Barge Trip - Page 6

The majority of the time, barge travel is very calm and uneventful However, every once in a while there is a minor obstacle to traverse. The first obstacle for the day was a VERY narrow underpass that we had to go through. Have no fear. With Loic at the helm and Sam running from side to side to fend us off, we made the passage unscathed.

The next obstacle was an oncoming barge. Under normal circumstances this probably wouldn't have been a problem. However, the water level in the canal was low because of the drought and that meant the navigable part of the canal was narrower than usual. Once again with our expert crew, this proved only a minor, albeit physically demanding, obstacle.

Before too long, we passed another barge. This was the sister ship of the barge we had just passed. Apparently they were traveling in tandem. This time we had no trouble passing. We continued upstream, the lock station numbers were getting smaller. We got to lock station 34. Apparently this is a party station judging from the recycle cart contents.

I'm not sure if this was the lockmaster for staton 34 but she certainly was a change from the lock masters we had seen so far. Everything was calm and quiet so the reserve helmsman (Or is that helmslady?)took over for a short session steering the barge. Of course she needed assistance from her YOUNG assistant!