http://ornamentalpeanut.com/designer-grasses/grass_sizes-3/ We woke to a mist over the River Lot after an overnight at about KM 135.
São Tomé Off our stern, motoring up the Lot River
The sun over the vineyard was gorgeous and the mist barely there when we pulled away from our anchorage at 10:15 AM. We leisurely motored past the village of Parnac, two old abandoned lock systems, past the Chateau de Langle, cliffs, and vineyards back to Douelle.  We easily progressed through the locks, which are mostly manual on the Lot with Lou and Pat cranking on the sluices and the gates. Shoe on the bow line, and Carol and Sandy sharing the stern line, Mike at the helm. While underway, Shoe, Sandy and Lou spelled Mike on the helm doing an admirable job of staying in the navigable channel.
Just your average, every day vineyard along the way
We saw a turtle sunning on a branch in the middle of the river, egret, fish jumping, bait fish or minnows, ducks, swallows inhabiting the rugged shoreline. The shore was mostly vegetation or cliffs, populated only every now and then by towns or farms. It was relaxing and very, very beautiful – different from the Canal du Midi and the Soane River in Burgundy.
Lunch Underway! Check out those peaches, can’t find peaches like this in the USA
We had lunch underway: a selection of cheeses, sausage, fruit, leftover chicken, olives and bread.
Going upriver, if the lock gates are open, a boat simply discharges two line handlers and moves into the lock. Once the boat is secured by throwing lines up to the line handlers on the side of the lock, the back gates are cranked closed. The line handlers move to the front gates and crank open the sluices to let water in to bring the boat level with the river. Once the water in the lock has equalized with the river level, the line handlers crank open the front gates to allow the boat to proceed. During the equalization process, the folks left on the boat cinch the bow and stern lines to eliminate the slack.
In the lock, heading upstream
Here’s what Pat and Lou do…crank open the sluice gates to let water in to raise the boat up to the river level.
If the gates are not open, it is a whole other story, the two line handlers jump off and run up to the lock. First they close the sluices on the front gates. Then they open the sluices on the back gates to let the water out of the lock. Once the water in the lock has reached the same level as the boat, the line handlers open the back gates. The captain maneuvers the boat into the lock, the deck hands throw the lines to the line handlers who secure them around bollards and pass the lines back to the deckhands. Once the boat is secure, the line handlers open the front sluices to let water into the lock which raises the boat. Once the boat has reached level, the linehandlers open the front gates, allow the boat to pass and run ahead to jump back on board at the boarding point.
If there were no locks, the Lot River would not be navigable. Here at Pont Valentre, boats would have to jump over the weir – an impossible task.
We made the lock at Douelle, continued on to our fifth lock at Coty shortly after 3 PM, which has been equipped electronic/hydraulic. The lock just before Coty was the lock at Pont Valentre. Pont Valentre was built in the 14th century to span the Lot River. The bridge has 6 Gothic spans with chamfered piers and three fortified towers about 130 feet tall. It was restored in 1879 and is, supposedly, the best preserved medieval bridge in Europe. The bridge originally took about 50 years to build, and, according to a legend, the architect entered into a bargain with the devil to help him complete the bridge in return for his soul. The architect tried to dupe the devil, and, in revenge, the devil removed the last stone laid in the central tower, each night. In 1879, the restoration architect, memorialized the legend by setting a carving of the devil in the central tower.
Just your average, slightly overscale home along the Lot River
For the Coty lock, the electronic one, we had been given a key card to start the cycle and, once the boat was secured in the lock, pass the key card again to initiate the second part of the cycle. The locks today ranged in change of depth of .6 m to a high of 4.3 m. We moored across the Lot from Cahors, at Cabessut and indulged in hot showers. Refilled our water tanks and enjoyed our evening with a great view of Cahors. While we were at dock, one towel (Shoe’s) went overboard, but his tidy whities and socks were a-OK.
Docked across from Cahors, taking on water to re-fill our tanks!
We allowed Shoe to use a towel from the spare stateroom, while the one he lost overboard dried after we fished it out from the bottom. God forbid we pay for a towel! Dinner tonight was pasta, wine, bread, and the reamains of our apple tart and chocolate for dessert.
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