It would be a bit more work, especially for your daughter. We came across a South African family (2 adults and 2 kids) and the kids were working pretty hard; mum said that the kids were over it by the time we met up. I suspect it will be something they will remember and talk about for years to come. Maybe limit it to a week for your first canal trip unless you can drag another person along.
It is handy to have an extra (4th) person on board when ascending the locks as you can put one crew member onshore to catch/tie the lines (ropes); not so critical when descending.
It also depends on whether (and how much) boating experience you have. Although we also met up with two dutch ladies who had never been on a boat before and they surprised me with how well they managed on the first few days.
Another thing would be to plan for less locks each day.
Timtammi, we have just been discussing how 3 could manage the locks instead of 4. Here it is:
1 First thing would be to tie a few knots in the end of the rope (altogether) to form a clump of knots. Sailors call this a "monkey's fist". Look at this link to give you an idea of what I'm talking about
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...IfoDrM:;_sF7JSQBq3gLnM:&imgrc=A3opfwlRIfoDrM:. JV says that it does not need to be this elaborate, just a few knots together to give the end of the rope some weight. This makes the rope a little easier to throw to whoever is on land. I would recommend that you only do the knots and NOT the Monkey's Fist because there are some places where you have to put the rope through a ring. If you have an elaborate knot, you can't get it undone in a hurry. Even if you are competent at doing a Monkey's Fist - Don't! Have I totally confused you now?
2 Pass the
back rope to the skipper prior to going into the lock.
3 Prior to going into the lock one person gets off the boat and climb the stairs to the top of the lock
4 As you enter the lock, the back rope needs to be thrown to the person on the land to loop around the bollard and then passed back to the skipper. Don't be stressed if it requires a few attempts.
5 The other person then throws the front rope to the person on land, who loops it around the bollard and back to the person on the bow.
6
It is important to note - DON'T tie the rope off in the cleat while you are in the lock. When the lock is going up the rope needs to be brought in and when going down the rope needs to be released as necessary.
Going up in the locks is definitely harder than going down. This is not intended to put any of you off. For us, and everyone else that we spoke to, this is an amazing experience. Many people had only taken the boat for a week, however for us we were so pleased that we had the boat for 2 weeks and could have taken it for longer. There are lots of wonderful little places to explore and fabulous restaurants to try along the canals and I imagine that if you only had 1 week it could be a bit of a rush. I guess it's a "suck and see", however I hope this helps.
We are putting together a list of things to take along with you that make the trip more enjoyable. These items are not mentioned by Le Boat. We'll post this in due course.
I have also taken a video of our passage through the Steps which you may find interesting. If you would like to see it, send me a PM and I'll work out how to get it to you.
Also, commenting on JV's comment re less locks per day, the more locks you do the better you get at it.
