Today was to be the start of some cruising on a new stretch of waterway for us, as we headed up the Canal de Bourgogne to join Phil and Kathy in Dijon. However, when we awoke it was very foggy, and so we didn't leave Auxonne until after it cleared, around 1045h. We then headed down the canal between Auxonne and the River Saone, and then down the Saone to St Jean de Losne (we were starting to get a bit tired of this stretch of water, having just come up it a few days earlier).

When we reached St Jean de Losne, we were greeted by an unusual sight for this part of the River when we spotted a large River Cruise Ship moored near the stone steps. This is as far up-river as they come as these ships are too large for the locks further north.

Before leaving the river and entering the canal, we stopped at the fuel pontoon to fill up with diesel, since the pumps have a 300euro limit on credit card expenditure, and we have not been able to fill-up so far this year.

We then turned toward the first lock, but were beaten to the punch by a smaller boat coming out of the marina to enter the lock. So they went in first and we followed. There was a bit of shuffling required, since they seemed unwilling to go to the very front of the lock. But since it was approaching lunchtime for the eclusier, she asked them to move forward so thet we could both get through the lock before lunchtime.

As we moved through the port area, we spied the newly painted Anna with a For Sale sign. Good Luck!

As we passed through the port, we noticed a bunch of Piper barges congregated at the northern end of the port, getting ready for the upcoming Piper Boats Salon Fluvial being held in St Jean de Losne. As we cruised past, we heard Simon Piper calling to us and asking if we were coming back for the Salon Fluvial. We apologised for not attending, but in truth we realised that our barge was too old to be participating in such an event.

One thing we quickly realised about the Canal de Bourgogne was that all the locks were manually operated by eclusiers who followed us as we headed north. Usually it was a team of two, who cooperated in all the locking and unlocking manoeuvring procedures.

Since we had made a late start to the day (because of the fog in Auxonne), we were not going to get as far up the canal as we had anticipated. When the eclusiers said they were knocking-off at 1700h (because they had a meeting to attend at their homebase), we had only got as far as Ecluse 69 at Longecourt. So we moored there for the night.

To escape the silo noise, we went for a long walk around the town of Longecourt. It was quite interesting, and we were rewarded with a view of the Longecourt Chateau.

Unfortunately, after mooring up, we realised that we were right next to some grain silos, and that the fans for the silos were quite noisy. But since the eclusiers had knocked-off for the day, there was no way for us to go any further north. So we just hoped that the fans would turn off after the sun went down and there was less need for keeping the silos cool.