Aramon towards Viviers

From Aramon to Viviers, it was about 80 km, against the current, although the flow in the weirs is very low, our time calculation still predicted a travel time of 8 hours including the lock passages.

We had prepared Gustav the day before, so the plan was to cast off at 7:00, it was 6:50. We made good progress and were pleased, as a freighter was coming towards us from the Avignon lock, the gate was open and we hoped for a direct entry.

Far from it, the freighter had exited the lock, the signal turned red, and we had to moor at the boat dock and on the radio channel.

You must wait, there is another freighter behind you, you can enter with it in about 10 minutes.

And so it happened, we entered behind the freighter and then the lock started moving. Presumably, the freighter was too heavily loaded; in any case, it took an eternity before we overcame the height difference of 12 – 13 m.

Out of the lock and then holding on to the freighter. We were forced to significantly increase our subtle speed. With this investment, we bought ourselves the direct entry behind the freighter at the following locks. In hindsight, this had much less impact on our fuel balance than we had believed.

Thus, we reached the harbor of Viviers precisely on schedule after 8:10 hours at 15:00. A tourist boat (river cruiser) moored shortly after us, followed by a second one that day.

We let the day unwind, we already knew what to expect in Viviers, planning for the next days, looking at the weather, and off to bed.