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We leave quite
early today, as we plan to cross the Etang the Thau, but plans are here to
be changed (by nature). First we pass the old
Abbey of La Maguelone |
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and continue one similar landscapes as yesterday. The canal
is quite silted up here so red and green cones marked the (narrow) navigable
channel. |
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Around
lunch-time we reach Frontignan and wait for the road-bridge to open.
The bridge opens only three times a day. The official
version has it that the state of the bridge is so bad, that opening it up
more than three times would be too dangerous. While the rules for right of
way are pretty clear (and also marked in the charts) they seem to be ignored
(or not known) by all the pleasure boats.
When the bridge opens a mad rush of boats starts! Some
tried to pass right under or after the bridge, others tried to moor
immediately after passing the bridge.
We first waited patiently, even we had the right of
way, but then decided enough was enough and slowly started moving. I guess
even to the most ignorant driver of a rental boat 65 tons of iron makes an
impression and so the passage cleared in no time and the ones that had to
wait finally waited. |
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As I mentioned before, the plan was to cross the Etang the
Thau towards the Canal du Midi. Seeing the whitecaps
on the Etang and the wind picking up when we approached made it clear that this
wasn't a good idea today. Instead we moved towards the safe port of Sète.
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According to the maps the passage is clearly marked, but
practice is different. Only a few hardly visible stakes, no buoys show the path.
At least Thomas (telling us stories about crossing the Isselmeers in the
Netherlands with Radar) enjoyed the passage, but even Betty's plants didn't like
being sprayed by salt-water too much! |
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After arriving safely at the waiting pier for the two draw
bridges the wind started to pick up and so we were glad to not having attempted
the crossing. |
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At 7:30 pm
finally the two draw-bridges, one for the trains the other for the road,
opened, allowing us to enter the port of Sète.
The harbormaster had assigned us (well not in the first place as she didn't
seem to have understood that we were 24 m long when I made reservations, but
that is yet another story) a mooring just at the entrance of the port.
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A few days
later we went back to Sète for some shopping, we saw, that our assigned
place was usually reserved for larger ships! |
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Sète looks like
a French version of Venice. Canals throughout the town. The Mediterranean
Sea on one side and the Etang the Thau on the other side. |
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Only in France!
You might have heard that some unions in France are on strike. Some strike
over pension plans and retirement age and the teachers fight against
decentralization of the school system. So one
evening we hear shouting over megaphones and see a convoy of small boats
driving through the canals and protesting against school decentralization! |
