Grey clouds with a few warm sunny spells. I tried calling the lock keeper at 9.30 a.m. The phone number didn’t work, Mike must have written it down wrongly. Stooged down to the lock following The Big Boat. Only the Irish cruiser remained on the mooring. Two motorbike cops slowed down to have a good gawp at the boat and the traffic on the road alongside the canal piled up behind them. The lock keeper (the old chap who set lock 23 for us on Wednesday) waved as we got there and drove down to the second lock in his car with the flashing light. There were fruit trees all along the bank so as the wind and drag from the lock filling moved the boats M and D (who were on the inside) collected a few pears, apples and plums. The keeper was back within a few minutes and we went into lock 24 Quarrès and dropped down 2.56m. The lock house was lived in, but no one was home. 600m to lock 25, Mont, where the old lock keeper lived. He was pottering in his extensive vegetable garden while we descended another 2.73m. Mike took a photo of an ancient pump on the lock side.
The keeper zipped off down the towpath, yellow light flashing, to set the next lock. I made some tea and toast. Passed by a working factory making tiles and blocks of ceramic material. Its loading/unloading quay was empty and unused. A little further on a small VNF tug with a pan and digger were sat next to a section of bank (left hand side, non towpath) where the bank was looking very thin and close to eroding through. A Swiss cruiser went past heading uphill. The Big Boat was waiting for us in lock 26, Bressons. Another fine, lived-in lock house. A Locaboat was moored below the lock and two men were chatting with M and D, asking questions about locking through these semi-automatic locks. Down another 1.98m. Water cascading over the top end gates made the bottom end gates slow to open. The hireboat was moored opposite the lock activating sensor for uphill boats. The lock light remained on red, they untied, then got a green light. 7.5 kms to Digoin. Just before the first bridge the bank was covered with purple Autumn crocuses. Mike stood on the roof to take a photo of the once navigable feeder from the little river Arroux, just as two German cyclists stopped to take photos of our boat! At the beginning of the outskirts of the town we passed the Recla works on the left bank, where they still build large, chunky plastic cruisers. An old péniche called C.E.C.E.L.I.A (once a trip boat for school children, we thought) sat forlorn, on the bottom and listing slightly. On the bank was what was once a very fine motor yacht, now very dirty and in need of much TLC, several old moulds for fibreglass cruiser shells and an old fibreglass Dawncraft cruiser was moored further towards the road bridge. There was a gipsy camp on the right bank set back from the road. Beyond the bridge was a small park area with an outdoor babyfoot game (table football – once a beloved game of French youth, now superseded by Xboxes and Nintendo). Another ceramics factory on the left bank; piles of plastic wrapped toilet bowls lined the bank.
We sailed past the moored Dutch Barges and cruisers in the port of Digoin; a smart blue narrowboat was moored among the cruisers. A péniche was on the dry dock being shortened. The pontoon moorings were filled with hireboats and cruisers. We moored beyond the road bridge at 12.30 p.m. The Capitanerie shed was closed until 4.00 p.m. but the tariffs were on the door. Mike took a photo. 230€ a month for us as we were over 15m; The Big Boat being 15m would only pay 120€. Neither crew found Digoin very appealing and their prices were a bit steep. A fat narrowboat went past with more dumb Yanks aboard - wouldn’t speak until spoken to in French, then by their accents we knew they were Americans. Why are the Americans so reticent this past couple of years to talk to people? We had some lunch. M said he’d had a phonecall about our winter mooring, carry on as they were pretty sure now that the VNF wouldn’t be draining the pound this year. D’s Mum phoned to say that the solar panels had arrived at her house. A Locaboat went past heading for the lock, we set off following him about fifteen minutes later at 2.15 p.m. As we passed under the next road bridge we were on to a new canal, the Latéral à La Loire. Paused just before the aqueduct over the Loire as the Digoin trip boat was coming up in the lock. Quite a few gongoozlers were walking the paths either side of the aqueduct and had gathered around the lock, 1 Digoin, which was electric and keeper operated. The Big Boat followed us into the chamber and we dropped down a further 3.90m. I transferred our rope from the centre roof stud to the bow as there were no bollards in the right place. Below the lock we spotted a tarmac laying machine being taken away by low loader; it had been making a new surface for the cycle path which now had a two or three inch drop off at either edge. We motored on beyond the junction with the Canal de Roanne (a continuation of the Latéral à La Loire) and moored side by side on the 20m long quay at Molinet, which is actually the hamlet of La Fontaine-St-Martin. On our old chart we’d marked that it had a toilet, shower, water, electricity and bin; the facilities were now very time worn and the electricity supply had gone. We went on The Big Boat for a natter and a cold beer. Later a small Dutch Barge came past very close (didn’t ask to moor alongside The Big Boat, but we thought that was where they were heading) and tied up on the sloping grassy bank behind us – until a hire boat went past and pulled its mooring pins out then it moved around the corner on to the straight main canal.
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