We were up early at 0700h, just in case anyone else was coming up river and needed to use the waiting pontoon (if they arrived, we wouldn't have moved but would just help them to tie up on us, if they needed to). As it turned out, we had plenty of time for a lazy breakfast and to watch more fish and birds, before finally leaving the mooring at 0915h.

Today was scheduled to be a short cruising day, as we just wanted to reach the mooring that Phil and Dave had told us about at Le Maroc. The only town we passed through was Osselle, although we did see an interesting mooring at PK51.5. After Osselle, we passed through a long narrow section of canal, which required a bit of concentration and the hope that no one appeared from the opposite direction.

After passing through another set of flood gates, we arrived at the mooring at the barrage at Le Maroc. We very quickly realised that Phil and Dave had not been exaggerating in their praise of this rural mooring. No facilities and with the bikepath on the other side of the canal, thereby limiting access and egress, but otherwise idyllic! Even though there was a train line just across the canal, the trains were infrequent and very quiet, and their sound was blocked out by the "white noise" from the barrage.

We were joined in the afternoon by two more boats, including DBA member Peter Cawson who has written many DBA Forum stories about the Doubs.

In the afternoon, Rita went for a swim near the barrage while I listened to the AFL game between the Hawks and North Melbourne. Despite scoring the first 4 goals and taking a commanding lead in the first quarter, the Hawks again failed to play four consistent quarters and went down by 22 points, thus effectively ruining any faint chance they had of making the finals this year.

Later, we took our bikes off the boat and manhandled them off the stone mooring and up some steps, then over the bridge across the flood gates to reach the bikepath. We then cycled up to the next town of Thoraise, where we inspected the tunnel entrance, then cycled up the hill to Thoraise. We continued across the river to the next town of Montferrand-le-Chateau, where we found a bar/cafe that was closed for summer, and then realised we were lost. So we back-tracked through the towns and cycled back to the boat. We didn't bring the bikes back on board, but rather chained them together in a more convenient location for future rides.

In the evening, we had dinner on the rear deck, while we watched the herons catching fish that came over the barrage, while a family of ducks took up residence for the night on logs caught at the top of the barrage.