Sixth day: from Castelnaudary to La Segala
The weather on Thursday is totally different from the rest of the week. It 's cloudy and the wind blows violently. We do some shopping in Castelnaudary first and therefore leave late. We can only navigate during an hour until the lunchtime of the lock-keepers. The first lock unexpectedly appears after a corner. I put Maarten ashore and unfasten again. Immediately I realize that that wasn't a very smart move because we float in the direction of the lock. And the lock has to be emptied first before we can navigate inside. Again I navigate in the direction of the bank but Marga does not dare to jump. I am drifting about on the water. I am a play-thing of my own inexperience in this kind of situations. It takes a long time before the gates of the lock are swinging open. Ultimately I manage to turn the boat and steer away from the lock. And when I just turned the gates of the lock are opening.
I turn the boat again and steer into the lock. When it 's already to late I realize that with the wind from behind it 's better to fasten the back first. The boat is floating transverse in the lock-chamber. By way of the railing of the boat I can just climb ashore and pull the boat against the chamber wall.
At the next lock we fasten first on the back and we have no problem at all. The wind played tricks with us also during the rest of the day. Because of the hard wind I neither dare to moor between two boats nor on the weather-side of a landing-stage in Castelnaudary. There are to many boats moored close-by. We just have to manage with the water-supply we still have.
We see that in this part of the canal the double and triple lock are served by hand here. We barely see oncoming ships. We only see a sailing-boat which, hanged with fenders uses the canal for the original purpose: navigating from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.
We navigate a couple a locks together with some French. They navigate just behind us. At one lock they shout at us. Because of our left propeller I moor by preference at starboard-side. At a double lock I set Pepijn ashore on port-side because the other bank is looking very rough. We have arranged that he will run by the upper lock to the other side.
I steer the boat therefore to starboard-side. Meanwhile the French have set their man ashore at starboard-side. As they see that I am mooring at starboard-site as well they yell at me to go to port-side. I can't reach Pepijn any more because of the noise of the streaming water in the lock and steer stoical to starboard-side. Now their man has to hurry to go by way of the upper chamber-gates to the other side of the lock. After this trifle they ignore us completely.
At the watershed at Col de Naurouze fantastic old plane-trees are standing again on both sides. Some have a circumference of more than four meters and are more than fifty meters high. We navigate almost to the first lock down (Écluse de l'Ocean) and moor at two of those giants.
We look at the obelisk which has been erected for Riquet, de great mind behind the Canal du Midi. We walk beyond l'Écluse de l'Ocean to Port Lauragais where at a parking-place from the A61 is a museum about the Canal du Midi . There are some beautiful pictures an a nice video about the canal. When we walk back on the tow-path we were overtaken by an old Dutch motor-tjalk in French service: the Neeltje Jacoba from Chagny. It 's a boat of more than 25 meters length. I am watching the locking. The captain does all the work by himself. He steers into the lock and give very calmly a back-hawser to the éclusière. He gears the motor forward and turns the rudder starboard and that 's all.
Just passed the lock he moors, just by himself again. His wife touches nothing. While he is shuffling on the gangway to the bow, the boat shoves slowly forward. He hands over the front-hawser to us. Than he makes a slipping-hawser at his boat. Than he walks calmly to the back and moors with the back-hawser. The motor is still running forward. There no sign of stress at all.
Hard working in a lock
This afternoon we were stressed at the last but one lock (a double). Because of the forces of the streaming water Marga could not hold the rope any more. We almost bumped on the gates in front of us. With the skin off her hands Marga just manages. There isn't any fun left after that.. The last lock before the watershed (Écluse de la Méditeranee) we lock up easily.
In the evening we navigate a little part back and moor at La Segala, a small village at the watershed. It is the only village we have seen during our trip with a face towards the water. There is a spacious quay with houses, plastered in many pastel-colors. The épicerie annex bar/restaurant is the central point of the village. Nearby the bridge is an old washing place again. Maarten and Pepijn want to try that and wash their drawers.
Moored at an old washing-house at La Segala