We were up early today to say goodbye to Sarah, who was taking an early taxi to the train station for her trip back home, so we made the most of it by getting a photo of a Fonserannes sunrise.

Then back to bed for another couple of hours sleep before our own departure from the Fonserannes Basin on our way east to Marseillan.

As I was preparing the barge for departure, I noticed that the “snail shell” I had brought aboard a couple of days ago at the Malpas Tunnel was not just a shell, but a live snail that was now climbing up my VHF cable!

We were the first boat in the top lock this morning, with just one other boat. We noticed that the bollard arrangements in the top lock were different to the rest of the locks, but we quickly made adjustments. Because both boats seemed to know what they were doing, we were down in 33 minutes and on our way to the Orb Aqueduct.

After we crossed the Aqueduct, we had to wait at the first Beziers Lock for a tourist boat to come up, during which time we fed the ducks.

We then entered the first lock with our companion boat and saw why it's a good idea to stay away from the rear gates, especially if your boat has a low stern.

While waiting for, and then going through, the lock I followed the last quarter of the AFL Grand Final between Collingwood and the West Coast Eagles. Collingwood had led for most of the game, but in the last quarter the Eagles fought back and took the lead two minutes from the end to run out 5-point winners. Obviously, West Coast don’t understand the local rule that you’re supposed to beat the Pies in a Grand Final by kicking a goal after the siren!

We went through the second Beziers lock and then continued our trip down the Midi. At Villeneuve les Beziers, we spotted Zee Otter, the dutch barge formerly owned by Australians Judy Lynne and Peter Vizzard.

We had joined up with two other boats for locking, and worked out a good arrangement, with us going in first and tucking into the curve at the side of the lock, and the other two hire-boats coming in and securing themselves on the other side. However, at Portiragnes we encountered a useless eclusier, who ignored our preferences (which had been working well) and forced us into awkward spaces, then wanted us to have two forward facing ropes which would have done nothing to prevent us crashing into the front gates, then put the leading boat's rope under the trailing boat’s rope on the same bollard, making it difficult to unmoor in the correct order. When her boyfriend, who she was trying to impress, finally got my rope out from under the trailing boat’s rope, he then proceeded to deliberately throw all of it into the lock. Methinks the eclusier needs to go back to eclusier school!

We made a stop at Vias to do some laundry, but the general vibe of this place was such that we moved on quickly.

Near PK 225, we went through the Passage du Libron sluice gates, which allows le Libron to cross the canal in times of flood. The steel sluice gates looked imposing, and required careful passage to avoid any damage from accidental contact. As fate would have it, however, as we exited this area, a hire-boat came towards us at high speed. Despite our hand signals warning him to slow down before he got to the sluice gates, he continued on, and only realised the situation as he got very close to the gates. He then tried to slow quickly, but only succeeded in turning his boat sideways as he entered the gates, giving them a good whack on the way in! Some people only learn the hard way.

The next landmark that we encountered was the Round Lock at Agde. This was, as the name suggests, a big round lock with three entrances and exits. When we got there, there were already five boats tied up around the lock, and so the eclusier took us to the remaining position near the exit gate to continue on the Midi. A very different, but not difficult, locking experience, and it meant that we moved to the head of the queue.

We then proceeded onto a short stretch of the Hérault River, before turning off into the Midi again. With more time, we would have liked to explore the Hérault, which we might do on the return trip.

We then stopped at lock 65 for a shopping trip in Agde. We took the bikes off the cabin roof and then cycled through the campground to the nearby supermarket. One thing about supermarket shopping with bikes is that you always have to keep remembering how much you can carry on two bicycles! On the way back to the barge, we passed a roundabout with a display celebrating barge jousting, which is still popular in these parts. The French just love their roundabout displays!!

We were soon away again, and in a little while we were leaving the Midi, and entering the Étang de Thau.

On entering the Etang, we veered left and headed towards Marseillan with storm clouds following us across.

We entered the inner harbour, but all the barge moorings on the right were taken, so we took the one vacant spot at the end of the mooring on the left. This mooring had all the same services, but had the potential disadvantage of having a slightly sloping face on the quai.

We walked to the other side of the inner harbour, and tried to get a drink, but as it was approaching dining hour (2000h), no one seemed interested in serving drinks alone.  So we walked back around to the left side of the harbour. The one bonus from this walk was that I got a nice photo of the sunset over the harbour waters.

As night arrived, we had dinner and drinks on our own deck, and got an interesting (if fuzzy) night view of Sete across the far side of the Etang, where we would be headed tomorrow.