The time to return home was drawing close as we’d been now been on board for some 10 weeks having sailed LJ from Chichester to the Morbihan Sea. We had a few appointments to keep back in the UK and the electrical system wasn’t going to repair itself, so the only practical solution was to return to our home port in the River Vilaine and get the engineers in. This also gave us a chance to fly home and return with the car.
Due to the heatwave that had engulfed France for the previous 2 months, the water supply in the River Vilaine above the Barrage (lock), where all the marinas are, was at an all time low. Therefore, it was only operating at half capacity on some days and on other days it was closed completely. As a result, the queues to get in and out ranged from unbelievable to the ridiculous. At times owners were abandoning their boats in marinas up and down the coast because they couldn’t get in and when we arrived we were fully expecting to have to wait at least 3 days to get through ….
As we came round the final bend on the seaward side I couldn’t actually see the lock gates for queuing boats all jostling for position whilst the lock keeper, who was standing on the side, was screaming instructions in a weird dialect of French that even locals struggle to comprehend. I could see that a few boats were struggling to hold station in a 15 knot cross wind in the mouth of the entrance and so they motored over to an larger holding area leaving us, who had only just turned up, looking at the last space in the lock with no one in front of me.
The Lock Keeper then screamed at me something which sounded like “Vous fr’ighnómàt l’gre äcfedt écomulintrë motreloll, allez” . I grasped the last word and snuck in ending up at 45degrees to everyone else! The gate closed leaving the remaining French boats having to wait another 24 hours until the next lift.
In the words of Horatio Nelson ‘Ya snooze, ya lose’..
30th July 2022
Trip Mileage 38 miles
Mileage Completed 1991 miles