209 locks behind us, into the River Saone

1731 Nearly didn't bother this morning as we hadn't been booked in for the next lock last night and it was still raining. The girl turned up on her bike though and started to open the gates so I jumped out of bed and quickly got the boat untied for 0900, although we floated around for a bit as she called the maintainance guy out to get to work with his long rake to clear all the reeds blocking the entrance. After this lock and one 300m further on (and several tangles with the prop) we'd done 209 locks and were finally out of the canal network and into the river Saone. There was a nice little ending last night when the kingfisher came and perched on the mast and then on the outboard - but I was still too slow for a photo. After the first river lock a hundred metres further on there was some confusion as the river branched again and on our A4 map of half of Europe, it wasn't too clear which one to take. The rain came down for the next six hours and in the end I gave in and put on my wellies and full oilskins on as it was really cold. It was strange to be on such a wide bit of water again although it was only about the same as the Tamar. There were just another two locks in the day where there was a weir in the river and we finally got to St Jean de losne at about 1500. There was no room on the town quay and I couldn't be bothered with the fuel barge so just went straight into the marina - which was really full. I finally found an empty space, not in the visitor section and we tied up. I went into the office and was told to move into a different space which we did and finally tied up at 1520. Half an hour later after the electric and jerry can routine for the water - still no hosepipe - I came inside to the nice electric heater and the rain stopped . If it rains tomorrow we might stay as it's only 10euros per night and we need shopping anyway.