Into the canals

We left Begles 22nd September on the flood and got up to Castets in good
time to lock in to the start of the canals, in this case the Garonne
lateral canal.
The trip up to the lock was uneventful as it was sunny with little wind
and we had planned to travel on neap tides, with spring tides it can be
a different story with tricky currents to contend with. Spring tides
would also have made being tied up in Begles or on the Bordeaux pontoons
stressful as the current on flood and ebb would be very strong
(4-6 knots at least I expect as we were seeing 2-3 knots). There can
also be a lot of floating debris here, we saw branches and tree trunks
and as we travelled upstream we passed a team of workers clearing the
banks with a chain saw.
The locks on the canal are about 2-3 feet wider than we are so it is a
tight squeeze which makes it slow to get in, mind you it does mean that
we don't swing around much when the lock is filling! We have worked out
a good system for doing the locks (which are DIY so one of us has to be
off the boat whilst the lock is filling) with the ropes led back to the
cockpit for the person in the boat to control via the winches.
A French couple watched us lock through the first 2 locks and began
asking us questions about Mango, it turned out they and their son each
have a Tiki 21. The eclusier (lock keeper) was highly amused by our
additional fenders, empty 5 litre containers.
The night of the 22nd was spent in front of our 4th lock as we did not
get to it before the 7pm lock closing time.
Today, 23rd, we got into the lock shortly after 9am on another warm day
with clear blue skies. We were doing well until about 1630 when after
lifting the engine to clear weed from the leg we could not get it too
restart, even after checking fuel and spark and allowing the engine to
cool down. Helen used the Brompton to go to the next and previous stops
where there were hire boat companies and was lucky enough to find an
engineer who knows Yamaha outboards and we are hoping he will be able
to come and look at it tomorrow. So the early stop and a stroll around
the historic town of Mas d'Agenais has been cancelled.
The canal is very pleasant to travel along as it is tree lined and in
beautiful countryside, the only downside was the noise of the outboard
and this afternoon's failure has further engrained my general view that
sails are better than engines.