14 locks in the rain

1945 Miserable weather until after dinner today, and an even worse canal. Very narrow with shallow edges and loads of thick weed that kept getting caught around the prop.Luckily we only saw 4 other boats all day but still managed to hit one. We waited outside a lock as a barge (39m long & 375tonnes) came down. We moved as far to the right as possible, nearly touching the bottom. As he came out of the lock and just about reached us, I thought it would be a good idea to start moving forward slowly, as a big hump of water develops at the front of the barge with a big dip for a few metres after, that sucks you towards it and a little forward momentum would give us better control. Just as his bow drew level and with about half a metre between us, our starboard hull went aground, sending the back end out and scraping down about 20m before we both managed to stop and untangle ourselves. The driver helpfully explained that in this canal we should stop altogether due to the shallow water at the edges. Unbelievably there were only minor scrapes on the rudder. At this rate we'll be coming out of the canals on a forklift pallete strapped to two 45 gallon drums. It was uphill the whole day with 14 locks. At this time of the season there are usually shortages of water but all of the locks were full to the brim, causing our fenders to float uselessly over the edge - we motored very carefully out of the lock each time. The locks shut at 1730 for pleasure boats here and at 1715 - the last lock of the day for us, I set off the emergency alarm while trying to pull the handle to start the lock filling up (they're next to each other and both covered in green slime). We waited for about 10 minutes expecting an irate Frenchman, but he was ok and after resetting the alarm even told us a nice place to park up. As we came out of the lock I had to wait at a narrow bit while another barge came under a bridge towards us. Again I was just about touching the sandy bottom, but this time I stayed put. He slowed so much I even had a conversation with his wife as they passed, but we still started to get sucked toward him. Just as he was nearly passed I put the engines in forward and motored safely away. Mayuri went for her shower while I got soaked in one last rain shower for the day and parked up single handed next to the bakery which the guy had told us about. French bread & patti for tea!