Monday 30th September - Dole to St. Jean de Losne

Well folks, this it it - our last cruising day!  The weather was mixed but the good news was that the wind had died down, making cruising more pleasurable......indeed, the forecast was that we would enjoy more sun later.
We left at 9.30 with Henk to follow on later as he was not quite ready.  We had to fill with fuel in St. Jean anyway so he would probably catch us up.

All went well with the locks even though the first four or five were all against us but after a couple of boats came up, the locks were filled for us and made for a quicker trip.  When we arrived at our last one on the Canal du Rhône au Rhin, we had a red light but the lock was open.  We decided to go in and tie off and having looked at the notices, we realised that it was lunch hour - we had missed it by 15 minutes, so a 45 minute wait.....how frustrating!  Never mind - we had a beer and a rest.  This last lock has to be manned because we have to give back our remote control.
Then we were out onto the lovely wide River Saone - so nice to be back!  Just 4 km along the river and we were on the fuel pontoon.  Unfortunately it wasn’t manned so we had to fill using a credit card and were only allowed €148, which took quite some time - having to fill five times!  A Swiss couple came looking for fuel too and tried to moor in front of us.  Stupidly the pontoon is not quite long enough for two boats, so Crew suggested that they raft up alongside us.  I think they were new to boating as they weren’t quite sure how to go about it but Crew guided them alongside us and tied them off.  Henk needed fuel as well so he arrived at the pontoon whilst they were still filling and then came on to Blanquarts’ to join us.  He tried to moor opposite us but found himself grounded.  The marina is full of weed, indeed when we were getting into our berth, the thrusters failed to work so we were grateful to have someone assist us.
We had another late lunch on board and decided to stay in for the rest of the day.  Crew concocted a light supper and we watched some TV - pretty good connection here, apart from when it rains!

23 km 9 locks 4 1/2 hours