Thurs 31 Aug - early start, lily pads, blue marks, La Maroc, works done, swim

Whilst we had enjoyed the tranquility of Rochefort, we decided to move on today and made an early start at 0850h. As we moved past Orchamps we noticed lots of lily pads lining the edges of the canal as we slowly meandered along.

Having seen the two big blue cruise barges in Rance a few days ago, we kept seeing further evidence of them as we moved through the ecluses, by the distinctive blue paint marks along the edges of the ecluse. Clearly those barges are a very tight fit in these Freycinet-sized ecluses! By mid-afternoon, we had arrived in one of our favourite moorings at the La Maroc barrage.

All the construction works from last year had been completed, and the new turbines were humming away powering the new activities in the old paperworks buildings. I figured it was time for a late-afternoon beer, while Rita figured it was time for a late-afternoon swim. Given that we had the moorings to ourselves, I took advantage of that to give the starboard side of the hull a good cleaning.