In the Mediterranean

On the 20th we left the canal at last and got our mast put back up by a
very obliging yard, Port Nautic, in Grau d'Agde on the Herault. This is
only the second time we have put the mast up with the tabernacle and it
was a bit fraught as we could not get the pin in to the mast step until
we eased the shrouds and released the mast from the tabernacle, it is
all a learning curve.
The following day we woke up to next to no wind (it was blowing quite
hard the day before)and frost on deck, which is apparently quite normal
when there has been a cloudless night. We manoeuvred Mango out of the
craning area and took her down to the public quay where we fitted the
mainsail, tidied up and then left the Herault heading south.
Our destination was Gruissan and we had a lovely sail there in a gentle
westerly wind which made it a fetch. The sky was cloudless all day, the
visibility fantastic and the water warm, a great introduction to the
Mediterranean. The visibility was so good we could almost see our
destination and there were tremendous views of the mountains behind the
coast. We put out the fishing lines but had no luck despite (or because
of) seeing what looked like a small school of dolphins feeding.
We sailed in to Gruissan harbour at about 1615. Gruissan is one of the
resorts built on the coast but looks OK and looks to have a lot of
wooded hills around it. We are hoping to base Mango here, but it turns
out that we may be the wrong size to fit in the marina, too wide for a
monohull berth and too short for one of their multihull berths.
Hopefully we'll find out if there is space for us in a couple of days
The forecast is for very strong winds on Monday so we will be here until
they drop off.

Agde

We got to Agde at the weekend and have spent the last few days sorting out where we go next.  We had hoped to go in to Marseillan  in the etang de Thau as we could get there regardless of the weather, but they were full so we have requested a berth in Gruissan and arranged to get the mast put up tomorrow on the river Herault down stream from Agde.
The fly in the ointment is the weather, a front is sweeping over us tonight and there will be strong winds until Friday and it looks as if it may be unsettled after that.  Gruissan is only 18 nm from the river mouth but we really don't want our first sail after putting the mast up to be in dodgy weather!
We have liked the look of Agede, though we have not spent much time there yet as we have been cycling to Marseillan and down the Herault to investigate our options.  The old part of Agde feels very much the medieval town with narrow twisted streets and towering houses, very few of which are upright! We had a very pleasant meal on the river front.

On the way to Agde

Our next stop after Homps was La Somail. This whole stretch of canal
from Trebes has the best scenery we have seen plus it winds round
following the contours which makes it more interesting to navigate,
though trickier when one meets other boats which we are doing more
frequently now. The most spectacular view we had to date was south of
Homps: it was blue skies and clear air and we could see across the
valleys to where the foothills got bigger and the mountain ranges
started, real picture postcard stuff.
The biggest problem for us has been meeting the big barges, usually live
aboards but sometimes hotel barges, which seem more common on this
stretch of the canal. Although we have right of way (we are going
downstream) we usually opt to kill our speed and dive to the bank rather
than risk too close an encounter as these things weigh 60 tons or more.
Because of their size these barges also have to go slowly and occupy all
of a lock so if you get behind one you are badly slowed, this happened
to us as we left Homps and lost us nearly half a day we reckon.
Unfortunately I got a mild upset stomach whilst we were in Homps and so
we have decided to go via Agde rather than via Narbonne to the sea as
that way we do not have to do any locks for 54 km and avoid the worry of
the very low bridge at Narbonne and getting across the Aude. The
downside of going via Agde is that it means at least 1 extra day in the
canal before we get into the Med.
We had a walk around La Somail and it is as attractive as we remembered
it, though with an even bigger fleet of hire boats so it is best visited
mid week when they are all else where.
Tonight we are in Poilhes having stopped early for the day, another
small, old, attractive town on a hill side with basic shops and a
peaceful atmosphere rather spoilt by the very noisy female ducks who
have being a recurring feature of our stops since Castlenaudray.

some more pics

Port Saveur

Dutch barge in triple lock

Bottom of triple lock

Mango in top of triple lock

Typical canal du midi bridge

Trees on Midi

 

More trees on Midi

In Homps

Moored in Homps right outside the restraunt we went ot the previous 2 tinmes we were here so we had to go again!
Were comparing getting in to locks on the Garonbne and Midi canals today and reckon that althought the midi locks have a narrower entrance and are oval they are probably easier as they do not have sluices letting water out at 90 degrees to the current just before the entrance and thereby knocking you off course at the last moment.
A windy day today which made getting into the locks interesting!  several times we were going forward with the engine in reverse.

Passed Trebes

Got through the staircase of locks at Trebes this afternoon and decided
to stop for the night. Slower day today as we had to wait at several
locks and were travelling with other boats.
The weather remains hot and sunny, but the wind is back though nowhere
near as bad as when we were in Castelnaudary so it has not held us up.

latest progress

We stayed in Castelnaudary until the 10th when the wind moderated (30+
kmh with big gusts) as it would have made getting in and out of locks
very tricky. Castelnaudary was for us a bit bland as pretty much every
thing is covered in sand coloured stucco and the museum was closed (it
is only open from July to the 18th Sept).
One night we were woken up by loud splashes which turned out to be coypu
doing belly flops off the bank into the canal, which reminded me that
just before Castelnaudray we passed a bloke walking two rottweilers
which were taking it in turns to do belly flops into the canal - quite a
sight!
We have got so conditioned to the facilities in ports not being
available when the Capitainerie is shut that we did not bother to go on
the main quay, only to find out that they have a card system to allow
access at all times so we missed out on WiFi as well as the other
facilities (we arrived on a Friday and the capitainerie was not open
over the weekend).
Today we finished 1 lock short of getting to Carcassone: we were 2
minutes off the lock when the lock keeper passed us in his car having
finished for the day; however, it is a quiet place to moor up and we
should get to Carcassone by 11am tomorrow if all goes well so we will
have most of the day to visit the bits we missed last time we were
here. The next stop after Carcassone is Trebes and between there and
Capestang we have some knowledge of the canal as in the past we have
done 2 holidays on hired motor boats there.
The canal has changed in 2 major ways: it is more windy and it is going
through vineyards. There is not much traffic on the canal, but it is
depressing to see how oblivious people are of how to drive on the river:
we regularly see people going passed moored boats and close to the bank
at full speed which causes boats to pull their moorings and speeds the
erosion of the banks.
We have a good system for getting in and out of locks now, the only
downside is that we are slow at entering, which got us a rebuke from
another boater who was rushing to get someplace, but it was
water of a ducks back to us as our priority is not to damage Mango. We
stopped for water after that lock and let him get ahead.

Reached Castlenaudry

Had a good day today, did 28 km and 9 locks of which 3 were doubles and
one was a triple. A Dutch barge had set of before us from our over
night stop of Gardouch which meant we lost first go at the first lock,
but we found that after that there was no hold up. This was in contrast
to the previous day when we ended up going through the locks with 2
novices in a large cabin cruiser, they took ages getting in and out of
the locks and in one lock lost control of their bow line and would have
swung round on to us if the lock had been 3 inches wider! The lock
keepers have been helpful and friendly which has also been a big help.
We are now going down the locks which is a big relief as the locks are
narrow to get in and out of (being oval they are actually quite wide
inside) and it is much easier going down than up, on our penultimate
'up' lock I got caught by a side current in the entrance which moved the
boat about 6-12 inches which was enough for us to go in to the lock
wall, fortunately without doing any major damage. Because the locks are
oval the trickiest manoeuvre now is when we are in a series of locks (a
staircase) as the person on the helm has to angle the boat across from
the entrance to the side of the lock and there is only about 6 inches
either side to play with.
We reached the summit of the canal by lunchtime and hoped to stop at
Port Lauragais for lunch and to see the Canal du Midi exhibition there,
unfortunately the exhibition closes for winter and we'd missed it by 3
days.
Yesterday morning we had some cloud and this evening it has clouded over
again and we had a brief shower, other than that it has been wall to
wall blue skies and temperatures in the 20s or low 30's.

Some general canal photos

Waiting pontoon for a lock, they are not all as good!

Trees at the begging of october

Waiting for the lock to fill, bucket has the laundry in to soak!

Agen and Moissac

Garrone from the aqueduct at Agen

Agen Aqueduct over the Garrone

 

Helen steering Mango over the Garrone

Agen public moorings, we decided to give it a miss!

Channel in to Moissac, pleased nothing was coming the other way!

The port at Moissac

The abbey church at Moissac, the tympaneum is very impressive

Cloisters in the abbey church at Moissac

Towing, Marmande and Mas d'Agenais Pictures

Towing the hardway, 2 lines keep her parallel to the bank

Towing the easy way

Street in Marmande old quarter with Bromptons

Marmande, patterns of bricks filling in between the wood

Bridge at Mas d'Agenais

In Toulouse

Got through the locks in Toulouse this morning and are now moored safely
in the City and hope to get a WiFi connection to upload pics.
Transiting the locks was very scarey as they are fully automatic, no
green button to press to say you are ready, and were a different layout
to the ones we have used to date so we were desperately tying on warps
as the gates closed. The mitigation was that the water was let in
gently so it was OK, but we did not know that at the time! Three people
would make transiting the next canals easier as you have to let someone
off to open the gates whereas on the locks we have done to date you
twist a pole hanging from a switch as you pass it on the water.
We have until the end of the month to get through the canals, if we
don't we are stuck were ever we end up until next March!

In Toulouse at the end of the Canal Lateral de Garonne

Got to Toulouse today and moored in the Port de l'Embouchure which is a
basin where the canals joined each other. The basin is surrounded by
busy roads and it is the first time we have been subject to traffic
fumes for a long time.
We have had consistently hot and sunny days since leaving Pont de Sables
with what we suspect is a thermally driven wind getting up during the
course of the day, though only one day has it been strong.
We have enjoyed short stops at several towns on the way but the best was
Moissac which has a fascinating church and interesting architecture as
well as a market and good shops (though the market was way short of the
standard set by Rochefort).
Getting here has not been as relaxing as we had hoped as the combination
of our width plus strong side currents from the sluices near each lock
entrance has made getting into the locks a fraught procedure but exiting
has been easier; as a result we are a bit concerned about how we will
get on with the Canal du Midi locks which are 40cm narrower (5.6m as
opposed to 6m). The frequency of locks and narrow bridges means that we
have not had much time to do jobs unless they are quick to complete or
can be left off when a bridge or lock hoves into view.
The other downside I have found is that you are travelling slowly
through very similar countryside most of the time with little to catch
your eye, which gets very monotonous unless you focus on the detail of
what is happening on the canal banks and in the canal.