Saturday 27th May - Besancon to Deluz

Well.......what a night!!!  Not long after we had gone below to watch TV (around 10) we heard a loud noise that sounded like an explosion!  The two Frenchmen on the boat behind us appeared as we shot up top to investigate.  In the relative darkness we found some green glass on the pontoon but this morning when Skip investigated more closely a lot more glass was to be found around Aphrodites' stern bollard - someone must have thrown a bottle from the walkway by the side of the pontoon!  Idiot!!!  He was a crack shot though......should play cricket for England,,,,!!  We sustained a little damage to the paintwork and Skip cleared up the glass.  There was a very loud disco playing across the water at the lido until the early hours which made watching 'Vera' pretty arduous.  Skip managed to fall asleep OK but Crew couldn't even get off until long after the music had stopped so a definite sub- standard Crew appeared in the morning, especially as she was woken by Skip clearing up the glass!!  Thank goodness we don't have far to go today!  Most of the locks in this area have high walls so it involves Skip having to climb ladders (which makes Crew very nervous!).  Our first lock went without a hitch but the second was much deeper making it difficult to hook our lines on.  At our final lock ( a double) a small boat was on its' way down and we operated the zapper in order for us to ascend but the lights remained on red and green - they need to be green only for us to enter.  We tried several times on the zapper but to no avail.  So we tied off on the waiting pontoon.....not directly as there was a boat moored there facing the opposite direction, so we rafted up alongside her. Of course by now, it was lunchtime......and a Saturday!  Skip went up to the lock to try and raise the VNF to help but was not successful.  He came back to the boat to await the end of the lunch break. About a half an hour later Crew tried the zapper again and it registered 'an incident' and said a repair was imminent - we saw no VNF van.......maybe they can do it remotely!  Right on cue at exactly 1.30 the lights changed and we were on - what was supposed to be a short easy run just got extended by 45 minutes....and in 30c!!  We arrived just after 2 p.m. and moored in the quiet but scruffy port.  The surrounding countryside at this summit of the Doubs valley is beautiful but surrrounded by high hills so internet connection is very intermittent and TV pretty impossible, which is a shame as Skip desperately wanted to watch the Cup Final......as it turns out, maybe a good thing!!!  Mortified, we dined up top on a cold collation!

19 km 4 locks 4 hours