We were quite relieved today to wake up to a thin layer of cloud diffusing the sun, and a gentle breeze. The hunt for diesel, which is turning into the search for the holy grail, continued at Conflans. None of the advertised fuel barges were open for business - being Sunday lunch time might not have helped. However, a call ahead to the Guerdin fuel barge at Compeigne confirmed that he did 'vente gasoil' to 'plaisancers' and that he was open from 0800 to 1900. We turned off the Seine and started the upstream passage on the River Oise with some confidence of reaching Belgium.

There was a noticeable drop in commercial traffic as we made our way up the Oise, and the scenery became more rural and residential. The small marina at Port Cergy looked quite inviting, but we opted to continue on to our scheduled stop at L'Isle Adam. The small halte nautique next to the town quay was occupied by two Dutch boats who reluctantly moved up to let us on the end - having refused our request to raft alongside complaining of wash when boats passed. As usual the electricity supply had been vandalised (or disconnected) and we had to fit a G-clamp on the push-tap to fill up the water tanks.

The town was very popular with locals and weekenders, especially at the quayside L'Affiche restaurant, where we enjoyed their speciality platters served on bread boards.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 29 nm

Total to date: 1671 nm

Avg Speed: 6 knots

Duration: 5 hours

Diesel: 70 litres (est)

Mooring: Free

Electricity: N/A

Locks

Bougival

Pontoise

Min headroom: 5.25m

Min draught: 3m

Charts

Navicarte 1, 24