During the morning, I walked around the port and took some photos. I was surprised and disappointed by the state of disrepair into which it had sunk. The east side of the port has always been mainly for hire boats and small boats that could moor with their square sterns to the quai. But in the last couple of years, the west side has been changed into permanently reserved VNF moorings, which are now occupied by a variety of poorly maintained boats of various shapes and sizes, with the result that no cruising boats can find a mooring space on the west side. In addition, over the past year it appears that no maintenance has been done in the gardens adjacent to the moorings. They are now overgrown, and unusable. For example, in the photo below, there is a staircase that used to be the main connection between the port and the town. It is now totally overgrown. Such changes do nothing to enhance Damazan as a tourism-friendly destination.

Before we left, Rita was up early to do one last swim at Lac Damazan. She returned on time for us to make a 1030h departure, for our cruise to Agen. It was uneventful, and we arrived at 1500h at the bottom of the four locks in Agen West. Because Rita had to stay on land to walk from lock to lock, she found a new way of handling the turbulent locks, by wrapping her rope around the bollard and then around the sturdy guardrail in front of the control box.

It took about an hour to go up the four locks, and then 30 minutes to go across the aqueduct and into the town, so that we arrived at 1630h at the Agen Basin. We moored in the same place at the eastern end of the basin, and hung about on the barge after a long day’s cruising.