CHILLING OUT AND A QUICK CHANGE OF PLAN

We were having a lovely cruise from Metz to Pont à Mousson and then towards Nancy along the Moselle. It's a very wide river with hardly any other boats around, so you really can relax and chill as you motor along.

Geoff chilling at the helm

Although the locks are large they are all manned, so a VHF call to the lock keeper and the locks are all prepared and set for you. This lock was 110m long, 11m wide and 8m deep. As the lock is large it's obligatory to wear life jackets as seen in the photo below. Fortunately they have floating bollards that you tie onto and just hold the rope as you ascend, so a bit of sunbathing while you wait!

Margaret leisurely attending to the ropes as we ascend.

We had planned to arrive in Nancy that afternoon and had about 10 km and 2 locks left to go, so a couple of hours and we'd be there. However, as we surfaced in the lock the lock keeper came across to see us. He informed us that the lifting bridge as you approach Nancy was closed and would not be repaired for at least a week! Merde!! That meant a detour of around 50 km and about 25 locks. Well, you can never plan too much when you're on the canals. So off on the detour meant cruising until about 6pm that evening and a 9-10 hour day the next to get to Nancy.  It was a very pretty route and there was part of it that we hadn't been on before. So we arrived in Nancy a day and a half later. No problem. It was nice to be back in Nancy where we met up with several friends that we'd known when we wintered there 2 years ago.