It's Wednesday morning and I am still in bed, thinking about getting up. I was too tired to write anything last night, after our first day of adventures on the water. We set off early, the first boat out of port, because we didn't want to make a fool of ourselves in front of the others. The first challenge was crossing the aqueduct. I had been imagining us crashing through the side and plunging hundreds of feet to the river or road below, at the same time destroying an important piece of French heritage. Needless to say, we cruised through perfectly and faced challenge number two, the four locks. Lorraine hopped out and looped the ropes around the bollards. This is where I made my first mistake. She wanted to hop back on but I thought she should stay up top to manage the ropes. So I went down into the lock with the boat and she was stranded up top. I had to sail to the next lock alone while she walked. Obviously Lorraine had listened to the lock talk better than I did! We were going brilliantly by the time we got to the last lock, but here the next adventure began. The lock wouldn't open to let us in. The French people in front of us went ashore and phoned the lock keeper. He arrived after a few minutes and fiddled about, then called for support. Another guy arrived and they both fiddled about with a long pole, then called for more help. Some older guys arrived. They too poked about with the long pole and finally called in the frogmen! After much shaking of hands, and discussion, the three frogmen suited up and plunged into the water, reappearing with a huge piece of wood, which had been blocking the gates. By this time there was quite a crowd of onlookers as numerous other boats had come through the locks and were waiting for us to clear their way. We had the perfect view of the day's entertainment as we were the second boat in the lock with the gates right behind us. We spent the four hours or so that the performance took, sitting on our rear deck with front row seats! When the guys emerged with the log there were cheers and clapping all round and we were soon under way, headed for Serignac. We survived our first day's cruising with only a punctured fender, which was damaged by some sharp metal as we approached the dock. It was early to bed last night after our first day of adventures afloat. I had hardly slept the night before, worrying about wrecking the boat and all the things that could go wrong. Today I am sure we will set off with much more confidence.