Two sexes

We had spent over 14 days in Maastricht when we said goodbye to the harbor master on Wednesday morning and left the marina. When we came out on the Maas we turned left and continued our sailing south towards the Mediterranean.

After 10 minutes of sailing we reached the lock Lanaye, located on the Belgian side of the border with Holland.

This is where last year we had to wait for 3 hours without being able to contact the gatekeeper. 

When we got closer to the lock, the gate went up and a large riverbed sailed out. When the light shifted to green, we sailed into the 225m long lock chamber and tied up at a flight plow. Shortly after the lock gate closed. We were raised 14m and sailed into Belgium without having exchanged as much as a single word with the lock guard.

There is a lot of industry on this part of the Meuse, as the Maas is called in French. In the fall it gave a somewhat sad impression, but in the spring it looked somewhat brighter. Maybe because we now knew that a beautiful natural landscape awaited further up the river.

At the lock after Liege we met the first leisure boat. A German couple in a motor boat. They had bought the boat in the Netherlands and were on the almost 1.000km long voyage to the home harbor in Germany.

They had been waiting at the lock for over an hour. The wife, who was perfect in French, had called the lock guard on the VHF several times and was frustrated that no answer came.

- Congratulations Ivoz-Ramet, how are you? , we called on our VHF. Completely as we had heard the cool skippers on the river barges start the call. So almost a little too funny we continued - nous pouvons naviguer dans l'ecluse?

It was not to say which of us was most surprised when an answer crackled back on the channel.

The fact that we had flattened the cool river jargon was unfortunately not meaning that we understood the answer from the lock guard.

Fortunately, the French-savvy German lady had listened to the channel. The answer was, she told a little swallowed, that we could sail into the lock chamber in 5 minutes.

Our success in contacting the lock guard was, according to the German lady, a clear example of gender discrimination.

Whether she was right or whether our call was answered because the lock guard did not want to discuss the reasonableness of him collecting the recreational craft, or that the call should begin with the river skippers' jargon or something completely fourth, we did not find out.

But the next day, when we reached the first lock after Statte a little after noon, the episode repeated itself - except that the German couple here had waited for almost 2 hours without being able to contact the lock guard.

Later that day we reached Namur. That was where we had to return last year. 

Tomorrow we leave Namur and sail south. Right now it feels like when you have hit two sixes in ludo, you have moved out to the liberating start and can start the journey towards the goal.

ps

We have begun looking for a place to live in Copenhagen and surroundings from mid July to early September. Good ideas and tips, even apartments or the like. are very welcome.