Hello Tim and To Dijon - July 11-15

Our original plan had been to stay at Bourgogne Marine, where we left Odysseus for the winter two years ago, just one day, organizing winter storage for this year. When we told Peter (last year's canal tractor; you remember him!) we were heading off to the Quay at St. Jean de Losne he said he thought the quay was closed for two weeks. A bike ride to St. Jean confirmed that the quay was being converted to bleachers for an upcoming canoe/kayak race and would be closed until the 24th. As it was the 12th and Tim would be arriving at the St. Jean train station on the 15th, we decided to stay put. Unfortunately, Christophe, who owns Bourgogne Marine, had decided to take an unscheduled vacation so the winter storage plans would have to be put on hold until our return the end of the month.

The St. Jean waterfront as it should be.


Bleachers under construction.

The morning of the 15th we left Bourgogne Marine, re-entered the Saone River for the brief trip to the entrance of the Canal de Bourgogne, just 5 kilometers away. We cleared the first lock into the canal and then staked ourselves to the bank. This was as close as we could get to the train station where Tim was supposed to arrive from Germany around 5 pm. A German train snafu ensued and he couldn't get his Skype connection working to let us know. The 5, 6 and 6:30pm trains arrived with no Tim. We walked back to the boat (about 20 minutes) and Cathy Jo started dinner while a note with directions to the boat was prepared for taping to the wall at the station for later trains. Luckily, the note, being delivered by bicycle, arrived just about the same time as Tim and all was well.
The next day would be long and tough so everything was made ready for departure.