Monday 25 June - the vinegar solution, off to Montech

Emailed Iain about the toilet problem. He advised that it might be a furry non-return valve, and that we should use vinegar to de-scale it. Will get some vinegar in Montech and give it a try. Heard from Emma that she had arrived safely, minus bags, in Paris and had been up since 4am watching the sun rise over Sacre Couer. Headed off for Montech. Stopped for lunch at bankside, then went thru the 5-locks after lunch. Bit of a misunderstanding at lock 2, where the eclusier helped Rita with the front rope but didn't attempt to help with the back rope. I thought this meant he was happy to let us single-rope and use the rudder to keep the tail in. He started the locking cycle and I kept the tail reasonably under control with the rudder and forward gear, until about halfway through when he started waving his arms about. At one stage, the stern clipped the other side of the lock, at which point he went into a series of Gallic shrugs. While all this was going on, he was explaining to Rita at the bow that if I wanted his help with the rear rope, I should have asked for it. Needless to say, the beer I had got out of the fridge for him went back into the fridge. Luckily the guy who took over from him for the last 3 locks was much more friendly, including giving us phone numbers for the Montech Canal eclusiers in case we wanted to go to Montauban. He earned his beer!

Tied up in Montech in the same spot next to Henri as last year. However, the edge of the canal was much shallower than last year and we had some trouble bringing the stern in close to the shore. Eventually we just pulled it in as far as possible and let it sit on the mud. In the evening we went for a walk around Montech (mainly looking for garbage and recycling bins) and found the church which was lit up for the evening.