THE BIG ONE

Not the prettiest thing in France but technically very impressive. The Réchicourt 2 lock on Le Canal de la Marne au Rhin (Est) was built to replace 6 locks that took up to 6 hours to transit. This now takes 30 mins. On the downstream side it's an ugly wall of concrete, on entering under the guillotine lock gate, wow...

Waiting for the green light.

It has cathedral proportions and it is big, taking us up 15.4m, the largest of the French Freycinet canal network. A normal lock is in the order of a 3 metre rise.

Inside, so let's do it.

Good news, it's floating bollards so relax as we float up to the sky.

Not too stressed.

Did I mention the Germans? They were squeezed in behind us and did not tie up correctly and were tossed around like a cork in a vortex. They were not happy, with a lot of 'Kaput' and Germanic swearing! When we arrived at the top the conversation I had with the Éclusier was very much 'If they don't tie up correctly what do they expect?' They did quite a bit of damage to their boat. My main job was placing a large balloon fender on the back of Soraya to stop their spinning boat damaging itself or Soraya.

Yes the Germans are behind us.

The guillotine lock gate coming down.