Greetings readers! Sincere apologies for not starting sooner but it’s been a busy 6 days since arriving back to St. Jean de Losne. We arrived last Tuesday to find Aphrodite moored, not in the marina as expected, but on the canal. We were met by Henk, who helped us unload the car and then were told that we must move the boat round to the marina - not as easy as it sounds as we were in the middle of a threesome and Crews’ lines were in a bit of a pickle! Not only that but we had to pass through the lock at the termination of the Canal de Borgogne and the lock was the wrong way of course - we had to use the horn to summon the lock keepers to empty it. It was also very windy!
We made it to our berth OK but as we reversed into our slot, the huge amount of weed disabled our thrusters but thanks to a very nice German/Swiss man, who helped us in, we made it easily.
We got ourselves reasonably ship-shape and then, with Henk, went to the newly re-opened Sauconna restaurant for dinner. The restaurant had a bad fire last year and has been closed until recently, so we were interested to see what it was like......the consensus was that it was expensive for what it was. So maybe we will leave it a while before we re-visit!
Wednesday was Henks’ birthday so as we needed to get SIM cards for our I-Pads we went to Dole by car and, after sorting that out, we lunched in a very nice restaurant just off the big square in town. After doing a few jobs and a mini-siesta in the afternoon, Henk came over for aperos around 7 p.m. - am ashamed to say that the only cold bottle of fizz was an Italian Prosecco!!! Shame on us!
On Thursday we drove to Santenay for a wine tasting - Skip has a membership to a wine club and this was one our vineyards to visit and taste. Between us we bought 18 bottles - 6 white and 12 red. As Henk had done quite a lot of work on Aphrodite over the winter, Skip gave him three bottles of the Premier Cru red to thank him.
On Friday we spent the day cleaning, etc., had some lunch on board with Henk and then a quiet evening with DVDs - no TV!! On Saturday evening we had a dinner date with Roger and Yvonne
from the barge, ‘Out of the Blue’, who we met 2 years ago whilst cruising. We ate in Le Bouchon de Losnais, which we think is probably the best restaurant in St. Jean and enjoyed a very good dinner in good company. Final sorting out on Sunday and planning to start fairly early on Monday morning.
We slipped our lines at 9.30 and onto the Saone for our first days’ cruising of 2019. Henk was to follow on after us as he needed to re-fuel.
We reached our first lock on the Canal du Rhône au Rhin in around half an hour - unfortunately there was a hire boat in the lock, going our way! In this first lock we have to collect a ‘zapper’ which remotely operates the locks and the lock keeper checks our cruising licence, so we had to wait a while for the hire boat to vacate the lock and re-empty it before we could enter. Then on our way to Dole, to start with through fairly industrial scenery - 8 more locks to go!
We arrived without incident just after 2 p.m. and although the locks were, of course, all against us, they were very efficient, so we made good time.
The mooring (a Nichols base) is not an easy one as the current is very strong - Aphrodite adhered herself to a finger pontoon.......and there we stayed! We had a late lunch on board and decided to dine in town later if possible, at one of our favourite restaurants, La Romanee.
We gathered for an apero around 6.30 and made our way into town just after 7. On arrival at the restaurant however we were informed that they were ‘complet’ - full! We tried another nearby establishment, with the same result. Then came across Le Petit Gaston, which was a most beautiful building - a bit like a crypt - where we enjoyed a good, if a bit expensive dinner and excellent wine. Back to the boats fairly early but feeling quite tired after our first days’ cruising, we parted company with Henk for an early night.
21 km 6 locks 3 hours
