We would have been wise not to have gone out today, but the forecast said it was going to be blowing just as hard for the next few days or even a week, which logically meant that we’d be wise not to go out for a week. The only problem with doing that would be that the big lock at Rechicourt, our nemesis in days of old, is closing for a month in just a few days’ time and if that happened we would never get home.
We waited for a lull in the procession of hire boats, knowing that a lull in the wind wasn’t likely, and drawing on the considerable depths of our experience, and only looking back once to farewell the ruins of the chateau one more time, managed to negotiate the four locks to the lift at Arzviller without incident. Even if there had been incident, there were no witnesses or damage which acquaints to the same thing. At Arzviller, there are witnesses, many of them, who pay several Euros for the privilege of being so and sadly none of them would have had the experience to understand that what appeared to be an embarrassing mishap on our part was actually an amazing feat of seamanship in winds sufficiently strong to move the boat sideways at near cruising speed.
Not to labour the point, we survived unscathed and once more drawing on the depth of our experience, stayed in what was the only patch of sun, thawing our toes while we could. Given the forecast we knew there would be no thawing happening through the night!
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