In Namur we met the first Danish boat on our journey since Lubeck. It's 4 weeks and 1.000km ago.
Nils, the boat's owner, who is also on his way to the Mediterranean, had arrived here a few days before us. He had also been surprised that the locks in France were closed until mid-November.
After recovering a bit and assessing the possibilities, he too had come to the conclusion that the best solution was to spend the winter in the area.
We called the Harbor Master in Maastricht Marina – a well-protected and safe harbor located 2-3 days' sailing from Namur.
Now it was lucky with us.
The harbormaster had just one vacant winter place left. We took it immediately and of course for the price.
The next morning at 8.30 Morten texted us that he was about to board the plane in Copenhagen. 3 hours later he boarded the Heron in Namur.
The rest of the day we saw Namur. Spent a few hours on the Citadel, where we had a great view of the Ardennes high above the rivers Meuse and Sambre. At the newly decorated museum, we saw the exhibition about Namur and its history. From there we went down into the old town with well-maintained homes, nice pedestrian streets, cozy restaurants, café life and a good selection of shops.
The plan was to sail down towards France as far as possible and return after a few days.
The next morning we sailed to the first of the 7 locks on the stretch down Dinant.
When we reached the lock, the lock guard stated that he would not open the lock because the lock at Dinant was closed.
Strange message. Before departure, we had got the Harbor Master to call the lock guard in Dinant, who had confirmed that the locks there were open for a few more days.
But since the lock guard's negotiating position was so immeasurably better than ours, we once again changed plans and instead set course for the winter harbor in Masstricht.
