The morning dawned warm with the prospect of a hotter day ahead. Rita went to Valence d’Agen to buy a new pair of sandals, and on the way back she stopped at St Nicolas de la Grave for a swim. Since it was warm and windy, she then took the opportunity of doing some washing, while I made up a clothes line on the front deck from the wheelhouse to the mast and back.

While the washing was drying I took the opportunity to watch the replay of the AFL game between the Hawks and the Giants. The Hawks came back from two goals down in the dying minutes to tie the game, to prevent the Giants from going to the top of the ladder.

During the afternoon, I heard a boat going past and saw a rope extending out the back. So I raced to the wheelhouse door with my camera to see what was going on, and saw that the first boat (driven by the owner of the boat yard at Castelsarrasin) was towing another.

But wait, there’s more (as they say in the late-night TV commercials). The second boat was towing a third boat (which had been half-submerged at Pommervic for a few years).

Neither the second or third boat had any engine power (although I later found that the bowthruster on the second boat still worked), which made steering and, particularly, stopping a bit of a challenge. However, by the time I decided to follow them, they had cleared the first lock out of Moissac and were heading east. They looked like three ducklings as they waddled their way up the canal.

By the time they got to Ecluse Cacor, I thought they would have got their act together. But apparently not! Either the people on the second boat were the new owners and had not done any rope work in locks before, or they were just passersby/friends that the lead boat captain had co-opted for the day. There was lots of yelling and shouting and blaming for mistakes, and it seemed the only way the second boat could stop was by running into the back of the first boat, and then put up with being shouted at by the lead boat captain! All good entertainment.

Finally, they cleared the Ecluse Cacor (to applause from the crowd on the tourist boat waiting to enter the ecluse) and started across the Aqueduct. Since the second and third boats had no way of controlling their sterns, they gradually shifted over to the side of the aqueduct, and then just rubbed their sides on the edge all the way across. I hope they all made it to Castelsarrasin OK.

That evening we went to a Mozart & Bach concert in the Abbey at Moissac, performed by musicians from Tübingen, Germany. This group has an annual trip to nearby Auvillar and has been doing this for 40 years. They play concerts in lots of nearby towns including this big one in the Abbey. I don’t understand much about classical music, but they sounded good, especially the French Horn player who performed lots of solos in the first piece. We have learned lots about Abbey concerts over the years, and the most important thing is that Abbey pews are not made for sitting on for extended periods listening to music. So this year, we brought our own cushions!