Day 24: 07/07/17 Rouen to Poses

We finally managed to leave Rouen at 10:30 this morning, right on low water to carry the tide up to the first lock on the Seine where we planned to stop for the night. Having had breakfast and got going we all stayed on deck to wave goodbye to the city of Rouen. Next I started boat school with the kids while Patrick helmed. Today was Esmé's turn to do school beautifully and AJ's turn to throw a paddy! We've now promised them ice cream for any day they both manage school without fuss.

We had a light lunch on the go and before long we were approaching the lock. A coaster had just overtaken us (I had to let Patrick helm as I was bricking it... not sure if it was going to catch us before we went under a bridge that I was very sure wasn't big enough for the both of us), and so we followed it into the lock. The bollards were very far apart so we used a ladder and one of the bollards to tie on to. The lock was pretty unfriendly and the coaster didn't tie up so used bow thrusters to keep itself steady which meant we were thrown about quite a lot. AJ took Laurin out of the lock, he's getting rather good, and then we went just a little further to the village of Poses where we tied up alongside the tourist information.

Once we had had a rest (or tried to rest and not get too angry at Esmé for not resting) we had another light snack and went for a walk. We were trying to find a lake for the kids to swim in but the closer lake seemed to be either a private club or closed... my limited French just about told us that we couldn't swim there. With very disappointed kids we returned to Laurin and Patrick had clearly had enough, where as the kids wanted to get the paddleboard or canoe out, or even swim. I told Patrick to go for a walk and I would sort the kids out. Unfortunately the pump for the SUP was missing a part so wouldn't work. Luckily the French guy next to us whittled a plug from a twig and we were up and running. Kids squealing in delight. I took the French guy a beer and we got chatting. Apparently his wife swims in the river all the time so after a while I let the kids swim as well as play on the paddleboard.





We ate at about 9:30pm which was much cooler and then kids went pretty much straight to bed while I tidied up to give Patrick a break. I think he had too much sun as he took the helm for most of the trip. Think we're going to have to split schooling/helming more equally.  Considering a long day tomorrow so that we can have a rest day on Sunday as the weather doesn't look too good.