2015 European waterway trip – St Jean-de-Losne – End of the trip

Saone River near St Jean-de-Losne

After a short easy passage with only one lock, we arrived at St Jean about 12.30.

We headed straight for the H2O marina but it was such a tight harbour, the wind was
blowing, and I could not see an empty berth, so we went round to the town moorings where there had been plenty of space.

But not now.

Full already!!

St Jean-de-Losne

We did find a berth a bit further up opposite a camp site and tied up there.

There was no cost so we decided to overnight there anyway.

We walked round to the H2O marina and arranged a berth for the next day, and met all the necessary people to organize the wintering.

H2O marina in St Jean

Next morning we motored round again to the H2O mrina and found our appointed berth,

St Jean-de-Losne was generally disappointing.

Given that it such a boating ‘mecca’ the town itself was very small with not a lot going on.

Church in St Jean

And the H2O marina was hardly all that.

The floating ablution block was a bit run down, but was adequate.

But the wifi worked!

As we were booked in there for wintering at a huge cost, they didn’t charge us for the mooring.

I would have been a bit annoyed had they tried to do so.

Last lock – into the Canal du Bourgogne

It turned out that the actual workshops and lift out area was at the beginning of the Canal du Burgogne, immediately after the first lock.

Next morning we motored round in that direction.

As we approached the lock, a car came hurtling round the corner to cross the bridge, misjudged, hit the railing which
broke and a huge chunk of steel dropped into the water.

Karen pumping oil out!

If we had been a minute earlier, that steel would have landed on our boat!

Lucky escape.
Anyway we locked up okay, the lockie looking rather like an ageing rock star, and tied up right at the lift out point.

Start of lift out

During the day, with the help of a lady engineer from H2O we did the whole engine, generator and water system wintering process.

A lot of work getting about 16 litre of oil out of the engine.

There were one or two pleasant cafes, bars or eateries along the waterfront as well as a laverie.

High and dry again

We did another huge load of washing, and while the machines were at it, sat at one of these and enjoyed a pichet of wine and watched the boats going past on the Saone.

First thing Thursday morning was lift out time.

Not a crane this time, but Shangri La was floated onto a trailer on the slipway and hauled out of the water, washed of , and moved to the yard.

Cleaned and covered and ready for storage

Rest of the day was spent taking down awnings and packing all the gear inside, ready for being put in the shed.

In the evening we went up to Brasserie du Port and watched s soccer world cup game over a few glasses of wine.

The French lady mechanic was there too.

Brasserie du Port

Next day Friday, we travelled to Dijon and on to Paris.

Sounds simple, but not so!

Despite the time table we got from the tourist office, the trains between St Jean and Dijon are few and far between.

Only early morning and late afternoon.

Bit of a problem as we had an hotel booking in Paris that night.

Shangri La wintered in the shed

Fortunately our friendly lady mechanic came by in her van as we were walking back from the station.

On learning what the problem was, she kindly offered to drive us the 30 odd km to Dijon.

Very kind of her, and we caught our train to Paris where we spent a couple of days before heading home.

Next – mmm… some expensive repairs coming up.

For Karen’s perspective on our travels see her blog here.