Chill, chill, bone – aching, numbing ice biting chill. White upon the breath, chill deep into the lungs, nowhere warmth! Where had the summer heat gone this year?

Add to the mix, rain, rain and more rain! Wet to the bone, we at last arrived at the junction where we would enter Embranchment du Nancy. It was here that the Vosges canal concluded: a lock ahead enabled entrance into the mighty Moselle whilst that to our right would take us into the township of Nancy: it was the latter we were requiring. Dongle pointed and pressed, nothing happened. Pressed a second time, the wrong lock commenced working. It appeared the remote was not wired to activate the first of the Embranchement de Nancy Locks.

Mooring to one of the working barges, Bob jumped ashore and spoke to the VNF official situated at the Moselle lock entrance, only metres ahead of us. It turned out there was a hiccup with the on – land activator. Engine off, we sat down to wait. Someone had been called in to rectify the problem. It turned out we were supposed to position ourselves right alongside the activator to prevent confusion between the two.

This section of 18 locks in 10 kilometres turned out to be smooth sailing.

The first five locks took us up,

the remainder down.

Having attained the peak, a pleasant change in the weather took place as the sun appeared and the rain dissipated. Our ice – cold bodies revelled in the unexpected warmth. Off with the wet weather gear and on with shorts and t – shirts.

In all literature attained, there was no mention of mooring facilities within this short region should an over – night stay be required. Expecting to not find any, it was with surprise to discover two such positions. The first was on our left as we exited the initial lock, and the second situated to the right just after the fifth lock. Here, the waterway narrowed to one boat width and the dongle was required to set the lights in motion to allow us access (no mention in the books of this either).

15:30 had us arriving at the boat marina in Nancy. This would be our stop over for the coming few weeks.