Again the mooring was shared with camper vans and an Englishman was quick to complain that we had taken his view of the river .
I resisted the temptation to say that he could easily move to the other end of the park ! By now rain was in the air and just as it started the shore power failed and said gentleman blamed “ these big boats plugging in ” at which point I explained that the plug and cable in my hand had not got that far . The supply turned out to be only 6 amps after all .
After 15 minutes or so the problem was sorted . Meanwhile the canopy was very quickly re-assembled completely and we retreated down below .
It rained solidly all night and all the following day , when any further progress was written off apart from by foot to a restaurant , and it continued all night again – some 43 hours nonstop . Thank goodness we were off the river .
There was plenty of space so we could tie up away from the motor homes ; it is a very popular halt for them despite there being no facilities and they were really crammed together . Only two boats on the quay !!!
We were slightly aground when departing the next morning but easily off and paired with a Swiss Linssen .
On day 14 we set off as early as the locks would allow ; they opened at 9am . Everything was still soggy , there was a chill in the air but it had stopped raining apart from occasional drizzle – well you can ’ t have everything .
Where was that comfortable feel of late spring in France with hot sunny days around the corner ? As we found out they were some weeks away . We travelled all day with a French boat which we had passed way back on the Saone .
The locks were by now more spaced out ( 1 – 1½ km between them ) and although most were against us we made good progress to our next stop at Charmes .
Negotiating lock Number 40 , the tenth of our scheduled 15 for the day , was to prove one of my more embarrassing moments .
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