J headed to the local Casino supermarket while A communed with the engines, and after checking at the front desk that it would be OK to ask for a delivery it as like being given a personal shopper. The manager tracked me down in the store to let me know he would drive me and the shopping to the boat as soon as I was finished. He popped up at least 4 times in various isles to see if I had found all I was looking for, and again at the till, with cardboard boxes, and started packing them for me. Then he loaded it all into the back of his own car and helped me carry it all to the end of the pontoon... Wow, what service!
Once all was safely stowed (the amount of storage space amazes me still, and there are empty spaces waiting to be filled even now) we had a quick lunch before heading to the fuel quay. Pedestrian access to the pontoon is padlocked outside of office hours - 9.30-12.30 Tuesdays and Fridays, but we could see the lights on in the office and moored alongside ready to fill fuel tanks and empty the black one.
J began with the fuel while A carefully rolled out the hose to the black pump and connected it all up, pressed start and nothing happened. We found a sign at the other end of the pontoon saying its a paying service, so we went to pay, but the office was now closed! The guy had even waved goodbye to A though he could see we were doing things the wrong way round... Pfff, so cancel the emptying and back to filling the fuel tanks - thus emptying the pockets ;-)
The automated machine will allow only a small amount to be charged to our card at a time so we ended up with 9 transactions in all - surprised the card company didn't call in a panic - and with tanks full to the brim we know for sure we won't need any more fuel before the Med.
That is, unless they close the Rhone and we have to go back up to Le Havre and round Spain... Oh, never mind!
As we pushed off from the fuel quay the heavens opened, so for the first time in a long while we took up driving/navigation positions inside - comfortable in the wide river, but still with limited rear vision, near impossible in the narrow canals.
Todays lock (yep, just the one!) was HUGE and as we approached the light was green; J made the courtesy call over the VHF to check it was OK to proceed, and received the rather surly response of 'Green means Go'! Nice... Lifejackets and mooring up obligatory here.
Notes in our books warn about stability in these larger locks so we decided to go 2 ropes on, as opposed to the single rope practiced in the equally huge Seine locks, but this way J had to hop on land as once the front rope is on the bollard you have to reverse a way back to the rear one so invariably the loose tail would pull through...
The rain continued to fall pretty heavily so we decided to call it quits and moor up at Seurre, just after the lock. Electricity and water available on the quay, but the Capitainerie was closed. A short day out, but its all progress!
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