Avignon

18.08.07
An even more ambitious attempt of 129km to Avignon today. Started off badly when I ignored my alarm at 0600 pretending that the sun wasn’t up when I knew it was because of the tinted windows really. We were off at 0700 though, a free night in the marina as it was shut when we arrived and still shut when we left. We didn’t take on any water as I was trying to keep the boat as light as possible to get that little extra speed. I still kept the engine running at 1600 rpm as always but tried to keep in the centre of the river where the flow’s fastest except when cutting the corners of the long sweeping bends, hoping not to meet one of the hotel barges coming in the opposite direction at 35kph. The scenery and mountains were spectacular all day. Lots of nuclear power stations, one with a massive picture of a baby on the side of one of the cooling towers? Lots of TGV trains flying across the bridges. A group of bee eaters came flying around the boat for a while. The wind started really blowing on one long stretch and even though it was northerly and the waves it kicked up were moving in the same direction as us it knocked our speed down at least a knot from the smooth water. A group of wind surfers were making the most of it though absolutely flying across our bows & stern. We had six locks to get through but on the Rhone we come last to all commercial traffic and we waited an hour at one & an hour & a half at another which ended our attempt at Avignon. We tried floating around the other day while waiting, but with three knots of current dragging you to the edge of the barrage for an hour and a strong wind at the top of all the dams it was too much hassle. Today we went onto the waiting pontoons which are all placed at the narrow entrance to the lock behind the piles for the barges to wait at. This means we have to berth downwind weaving between the piles and concrete quay trying to keep our speed under control as we squeeze through the gap and then do the same in reverse when we leave. Luckily the concrete walls keeps the current quite slow so it’s only the wind you have to think about. The locks started off an impressive size and got bigger all day. The length & width are a standard 195m x 12m and in the end we must have been falling 40m. It makes the 8x4m boat feel very small when you’re the only thing in there.
At 2015 we approached the sixth lock just 6km short of Avignon, but the light was on red. We berthed up and tried to contact the lock on the vhf but there was no reply, so we had called it a night & had showers.
Awoken in the middle of the night by two massive spotlights shining through the windows as a barge also moored up on the piles next to us.