Tuesday 7th July 2009 Maguelonne to jnc St Gilles canal

20.4°C Dull overcast start, soon hot and sunny again. Set off at 9.25 a.m. I had to shove the bows out with a pole as the wind was blowing hard, keeping the boat against the underwater piling. Went to the end of the moored boats, winded and set off towards St Gilles. Past the dredging team, shovelling thick black mud into a VNF boat. 

Gave a hoot and the bridge keeper swung the floating footbridge for us, starting up the two big outboard motors that powered it. Past the old Abbey church at Maguelonne and the triumphal arch. 

Past Palavas-les-Flots, a thriving seaside town, noting there were three boats on the mooring that we had used in 2007. 5 kms further on we passed Carnon, another seaside resort with a large funfair. Another 9 kms to La Grande Motte, the next holidaymaker’s paradise. We passed Aigues Mortes on the new derivation canal - a new waterway for us as we’d always gone through the town before. 

We passed our first commercial boat since 2007 on the junction with the old canal into Aigues Mortes. Gabian went past loaded with 900 tonnes of sand and gravel. 

Constance tower receded slowly into the distance as we went along a very long straight, over 6kms long. We paused at Gallician and turned bows to the bank to get some water. The lady from the Capitanerie was there immediately to collect the 3€. I asked how much the mooring charges were for overnight, 11€ she said (it included water and electricity). As we set off Mike gave M a call. They’d just tied up at Roche de Glun and had been having a delay of about an hour at each lock on the Rhône. We motored on another 10 kms to the junction and turned left towards St Gilles, but only went about 750m before mooring. It was 6.30 p.m. Nice to stop. Later a Nautic hireboat moored close to the junction about 250m behind us.