Perfect weather for?

Well, almost anything really. Beautiful and sunny, reaching 34/75 around 6. Clear nights and mornings. It was that way in Besancon as I revisited the Citadel and continued as I made my way back to Dole, but a storm was forecast so I left to get a better view from the rural mooring at Choisey. 

It was a bit of a let down with some wind and rain but no fireworks. Lilou appreciated that.  

                                                         

The next day was back to St. Jean de Losne where I spent one night on the river quay before moving into the marina to get to work .

The pefect weather was back and this time it was perfect for the project I had at hand,  

The main  cabin has a hatch that is big enough to lift the big engine, and provides welcome cooling at the end of a hot day.  It was hand built but over the years a little water had got in and the teak decking was buckling. I had been putting it off as a major job  involves a lot of disruption on the boat. As it's ouside, the perfect wesather and the forecast were, well, pefect..  

Removing the teak was easy and underneath was not as bad as I feaared, nor a good as I hoped.   It tooks me about 6 days and still needs a little finishing off but it's waterproof and in much better shape than it was. 

            

                               

After a week of work it was off up the Canal de Bougogne to Dijon.  Friday, I spoke to the lock keepers to let them know I was leaving the next day and would take two days.  There was much discussion and I was made to understand that there would only be two lock keepers available on the whole Canal on Sunday and it might be slow travel.  (Locks on this canal are all manually operated).  The next morning (Saturday) I showed up at 9am and told them I thought it would be best to try to go all the way to Dijon that day.  No problem, they said, but oh, by thevway we only have two lock keepers working today.  Oh well, French Shrug).

It actually went perfectly:  All the locks were in the right state, I had only lock keeper in the morning and two after lunch and  21 locks later  at 5:30 I was nicely tied up in Dijon's near empty and free port.

And the weather is still perfect, for everyting.

                               

Yes  Lilou, it's time to get back on the boat.

But before I get to the next project it will be a short jaunt further up the canal with friend Ross from Sydney. Then back into the port here before that part of the Canal closes due to low water on  October 8th.