Light showers first thing, then just dull and muggy. Set off with light rain falling at 9.45 a.m. following Charley down the river and on to the canal, the 4.5 kms derivation de Gurgy, which bypassed a bendy shallow section of the Yonne. The rain had stopped by the time we reached the first lock, Néron 6 (2.20m), which was worked remotely by the keeper at lock 7. The house alongside the lock looked derelict. A very large moth on the lock wall was quite well camouflaged. Anther kilmoeter of canal took us to lock 7 Raveuse, a deep one 2.79m. The keeper had a portacabin on the lockside not far from his lock house. He came out to chat with Nick while we dropped down in the chamber. On downriver round a couple of bends and we were at lock 8 Bassou (2.23m) where there was a sloping wall with three pontoons on rails on the right side and a vertical wall for us on the left.
The keeper came on to the pontoon opposite Charley to chat with Nick and told him the Yonne now closes to navigation in winter, has no commercial traffic except a couple of gravel barges and no hotel boats – and just two remain working on the Bourgogne. On to a 4 kms river section. At Bonnard there was a campsite with a pontoon. We’d written previously on our cart that the water and electricity were no longer available but now a notice said that due to misuse the services had been withdrawn. The sun came out for a few minutes just before La Graviére lock 9 (1.56m) on the left hand side of the river. As we were ploughing around a right hand bend on the wrong side of the river Nick came on VHF to say there’s a péniche coming and two hireboats!
Quick shift back to the right side of the river as the empty, called Olympe from Béthune, came upriver running hard. We’d just been debating where we would see the first commercial! A ginger haired young man pressed the buttons at lock 9. He asked where our registration number was and I pointed it out – on the pigeon box. Picked up a hatching dragonfly on the edge of the lock to watch it change from a tiny dull almost transparent thing to a hefty yellow and black striped buzzer. Took photos of the boats stacked out at Joe Parfitt’s, among them were two narrowboats, Muddy Waters and Oxford Blue. Another empty! Pushing uphill through the navigation arch of the bridge came Saturne pushing a pan with a digger (complete with driver in the cab!!). At 12.45 p.m. we arrived at the halte nautique of Laroche. Half of it was occupied by an ex-hireboat which looked resident with scooter and BBQ alongside it. A large Frenchman came out, followed by two small dogs, to lend a hand with the ropes. I said we were OK thanks, as I watched a pair of fan-tailed doves try to land on the boat and then went to land on Charley before heading slowly back to the relative safety of a house roof. Stupid birds. We overlapped the end of the quay where there were underwater rocks so Mike heaved a quant pole out to keep the stern off them, then Charley came alongside
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