they did manage to spoil our day.

Reached St Dizier by 5pm and moored in the centre of this large town.

We had just moored when the lock keeper pulled up in his van and quizzed us about how long we wanted to stay. We have now reached the point where we have to log our daily itinerary with canal officials. We are about to leave the world of automated locks and will need a lock keeper to travel in tandem with us. Not sure how this will fit into our relaxed style. We don’t like to plan ahead and we only choose to moor if we like the look of the place. This could prove a little difficult!