Travel from Saint Simon to Jarnac

Saint Simon Mooring Wall
///chewy.lifestyle.defeat
45°38’55.2372″N, 0°4’36.5988″W

to

Jarnac Mooring Wall
///grained.defies.cannily
45°40’45.8436″N, 0°10’43.5828″W

Four locks & 11 kilometers travelled.

We woke up this morning to dark clouds & rain. We could see this in the forecast a few days ago & decided we would figure out what to do when the weather arrived.

It rained fairly heavy until about 9:30 & then it let up so we cast off & headed for Jarnac. Our new friends from Germany were departing at the same time.  We followed them towards the lock at Juac, the first of four locks we would pass through today. 

Our journey on the Charente River from Sireuil to Jarnac is downstream so each lock we pass through takes us down approximately 1 to 2 meters. When we return to Sireuil we will be going “up” the river.

The rain started again shortly after we got underway but it wasn’t very hard & didn’t cause any problems with handling or navigating the boat.

However, there was only one windshield wiper on the boat & it didn’t do a very effective job. So, in-between rain showers, one of our crew was “volunteered” to go forward & clean the windows to help the skipper see where we were going. She did an excellent job!

This was the beginning of our 3rd day on the boat. We have been through several locks & have established a bit of a routine when going through the locks.

Our normal lock routine is I drive the boat, Catherine & Valerie take turns staying on board & helping me with the lines & helping David with operating the lock gates & filling & draining the locks.

Opening & closing the lock gates takes a fair bit of physical effort. Each gate has a large wheel that is connected to a gear mechanism that opens or closes the gate – depending upon which way you turn the wheel.

In the photo above you can see David operating the large wheel to open one of the four gates that are in each lock. The smaller wheel in the left of the picture is used to open & close a small door near the bottom of each gate. This door lets water in or out of the lock – depending upon whether you want to fill or empty the lock.

In the photo above you can see Catherine operating the smaller wheel –  the one that opens & closes the door on the lock gate – to fill or drain the lock, depending upon which way you are headed.

All of the locks on the route we are travelling are manually operated so the crew gets a pretty good workout. There’s a bit less work if more than one boat is going through the lock at the same time because the crew from each boat will usually lend a hand.

Back in Canada on the Rideau Canal & on the Trent-Severn Waterway all of the locks are operated by Parks Canada staff. The only thing the boaters have to do is stay on board their own boat & handle the lines to keep their boat steady while the lock is being filled or drained.

This was also our experience on the Canal du Midi last year. All the locks on that system are operated by the canal authority. It’s easy to get spoiled when someone else is doing all that hard work for you.

We arrived in Jarnac around 2:00pm. Thankfully the rain appeared to be finished for the day. It was a bit confusing after leaving the lock.

We were also distracted by the Courvoisier Cognac distillery immediately beside the boating channel (photo above)  – wondering if they were giving away free samples!

The initial channel exiting the lock at Jarnac is very narrow. There are shallow sand bars on port & starboard sides for about 100 meters & the current is fairly strong. We finally managed to find a place to moor for the day about 500 meters from the lock.

It had been a long time since breakfast so Catherine & Valerie fixed a lunch of hot soup & crackers supplemented with some excellent cheese & sausage that we had purchased in Chateauneuf-sur-Charante.

After lunch we all had a brief rest & then went for a walk to explore part of the city.

David & I walked back towards the lock to check out the Courvoisier distillery. They give tours daily so we signed up for a tour tomorrow afternoon.

This should be an interesting tour & it includes tasting of three different types of Cognac. We’re really looking forward to that!

The weather today ended much better than when we started. We were treated to a pink sky – hopefully the sailor’s mantra “red sky at night, sailor’s delight” will hold true.

Photo above – sunset on the Charente River in Jarnac across the bow of our boat.

Cheers!