Monday 14th September 2009 Coulanges to Pierrefitte. C. Latéral à La Loire.

Grey clouds, lots of them, brief sunny spells and a chilly wind. Set off at 10.30 a.m. following The Big Boat to the lock. A Canalous hire boat, which had moored overnight behind us, set off as we did and overtook us. Grim determination on the face of the elderly French bloke who was steering; he stared straight ahead and didn’t speak. An uphill yacht went past, so the lock should be set. Mike called The Big Boat on VHF and M said he would let the hire boat in the lock first and carry on down with it. No room for us so we hovered by the bridge above the lock. I got off and walked down to give the keeper (and D) a hand with the manually operated lock, 3 Oddes. They told Mike on VHF that the hireboat had got in a terrible state getting into the lock, missed the bollards and nearly did a 360° turn. Gave D a hand to open the bottom end gate; she got on below the lock and I helped the resident keeper (a young man with a scar on his top lip) turn the lock round; he worked the towpath side, I worked the left hand side. I’d just said we could get in through one gate when we spotted a small steel cruiser that had caught us up, with a South African flag on the stern and an older couple on board. The skipper got off and lent a hand with the bottom end gate. The boat descended 2.4m and I crossed over to get on down the steps on the towpath side before the gates opened as the wind was blowing the boat across to that side. 3.9 kms to the next lock but we weren’t going that far. As we entered the strung out village of Pierrefitte there was an old Luxemotor moored by KP18 which looked permanent. M said the bollards were no good now as they were beyond the tarmac cycle path. We said there’s a new mooring in the layby a bit further on, so The Big Boat cast off again. An uphill LeBoat (an old Connoisseur cruiser) was almost up the bank as we went past it and the steerer was struggling and oversteering. 

RQ was still moored in the layby. The Big Boat moored in front of him and we moored in front of The Big Boat. I made some lunch. A large blue Burgundy Cruisers steel boat moored at the far end of the layby, but only paused for lunch. M and D went into the village for bread but there was no boulangerie and the Proxi market had none. After lunch Mike took a stroll 4kms back to Coulanges to get the car.