the consequences of poor concentration...

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A locaboat in a lock...the consequences of not being prepared....
The next morning we waved good-bye to Chris and Phil and told them we were heading for Fragnes – just before the River Saone. They said they would see us there or in Chalon.
We headed off into the chilly morning and soon met up with another English boat going down the canal. We'd seen far more since coming off the Nivernais. The couple on board spent their Summers here with their boat and went home for the winter. Nice. We spent the day hopping from lock to lock with their boat, chatting as we waited. They told us of how they'd gotten stuck in a broken lock once before, stranded in a little village whilst it took two days to fix and how they'sd once had to cut the lines on their boat after getting ropes caught in a lock. We felt lucky that we'd never seen or experienced anything like this and hoped we never would.
At the final lock before Fragnes we witnessed what could happen if you weren't looking after youtr boat as water drained from a lock. As we'd approached, a hire boat whicjh had been tied up on the bank untied and pulled out in front of us. The woman drove whilst the man returned from a bike ride with his kids and hurried up to the lock. We reckoned they'd been having rheir lunch then had realised that there were other boats moving up and decided to jump in before having to wait for the next lock. We were a bit miffed but just decided to hang back. We slowed right down as the baots pulled in, then saw the Ewnglish guy look at the gap left and wave us forward.
“You'll fit.” he said, “Just throw on fore and aft lines.”
We went in and secured ourselves. I sat on the bow with a boat hook in one hand and the rope in the other ready to fend off the locaboat. The family on the locaboat had attached one rope to a centre bollard.
“You might be best to throw a rope out on either side, or put out a fore and aft,” advised the English guy (I think he was called pat)
“We're fine.” replied the woman, who sounded Dutch.
Her husband was loading the bikes onto the boat and the kids were settling down with their lifejackets on. We waited for them to give us the go ahead to pull the cord. They did so and we set off the lock. The husband was still trying to get the last bike on board and the rope looked very loose. As we descended they swung about a lot. I kept our lines tight to avoid a collision, then noticed that their boat looked odd. It looked as though it was tipping rather than swinging now. The kids started to scream and I realised that it was tipping. They hadn't been paying attention closely enough and the side of the boat (heavily fendered with black rubber as all the hire boats were) was caught on the lock wall.
Mike pulled the emergency stop cord and the locaboat popped off the wall with a splash and shot backwards towards us. Mike and I pulled on our ropes as we ran backwards on the lockside and just saved Ozzy from being hit. Pretty hairy!
The woman's immediate reaction was anger, but rather than being angry at herself and her husband for not watching the ropes, she shouted at the guy on the boat in front. She told him he was ignorant and that it was his fault they'd gotten caught because he'd told us to come in and made the space too tight.
He replied that there was room for all of us (which there was – we were all in the lock with the gates shut and no boat was touching another) and said he had advised her to put out another rope and that it had been clear that they weren't concentrating on what they were doing. The woman reiterated again that it had been his fault and went to re-do the ropes (STILL only putting out one loose line at the stern!).
The english guy went back to his boat, shaking his head while we waited for the lockeeper to come and reset the lock. The family on the hire boat calmed down got organised and waited. The woman turned and smiled at us, so I think she must have realised she'd lashed out at the wrong people. I think most people might have in the same situation – anger and looking for someone to blame is often the reaction to a scary near-miss (ask Mike, I always tell him it's his fault when I try to follow him and end up crashing my bike!)
The lock-keeper arrived around 15 minutes later, re-set the lock and waited while we descended. I think the woman told him her theory that there were too many boats in the lock because she pointed at our boats, but I don't think he agreed as he smiled, shrugged and set the lock going without asking anyone to go back out.
I'm guessing its not the first time a hire boat with its overdone fendering and often inexperienced crew has got stuck on the lock wall, and I'm guessing it won't be the last. We resolved to give locaboats a wide berth in future and headed into Fragnes.

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