The morning arrived sunny, but cool, so we took our time with breakfast and pottered around the boat before finally departing the mooring at Rochefort at about 1100h. Our objective today was to get back to Auxonne before nightfall. After a short run down the canal, we arrived at Ecluse 66 on the northern outskirts of Dole.

We used our zapper to register our arrival, but there was another boat coming through the lock from the other direction, so we pulled over to the waiting pontoon and tied up. As that boat left the lock, we realised it was another Piper Barge, Vagabond, that we had not seen before. We had a quick chat as they passed and found out that they would also be wintering at Auxonne and would return to port as soon as they had done a short cruise up the Doubs.

We cruised through Dole, and were soon back on the Canal de Rhone au Rhin. As we were waiting to leave the river at Ecluse 68, we were joined by a cruiser with a German couple aboard, who then double-locked with us. We arrived at Choisey to find the moorings deserted, but since we wanted to reach Auxonne, we were unable to take advantage of this situation.

Choisey is a delighful mooring with adjacent parkland, but no services, and is very close to many shops, so it is a good place to stock up on supplies, but not today. It also has a number of older buildings including this chateau.

So we continued through Choisey, and soon arrived at Ecluse 69. We zapped our arrival, but nothing happened to the lights. After several more attempts, we phoned VNF to report the problem. But by now it was lunchtime, so they said that no one would be there for about an hour. By now, the cruiser had arrived behind us and tied up at the waiting pontoon. So we hovered mid-stream for a while, before realising that, with the prevailing wind, we couldn't keep doing this until VNF arrived. So we reversed back to the cruiser, and asked if we could raft up alongside them. They suggested it would be better if we tied up to the pontoon and they rafted on us, since they were a much smaller boat than us. So, after a bit of manoeuvring, we both managed to settle in that way for our own leisurely lunches.

After lunch, a VNF van arrived, and we were soon on our way, passing through Ecluse 70 to enter the restricted area alongside the Solvay chemical plant. But as we went to exit that area through Ecluse 71, we struck another problem at the lock, so we again tied up at the waiting pontoon with the cruiser rafted alongside, while we again waited for the VNF van to arrive. This was now the second time we had been trapped in the restricted zone, having encountered difficulties at Ecluse 70 as we headed up the canal several weeks ago. This made us think that the reason given by VHF for that problem (i.e. that Rita had pressed the wrong button on the zapper) was actually a load of BS, and was more likely caused by a general problem with the ecluse controls in that area. After waiting about an hour for a part to arrive to fix the problem, we eventually cleared Ecluse 70 and were on our way.

The German couple on the cruiser must have had enough for the day, because they stopped soon after Ecluse 72 and moored for the night. But we were still hopeful of getting to Auxonne today, despite the couple of hours delay caused by the lock failures. So we pushed on, and eventually reached Ecluse 75 at Saint Symphorien, where we handed back our zapper and then exited the canal onto the River Saone. Now that we were on the Saone, I opened the throttle to make good speed on our run to the final lock taking us off the Saone, which we had to reach before all the locks closed at 1900h. But along the way, we could still take time to appreciate the approach of Autumn in the colour of the trees along the river, which were just starting to turn.

At 1857h, we arrived at the twister for the final lock and, with some trepidation, gave it a good twist. We were relieved to see the lights change colour and the lock gates soon opening. We now took our time going through the lock and up the short canal towards Auxonne. As we approached the entrance to Port Royal, we saw a large crowd, including Phil Tyson, gathered on the left side of the entrance. We were impressed with such a welcoming party, until we realised they were assembled for the weekly Friday night BBQ at the port. As we passed, Captain John gave us instructions of where to moor, and Phil came down the pontoon to help us raft up on Morningstar. We then tidied ourselves up a bit, grabbed a few drinks and went down to join the BBQ, where we met up with several old friends from Moissac that we had not seen for a while, plus meeting some new people including musician Derek, who Rita had heard about but who we had never managed to meet. It was, indeed, a great Welcome Home to Auxonne!