I rose early to check my emails and get some other business done before the guests rose. Given the variable weather predicted for the next few days, and the unreliability of the forecasts in the past, we discussed over breakfast when we should do a little cruise with Arnim and Heidi. We finally decided that today was as good a time as any to start the cruise. So, once we finished breakfast and got a few other things sorted, we headed out from Besançon at 1100h.

The cruise up the Doubs was very pleasant and a real eye-opener for Arnim and Heidi, because while they have travelled a lot, this was their first time on a barge. They were especially impressed with the locking procedure, including lining up the boat (which was now much easier with working bowthrusters), entering the lock, and then all the procedures with tieing up and handling the locking procedure (including Rita climbing the wall).

In the early afternoon, we reached the mooring at Novillars next to the truck stop cafe and diner. So we thought it was as good a time and place as any to stop for lunch. When I saw this log-truck outside the diner, I realised we really were at a truck stop, and I thought back to my Zoom meeting yesterday with Sebastian, when we discussed related issues connected to farm forestry.

We had arrived at the diner just before 1400h, when they were planning to shut the kitchen after lunch, so we had to make our selections in a hurry. Three out of four went for the burger, little realising the size of the meal we were about to be served. They were huge! But we all struggled on bravely to the end. After we finished and returned to the boat, we checked the skies and the weather forecasts, and everything pointed to rain. so after some consideration we decided not to continue on and spend the night in Deluz, but rather to turn around and return to Besançon. That way, if it did rain, we would have more choices of what to do that night. So we did a u-turn in a wider part of the river, and headed back south. All was going well until we were approaching the last lock before Besançon, when the forecast storm actually arrived. It was bucketing down and the wind was very strong and across the river. The tent over the dogbox was threatening to fly away, and I was very glad that I had tied it down securely before leaving port. I was starting to wonder how I was going to get the boat lined up to enter the lock, but as we approached the shore, the wind dropped and we managed to negotiate the lock OK. But it was quite a bit of excitement for Arnim and Heidi, while Rita and I pretended that everything was under control!

When we got back to port, Rita and I went down the pontoon to where Antonia was moored to enquire how John had gone with his medical exam this morning and were relieved to hear that everything had gone Ok. We waited a while for the weather to clear a bit more, and then headed into town with Arnim and Heidi, with umbrellas. There wasn't all that much to see, but it was a lot more interesting than walking around Deluz in the rain! As the rain started again, we headed back to the boat and chatted till late.

As we cruised along, we saw two things of interest. Firstly, I noticed in a few places that groynes had been placed along the sides of the canal. I have often seen these rock formations placed along surf beaches to prevent coastal erosion, but never seen them in canals to prevent bank erosion. It looks like an experiment to see if they work. Just need to ensure that you don't drift too close to the bank, or you might run aground. The second feature, and more important for this season, was the proliferation of weed in the canals. The high temperatures and low water levels are increasing the temperature of the water, thus encouraging the growth of more weed. It's not too bad in the biefs between locks if you stick to the middle of the canal. The real problem is around the locks themselves. On the downhill side of the lock, the weed is collecting inside the lock and this makes braking very difficult when entering the lock as the weed encircles the reversing propellor. You can usually clear the prop by briefly engaging full forward prop, but one is always wary of engaging full forward when you are already in the lock! On two or three occasions we have nearly run into the forward lock gates because of weed in the lock. On the uphill side of the lock, the problem is weed gathering outside the lock and preventing the uphill gates from opening at the end of the locking process. We called the VNF once becasue of this problem, but managed to fix it ourselves before they arrived by giving some manual assistance to get the gates moving. But we have heard from many others about having to wait for the VNF to arrive to help clear the weed away.