Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside! I do like to be beside the sea! Oh I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom!

The wash from a large passing barge, caused us to be up and about and ready to cast off in good time. There was a change in the air, suggesting another storm. There had been a spectacular show of lightning last night, clearing the air and reducing the humidity, but it looked like there may be a storm brewing.

By the time we had reached the lock at Beaucaire the heavens had opened, we were experiencing a deluge and the temperature had dropped a good 13 degrees! Zut alors!!!

This was another straight forward lock, only dropping 11.3m . Strange to think now that at the beginning of our trip we would have been a little apprehensive at passing through this.

By the time we've got used to it, we are approaching our last one, hey-ho c'est la vie!

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Safely through, and relatively dry due to our sailing gear, we navigated along towards the Roman city of Arles.

Arles was an important maritime port, a vital link in trade routes, and also a large ship building city. Also, all the major Roman roads met at Arles, linking Rome and Spain.

It became known as the 'little Rome of the Gaul's'.

We had however read that there are few moorings for pleasure boats such as Ramukanji, and sometimes we research this more and find a solution but today we were heading for the sea.

Our speed was very fast due to the recently added rain into the already full river, and we saw Arles at speed, we can always revisit at another time .

The river plain began to widen, we passed the canal which could take us to the Camargue, Ramukanji was heading for the sea and she was now in a hurry to get there.

By 1600 we arrived at Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhone.

We were to pass through the lock and then into the Golfe de Fos to arrive at Port Napoleon.

Originally we had considered Port St Louis as it was reported that Port Napoleon was a bit of a distance from anywhere else and desolate. There were also rumours that they expected payment in advance, and wouldn't give you a date for putting the mast back on, but as usual these rumours were just that... there can be much 'hearsay' amongst travelling boaters, and often it is wise to research information for oneself....

Mooring against a rough concrete quay, we wandered into town to research lock opening times and sus out the town.

The next lock opening time was at 1845, a strange lock with barely any height differential.

The town was uninspiring, and we were a little worried as to what desolate Port Napoleon would be like! But we had arranged our mast to be delivered there, and could not change our plans now.

We locked through with some fishing boats at 1845, filled up with diesel at the self service pontoon and headed out to the Gulf de Fos.

This entailed heading east along the canal St Louise into the Golfe, at last the sea but strange to be on it without a mast or sails.

We then had to turn south west to enter the buoyed channel leading to the marina.

There is obviously a great deal of shifting sand, we were grateful for the buoys, especially after seeing some sunken boats.

At 2030 we were moored on D pontoon at Port Napoleon, there were a few other visitor boats, but not full and after a long day we were ready for a nice hot shower and a bite to eat in the lovely facilities.

We had been warned about the abundance of mosquitos but they seemed to be quiet tonight and watched the sun go down, reflecting on our journey through France on the Inland Waterways with our trusty boat who had survived and barely ever run aground, hard to believe for some of you who know the skipper....!!