Sunday 19th July 2009 Collonges-en-Mont-D’Or to Jassans Riotter/Villefranche. R Saone

Grey clouds, turning to white ones later, with big expanses of blue sky and sunshine. Getting warmer again. Up at seven. Mike decided to move the car first thing so I gave him a hand to get the moped off the roof, he loaded it in the car and went off to Villefranche at 7.40 a.m. Jumbo went past heading upriver empty twenty minutes later. Mike was back at 9.10 a.m. quicker than he anticipated, he’d thought it would take him at least an hour and a half. We put the bike back on the roof and took photos of the scratch marks on the dolphin made by the chain that the pontoon deck was attached to - they went almost to the top of the it - that must have been some flood. 

Set off at 9.50 a.m. on our way to our one and only lock of the day, Couzon, lock 24, the first on the Saône. We had a red light. Mike called the keeper, there was downhill traffic. A Belgian cruiser had occupied the waiting area for the lock overnight, so we attached to the outside of the dolphins and waited. A cruiser and a yacht came down then Belgian decided to set off - he was going 5 kms downriver for lunch at Fontaines, he told Mike. We went up the lock, 2.9m, with bollards set in the wall. It was a yo-yo lock, water from gate paddles rushing to the back gates then back again to the top gates, and so on. I didn’t try to check it with the centre rope from the roof, Mike used the engine to lessen the surging effect. Left the top at 11.15 a.m. 

An empty péniche called Cotre from Pont-à-Mousson had stopped on the stone quay 500m from the lock, which had a large sign saying it was the Halte Nautique de Fleurieu. Two loaded péniches went downriver, Serjea and Hendaye. Lunch. Loaded low profile coaster Bella (another one registered in Kingstown) overtook us just after the old lock at Bernalin on a big sweeping left hand bend; water skiers were dashing about as he passed us. We went through Trèvoux at 1.30 p.m. where the new pontoon by the campsite had a few cruisers attached to it. A small Belgian cruiser came round the next bend on the plane but dropped off before Mike could get the camera switched on to take a photo. He’d just overtaken a Swedish yacht and made it bounce about. The cruiser went on the mooring at Trévoux, the yacht circled and then carried on downriver. As we rounded the next bend we saw a whole armada (seven of them) of small Belgian cruisers, all up on the plane, and this time we got photos. 

Must be a club cruise and I bet they were with the one who’d just moored and they would occupy the whole of the rest of the pontoon. The next fast cruiser was uphill, it overtook us at speed and took the middle of the pontoon between two other speed boats at St Romain, outside the restaurant Les Colombiers. The pontoon was full with speed boat sized gaps between the three. Eight jetskis went past doing at least 30 mph (the speed limit on the river is 12 kph) at KP38. On our right hand side (Jassans-Riotter side) we noticed a convoy of caravans being towed by vans and thought it must be a gypsy camp on the move; but there were dozens and dozens of them. One stopped which had "Evangelists on Tour from the Auvergne", signwritten on the van. What next? 

On the left (Villefranche side) there were a few boats moored and a party was going on on a péniche. They were shouting something as we passed, but they were too far away for us to hear them. Tug Pierre et Paul was moored by the sand quay on the left, as were two more smaller pusher tugs by an old crane and péniche Marvin looked like it might now be a houseboat. On the right, tug Nicephore was moored at the sand quay just upstream of the road bridge, with a pan well loaded with sand, ready for setting off on Monday. Mike said the same boats were still moored on the new pontoon (a T shape) as when he dropped the car off there that morning. Had a text from Helen to say that the Floan would arrive around sixish. 

We tied on the end of the pontoon at Jassans-Riotter at 3.15 p.m. George and Helen arrived just after six and tied up in the port on the opposite bank at Villefranche and we went over to moor next to them. They hadn’t changed a bit even though we hadn’t seen the pair for over two years. Helen admired our new (mainly white for the heat of the South) paint scheme. They said their colleagues were due to have unloaded on Saturday at Lafarge (in Viviers) but the company didn’t like to have more than one load of petrol-coke a week, so they had plenty of time to get there - although Helen said they might want to unload them on Wednesday. Their friends on another péniche were supposed to be a week behind them. We nattered and Mike showed George and Helen his new binos (stabilised, a retirement present to himself) then we all went on our boat and opened a bottle of red wine and talked about everything under the sun. George explained to us how he knew the day before that we’d locked through Piere-Benite at 11.30 a.m. by checking the website www.inforhone.fr, which had a section called “find a boat”. We chatted until after midnight. When we arrived they said they were leaving at seven next morning, but as they left George said better make it 7.30 a.m!