Friday 19 August - up the Baise, Lavardac drama, back to Vianne Night Market



The next morning dawned fine but misty over the water in Vianne, a lovely place to wake up to.

We departed Vianne mid-morning with the intention of getting to Nerac that evening. We were looking forward to this, as we'd heard lots of good things about that city. Only five locks to negotiate and we'd be there. The first lock we encountered was at Lavardac. As we got there, another barge was coming down so we tied up to wait. As at Vianne, the lock was alongside a weir, and was narrow and deep.

While we waited, I decided to get off and stretch my legs. As I walked around, I noticed a strange movement in the grass, as though something was tunnelling through the ground just below the surface. After a little while, something popped out of the ground and continued along on the surface. I had seen my first Mole!

When the boat had cleared the lock, we prepared to enter. All seemed to be going as per normal, except that the depth of the lock and the placement of the bollards made it difficult for Rita to get the bow line around the front bollard and back to the bollard on the boat. So she stayed on the dock, after wrapping the line around the bollard to give some grip. As per usual, I was holding the line at the back, after giving it a few loops around the rear bollard on the boat. Rita pushed the green button and the locking procedure started.

However, in this lock the inflow of water was particularly vigorous. After the initial surge which pushed the barge backwards, which I held against with the rear line, the water hit the back gates and, especially since the Baise locks are so narrow, the push forward was extremely strong. Unfortunately, all this forward push was now being held on the front line, with Rita trying to hold fast on the dock. However, the dock bollard was large and very smooth, and hence the extra wraps around this bollard were of little use in holding the barge. Rita was being pulled forward into the bollard and while she tried hard to resist, she wisely kept her hands out of the ropes and eventually had to let go. At this time, I saw (from looking at the position of the rear bollard against the lock wall) that we were starting to move forward alarmingly. I therefore had two options; keep holding my line, which was doing nothing to stop the barge going forward because it was pointing in the wrong direction, or let go and try something else. So I dropped my line onto the deck, and ran to the wheelhouse and engaged full reverse in an attempt to slow down the barge which was now moving towards the front gates (this was one situation where leaving the engine running while in the lock was a decided advantage). I don't know how much it slowed the barge or how hard we hit the front gates, but I'm sure we gave them a bit of a nudge! At this time, someone from a boat waiting to go downstream had run over to help Rita with the bow line, while she went to the stern to grab the line that I had dropped. Gradually we managed to ease Kanumbra off the front gates and get her secured fore and aft. We waited for the locking cycle to complete, then gingerly eased her out of the lock, trying not to nudge any of the boats moored around the top of the lock.

The experience had shaken us up a bit. From being congratulated when negotiating the Vianne lock to a near catastrophe at the Lavardac lock, all in the space of less than a day. Rita wanted to quit; I wanted to sell the barge! We very slowly continued upstream, but then agreed that we needed to pull over and have a bit of a calming rest and a re-think. Luckily, we found a small jetty at the foot of the garden of a canalside restaurant near the town of Barbaste, and so we tied up there. We had a snack, had a think, went for a walk and then for a ride to Barbaste to look at the castle.

After we had calmed down, we talked about what we should do. We could continue on to Nerac, but that was four locks away and if they were all like Lavardac then we were in trouble. Eventually, we decided not to blame ourselves too much (we had only been barging for less than 2 weeks, and had managed to get most things done right, so we were probably due for a hiccough). We also decided to be more flexible with schedules, and so gave up the targets we had for seeing things further up the Baise. Instead, we turned around (doing a beautiful pivot turn into the bank - proving that we could do some things correctly), and went back to Vianne. Going downhill through the Lavardac lock was much easier, and we arrived at Vianne in time for dinner and a community party in the square that night. Nothing like a party to brighten the spirits - it had worked twice in one week now!