Cloudy start, sunny and warmer later. Mike investigated why the ‘fridge wasn’t switching off by taking the thermostat out and checking it. It wasn’t working properly, he put it back and before long it failed altogether, so he took it out and bypassed it. Rigged up a timer and connected it up via an inverter so it would switch on for fifteen minutes in every hour. The timer stopped working so Mike changed it for a digital one and set it to come on for twenty minutes in the hour, but it would only do twelve hours at a time so we’ll have to remember to reset it. The lock at St Martin N°17 was full; I turned the pole then got off on the bank below the lock and walked up. The itinerant lock keeper (a lady) arrived in her car as I reached the lockside. She unlocked the office on the end of a nicely kept lock house, checked the weir and drove off again. Mike brought the boat in and I pressed the green button and went to collect the centre rope. The bollards were all in the wrong places - it is so much easier going up in gently filling automatic locks with no ropes on - the boat just moves over slowly from one wall to the other when the flow pattern changes (or the wind). 4 kms to lock 16 Escatalens. We passed a downhill boat, a large French cruiser with a very miserable sour-faced bloke steering from the top deck. The lock was empty, so I got off at the old access place on the left hand side and went up the steps. Nice lock house. I pressed the button again and took the rope. A narrowboat was coming downhill on the next pound. It was a couple we’d met before, so we had a short chat whilst passing. They told us the péniche (from Malause) was going uphill in the Montech flight, slowly. Four very overweight French blokes in their sixties went past walking the towpath, they all waved and shouted bonjour. The Montech locks were operated for us by keepers (as usual) who pressed the buttons to work the locks. The bottom lock, N°15 Pommiés, was empty so we sailed straight in and tied on the two vertical bars set in the left hand wall. The force of water coming in caused the ropes to snatch and pull hard forward as we were too close to the front end of the short (30m) chamber. (The flight of locks at Montech were never lengthened as they built the Montech water slope to bypass them for 38m long péniches) In lock 14 Escudiés I went up the ladder, took the stern rope and put it round a bollard for Mike, then held a long line from a front deck side cleat to a bollard which, again, was set too far back; it still pulled forward and forced the boat off the wall. I walked the short pound up to lock 13 Pellaborie. Mike brought the boat in on the right hand side as the forward bollard was further up the chamber than the one on the left. It didn’t make a lot of difference. When the lock was full I walked on up to Peyrets, N°12, and we swapped back to the left hand side. I rode up to the last lock, N°11 Montech, and went up the ladder to take the ropes. The refrigeration guy Mike had spoken to the day before ‘phoned him back to say he’d checked with his suppliers and thought he could get a replacement thermostat for £20 plus 35% mark-up, plus P&P. It would be near enough £40. We thought that was too expensive and would scrap the old ‘fridge – it was after all seventeen years old and had had a replacement electronic controller fitted some nine years ago, we would be looking for a new one sooner than we expected. When the lock was full the keeper asked where we were going. I told him Lacourt for the night, then down to Montauban. He asked what time at the lock as he had to be there to issue a zapper for us to use on the automatic locks, I said nine - he said nine thirty! I asked what the old factory by the top lock used to make; he told me it was a paper manufacturing factory. Sad to see it so run down and decaying, but it had been empty for a long time. Must have been a big blow to the people of Montech when it closed down, as it surely must have been a big employer of local people. It was 11.35 a.m. when we turned left on to the Montauban arm. We chased a purple heron for a long way down the arm, it took off and landed - caught a fish - took off again and so on. The quay was empty so we moored at the Montech end and connected up to the electric. Mike put a bag over the electricity post as there were bare connections and someone had broken the covers. We decided that we had no choice other than to get a new ‘fridge, so Mike went off on the moped to see the VNF and changed our date with a zapper to Friday (at ten, not 9.30 a.m.!) and then collect the car from Valence while I searched the Internet for ‘fridges in Montauban. I’d only just started when he returned after cancelling our boat trip down to Montauban. The fuel pipe had come off the moped’s carburettor, so he’d come back to refill the tank with petrol and wash his hands. I told him we’d got the Internet on 3G and there were fifteen ‘fridge sellers to search through. He went to get the car and I carried on with the search. When he returned I was still searching. I came to the conclusion that the best on offer was an own brand fridge, almost same size as our old one for 235€ from Boulanger, a chain of electroménagers (sellers of electrical goods). I ‘phoned to see if they had one. No, place an order and it would arrive within three days. Mike said we should order one. I wouldn’t order one on the ‘phone as I wanted to see one first and then rang the shop back to find out what time they closed - 7.30 p.m. and it was almost six. The guy arrived to collect the rent for the mooring, still 3€ a night same as the year before. We paid for two nights. We went straight away to Montauban to order our new ‘fridge. Took the ring road to avoid the teatime traffic. Nice ‘fridge, a bit wider than the old one and the freezer section seemed a bit smaller, paid 235€ for it and they said ring Thursday afternoon to see if it had arrived, if not it would be Friday. It was late when we got back.
(Cutting a very long story short, the new mains ‘fridge wouldn’t work on an inverter (of any size, not even one with 2500 watt capacity) so we had to take it back and accept a credit note). A new thermostat for the old 12v ‘fridge was ordered from the UK on 1st June and took until the 12th to arrive. We repaired the old ‘fridge, did a quick trip down the locks to Montauban and back (because we hadn’t been there before by boat) and finally set off again on the 14th June, over two weeks after we had arrived at Lacourt.)
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