Today was the day for our early departure from Dijon, after our two-week stay in this delightful city. When we woke, the early morning sun cast a glow over the millpond waters of the port and our neighbour Effie.

Just before 0900h, we cast off and moved over to the front of the lock. But another boat was coming upstream, so we had to wait about 15 minutes until they had cleared the lock, before we entered. Phil and Kathy were there to say goodbye, and Phil captured our departure on video, including all the actions of the eclusiers.

As we cruised along the canal just south of Dijon, we noticed a lot of boats moored that were either empty or full-time live-aboards, but many in run-down condition - not exactly a high-class neighbourhood.

The morning's cruising was uneventful, along straight sections of non-scenic canal interspersed with fairly frequent locks. At these locks, Rita managed a regular conversation with the young eclusier lady. By lunchtime, when she went for a break, we had reached Ecluse 61, near the linear market garden and art display. The eclusier suggested that we stay in the lock for lunch, and that she would come back afterwards to let us out to continue the journey. Since it was a relatively attractive and secure location we agreed, and Rita also took the opportunity to do some vegetable shopping at the shop set up in the old eclusier's house.

During the afternoon, the wind picked up and entry into some of the locks become more difficult as the wind swept across the canal. As a result, some of my approaches to the locks were less than perfect, and I whacked the side of the boat against the lock on more than one occasion. But by the end of the day, we had reached Ecluse 69, the same ecluse at Longecourt that we overnighted at on the trip up to Dijon. But this time we knew not to moor near the grain silos, and instead moored in a much more serene setting on the northern approach to the lock.

After a casual dinner on the rear deck, we went for a walk around the town of Longecourt, and I showed Rita the Chateau that she had not seen on our last visit to Longecourt. We went for a long walk around the perimeter of the Chateau's external stone fence. Because my left hand and arm were still swollen from the wasp sting, I started to feel pain in my upper arm as we walked, and hence we curtailed the walk and headed back to the boat.