Hot and sunny, very windy. Up at dawn, set off at six, just as the first cruise ship of the day swung into sight around the last bend heading uphill. It was cold with grey clouds so we wrapped up in fleeces and I wore my windproof waterproof. We arrived at Caderousse at 7.30 a.m. and got red/green (getting ready) lights. Tug Atoll pushing two pans, Atoll Lagon and Atoll Lagune (each 3,000 tonnes) came out of the lock slowly. The red/green lights were still on so we waited, expecting an uphill boat to go in first. After a while, when nothing had appeared behind us, Mike gave the keeper a call and he said it was OK to go in. The red light went out leaving just the green showing. Rose 9m and left the top at 8.10 a.m. Two French cruisers were moored side by side in the middle of the pontoon for lock waiting; it looked like they’d been there overnight.
Hotel boat Van Gogh went downriver. At KP210 a very fast German cruiser was heading towards us, a cloud of blue smoke behind him indicating he was motoring hard. I took photos of the bank to bank wash. He slowed down to pass us. We still rocked violently in his wash. A strong smell of overheated engines wafted our way. Spotted a pushtow in front of us as we got closer to St Ettienne-des-Sorts. The pontoon mooring was empty and a dredger (consisting of a digger on a workboat plus a tug and pan) was at work in the middle of the river. The latter moved his workboat to the moorings on the right bank and set off downriver with his pan of dredgings as we passed him. Four converted péniches were moored at St Pierre, neighbouring village to St Ettiene. Philomena (with a sign on the roof that read “Sculpteur du Rhône”), Lindus (in need of TLC), one with no name and Elorn (the smartest looking of the four). Round a sharp right hand bend and under the TVG line as a high speed train was passing overhead. Wow! That was noisy! Four cruisers (three French, one British) went past heading downriver at KP201 before the viaduct TGV de Mornas.
We entered the Donzère-Mondragon canal at 10.20 a.m. as tug Tenace came out of the old Rhône pushing a pan called Martigues to head of downriver. The flow in the canal section was between 2.5 and 3 kph and we’d got 29 kms of that (and Bollène lock, the deepest on the river) to do. Tug Ampère (the cut down end of a barge) overtook us; another wall of water went past! A red hulled container ship called Diamante went past followed by a small German yacht steered by a standing nudist (male). Made a cuppa. A Belgian cruiser overtook us at the last bridge before Bollène. The sun had come out, it was getting hotter - but windier. An empty pushtow left the lock and we followed the cruiser in. The lock keeper was getting stroppy as he called the cruiser and got no answer. He said something about keeping a commercial waiting so Mike called him and said we were doing our best to get there quickly, but the wind and flow were slowing us. The cruiser was halfway up the chamber on the left hand side when we got there. We tied to the second floater on the right and rose 23m, gently but very fast, after waiting five minutes before the gates started to close (so much for keeping commercials waiting!) (Historical Note: In my French Waterways book of 1963 this was the last lock on the Rhône of three that had built then, the others were Chateauneuf and Logis Neuf – no other locks existed at that time – Bolléne is now number nine out of twelve).
As we left the lock, a well-loaded (gunnels awash) boat called Fidelity was almost in the lock gates, waiting to go down. We passed a small Dutch Barge (British flagged) by the first bridge. A fast cruiser, Marseilles registered, was rushing to catch up. Mike shouted “You’ve lost your skier!” They either didn’t hear or didn’t understand, they waved cheerily. At 1.00 p.m. the wind was blowing hard down the wide open elevated section of canal above the deep lock. Swapped to the left hand side to go round two bends (as instructed by the signs on the bank) and met a nervous looking German high speed cruiser who would really have liked to have passed us on the other side.
I made coffee as we left the canal and entered the Donzère gap. A guy on a jetski amused us by falling off several times as we went slowly past. The rocky hills on either bank were concentrating the wind. We motored on with the wind trying to rip our hats and sunglasses off. The cruise ship that passed us first thing was moored at Viviers, as were a small armada of cruisers. Glad we hadn't been aiming to stop overnight there as there was very little space. We arrived below Châteauneuf lock and moored on the pontoon to wait for the lock. The top half of the chamber was full and we had a red light. (Some of the locks have intermediate gates and can operate using just half of the lock) Péniche La Nauve came down the lock and moored on the dolphins beyond where we were. We cast off and went into the half lock. The wind was howling round the lock and it blew the boat off the wall twice before I could get the rope on the floater. Mike reversed off to do it again and the keeper started opening the gates behind us thinking we wanted to leave the lock! I got the blame for that over the VHF for the messing about!
Mike asked the lock keeper if we could stay overnight on the upper pontoon. OK. It was windy, but nowhere near as bad as we'd had at Roquemaure. Oh boy! I had never been so happy to tie up and get in the cabin.
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