Yesterday was the last day of our (limited) cruising season for 2021. I am therefore returning to the "multiple days on one page" format to camouflage the boring days when we didn't do much!

The sunny weather continued in Auxonne, but Rita was away to drive up north to attend a workshop in Belgium. While she was gone I took the opportunity to catch up on some boat maintenance work, when I varnished the front window in the wheelhouse, and then sealed all the gaps around this window with foam strips to prevent water infiltration over winter. In the evening, I watched the first episode of Fires on ABC-iview. This is a drama/documentary about the huge bushfires in 2020, mainly in NSW. It was very well produced and captured the feelings of those volunteer firefighters involved. But perhaps it captured it a bit too well. The opening story was about a young firefighter, on his first call-out, who got trapped in the fire truck in the middle of a firestorm. Having known a young person who got similarly trapped in Marysville in the 2009 bushfires, it was all a bit too close to home. Despite the quality of the production, I don't think I can bring myself to watch any more episodes.

The foggy weather returned this morning, so I stayed indoors and did some online checks on flight availability with Singapore Airlines. The earliest flights available for booking are on 25 March 2022, but the fares remain high until about August 2022. So maybe we will be staying here for an extended period.

Having waited 3 weeks to receive my Diamand Awards credit card from CommBank (instead of the promised 10 working days), I emailed them asking where it was. Got an automated reply, but no actual answwr yet. I thought it was too good to be true when they approved the card relatively quickly!

Phil and Kathy arrived from Dijon today and are moored a couple of boat lengths away on Pontoon C. In the afternoon I walked up to Bricomarche to get some materials that I will need in the next few days for some jobs on the boat.

The foggy morning changed to sun in the late morning as I was doing some more checks on SingAir flight availablility and costs - still not looking good. A couple of years ago, when we were coming up the Rhone, I installed some sticky foam rubber strips at the top of the wheelhouse door frames to stop the wind coming through the gaps. They worked OK, but they kept falling down when the strips lost their stickiness. So I decided to install some more robust wind-stoppers in the form of aluminium straps, with a thin foam strip between the aluminium and the door. They do the job much better, do not fall down and look more professional.

In the evening, I watched the first round of the Final of the Speedway of Nations Best-Pairs Championship on YouTube. Despite having two Grand Prix riders in their team (Jason Doyle and Max Fricke), Australia did poorly in the first round, coming equal 4th with "powerhouses" France and Latvia! Here's hoping they do better in the second roand tomorrow.

Today was very foogy, and the sun did not make an appearance until 1500h - a bit like a winter day at Taggerty with the fog in the Acheron Valley. So, given the weather, today was a day for chores around the barge while Rita was still away in Belgium. I started with dewatering the bilge under the galley floor, where there is lots of condensation during the cooler months. Then I used some Metalweld Putty to fix a small hole in the stainless steel sink. Then clean the float switch in the grey water tank to ensure that it continued to operate properly. And while all this was happening, I was filling the water tank at the bow of the boat. Finally, I used foam rubber strips to seal the gaps between the side windows and the body of the wheelhouse.

In the evening, I watched the second round of the Final of the Speedway of Nations Best-Pairs Championship on YouTube. Australia improved slightly to take outright fourth overall. The event was won by Great Britain (who were hosting the final), who lost their #1 rider in an accident early in the night and had to rely on their reserve rider to pull off an unlikely win. One of the Polish riders fell in the final race and despite the other Polish rider winning the race, all the Brits had to do was come second and third (by not falling off). Once again, the crazy scoring system (used only in this event) meant that the title was not won by the best team on the night.

Later that night, a weary Rita arrived home from Belgium.

Once again the fog did not clear until 1500h - we were starting to see what winter might be like in Auxonne. Given this taste of Auxonne winter weather, we spent the morning considering the pros and cons of various options for staying in Europe and/or returning to Taggerty. Our three options are 1. return home as soon as possible in 2021  2. go home in early 2022, probably March at the moment  3. stay in Europe till September 2022. All three had pros and cons (although Rita and I had different pros and cons). At this stage, it looks like a choice between options 2 and 3, unless the Australian Government does an about-face and opens up the borders to incoming travellers (which doesn't look likely at the moment). Given the Auxonne winter weather, options 2 and 3 would include a significant amount of travel away from Auxonne (to Switzerland and Portugal).

In the afternoon, we decided to do some retail therapy to take our mind off the weather. So we hopped in the car and drove to the Quetigny shopping precinct in Dijon, where we bought a dehumidifier from Darty, a modest-sized flat screen TV from Boulanger, and a bike rack (like Sarah's) for the back of the Scenic from Decathlon. If we're going to stay in France, we may as well get prepared for it!

Phil and Kathy had to go to Montpellier prefecture today for health checks required as part of their long-stay visa. But to catch their train, they had to be at Auxonne station by 0500h. Given the weather at that time of day, I volunteered to get up early and drive them to the station. Later that morning Rita drive over to Besain to visit Sarah.

Two regulars at the port are the goose with the broken wing and her partner. They stay in port year-round and have a particular fondness for pontoon C, where they are seen here admiring themselves in the shiny paintwork of a newish Piper barge (sadly, Kanumbra's paintwork is no quite so pristine).

I spent part of the afternoon learning how the dehumidifier worked, and was surprised by just how much water it sucked out of the air in a relatively short time. I also tested the TV to see how it performed when connected to my iPhone with a HDMI cable. Perhaps inspired by the geese (above), I also cleaned some of Kanumbra's paintwork with CIF. It made quite a difference, but did not exactly give a shine like the Piper above.

In the afternoon, another Piper barge (Aleau) arrived and moored between Effie and Kanumbra.It's becoming a little Piper village on and around pontoon C. When Phil and I repaired the bimini attachments to the wheelhouse a few days ago, we noticed that the struts which connect the bimini frame to the rear railing appeared to be a little skewed and leaning to the left. This concerned me because it allowed the bimini to move a bit, and this would be exaccerbated in a strong wind. So I had another look today, and found that there was a second set of holes in the bimini frame for the port-side strut. So I moved the strut to these new holes and found that this fixed the skew, with both struts now leaning ourwards. The bimini would now not move, even with moderatly strong force.

That evening I noticed that sunset and moonrise were taking place simultaneously to the east and west of the boat - too good not to take some photos on a quiet day.

We were woken by the 0700h bells ringing around Auxonne, so decided to get up early and see if anything was happening. And I was glad we did, when we were presented with the inverse of last night: simultaneous sunrise and moonset!

The sun rising in the east cast a magical glow over the trees on the westbank of the Saone.

But getting up early in the morning was just a bit too much for some as the morning drifted towards noon.

As the day progressed, the wind picked up significantly, but that meant there were jobs to be done. And nothing would deter Captain Pete from doing the rounds and making sure that all boats were securely moored.

In the afternoon, the Pompiers arrived at the port to do some training work in their inflatable dinghies. A barge that had temporarily moored in the slipway area decided that "discretion was the better part of valour" and moved on when the pompiers pointed out that his boat was hindering them when launching their dinghies.

While the morning was sunny, the wind had continued from yesterday. During the morning, I got an email from the French Public Finances office, with an invoice for Tax Foncieres for the house in Moissac. This is the largest single cost for keeping the house in Moissac, but it is withdrawn automatically from my Credit Agricole account, so I just need to make sure there are sufficient funds in that account. So I got online and transferred some money from my Australian account via OFX.

Since the wind had died down by late morning, but the sun was still out, we decided to go for a walk around town. In particular, we wanted to find out more about the Château d'Auxonne, located in the south-west corner of Auxonne. We had driven and walked past it many times, but really knew little about it. So we started walking up the edge of the River Saone, until we got to the bridge across to the west, where we started to get an inkling of the historic nature of Auxonne, with a disused mooring ring embedded into the town wall and a corner lookout tower high above.

We walked for another 200 metres until we came to the modest front gate to the 15th century Château d'Auxonne, built by King Louis IX, when Auxonne was a border town with the German Empire, and hence of strategic importance. Folklore has it, however, that the purpose of the Château was not to protect the town (which had its own protective walls) from the Germans, but to protect the "King's Men" from the townsfolk of Auxonne (who apparently did not exactly agree with the Monarchy). The layout of the Château is as shown on a display board inside the front gate (which is shown in the diagram as "1").

We walked around the Château, although most of the buildings were closed, and then along the walkway inside the front wall to the tower at the south-east corner.

We then left via the back gate (2), where we saw some men of Auxonne playing peranque (what else?)

We continued walking and soon linked up with the older 14th century wall that surrounded the larger town of Auxonne. This section of the wall was very thick, but had a corridor through the middle which seemed to give access to a series of rooms (cells?)

We walked around the outside of this wall and soon realised that it ran directly behind Intermarche and BricoMarche. We have been to these two shops frequently, but never realised that they were so close to the historic town wall. As we continued, we also realised that a block of newish apartments ran on top of the old wall at that point.

All in all, a very interesting learning experience about Auxonne. We continued our walk back to the port through the centre of town, where a carnival was setting up in the shadows of the Cathedral.

One piece of advice I received from locals about going for walks around Auxonne is to look up, rather than down at your feet. I have found that very useful advice to discover lots of interesting chimney skylines as you walk around.

Today I found something else that caught my eye. I have always marvelled at how a set of attached houses along a street can have very different designs and yet still present a unified whole. But I had to wonder about these two houses, where the lower house seems to have been built halfway across a side window in the adjoining house. What was the cause - accident, poor design, spite, revenge?

I guess we may never know..

After we got back to port, we saw another unusual sight, with one boat towing out another boat that had been abandoned at Port Royal. Apparently, it was being taken down to St Jean de Losne, where H2O were going to sell it to recoup unpaid mooring fees for several years.

In the evening, we watched Q&A on ABC-iview on the new TV, where a friend Simon Holmes a Court was a guest talking about Climate 200, a group he has formed to help support independent candidates running in the next Australian Federal election. Given our experiences with independent candidates in our electorate of Indi, we fully support his ambitions.

That night I went up to Auxonne station to pick up Phil and Kathy on their return from Montpellier. Their connection at Dijon was 40 minutes late, and they waited there on a very cold night, so I think they were happy to be collected from the station. Later that night I read in the online Australian newspapers that Victoria was no longer requiring hotel quarantine for double-vaccinated citizens returning home. So that's one step in the right direction.

While the morning was sunny, it was pretty cold. Once again, however, we were treated to joint sunrise and moonset.

Rita and Kathy headed off in the morning for an all-day jewellery-making workshop with a lady that Rita met in 2019 in an arts shop in Pesmes. Because of Covid, she was no longer running her store, but she was giving workshops. Rita and Kathy seemed excited about what the day promised.

I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do today, but as I read the latest news from Australia, my mind was made up for me when I saw that Victoria was opening up international borders for double-vaxed citizens living in Victoria. I spent a lot of time checking flight availability and prices with Singapore Airlines and, after an exchange of text messages with Rita, I decided to book a direct flight to Melbourne, departing Paris on November 16. This would mean that Rita could drive me to the B&B near the Lorraine TGV station on November 15, from where I could catch the TGV to Charles de Gaulle airport on November 16, and Rita could then return to Besain to leave the car with Sarah and have plenty of time to go to Bern and then up to Zurich to fly out on November 18. So I booked my flight, and will worry about getting a refund or flight credits for my cancelled flight at a later date.

I found it interesting that the Australian Government SmartTraveller website was still listing France as a "Do Not Travel" country, despite the fact that Victoria currently had a higher Covid infection rate than France (2000/6million people in Victoria vs 5000/60million people in France). Go figure!

Later that day, Rita and Kathy returned from their workshop, still bubbling with excitement and satisfaction. And when I saw the jewellery that Rita had made, I could understand their feelings. The pieces were exquisite and looked very professional - not bad at all for pieces made with less than one day's training.

Today was mostly a day for doing little jobs on the boat. I finished installing the rubber foam wind blockers along the bottoms of all the wheelhouse windows, and then with Phil's help we tried to work out why the diesel bubble jet heater was not starting. Phil suggested it was probably due to one or more of three reasons 1. fuel supply   2. Air supply   3. Electrical connections. We thought we'd start with the fuel supply issue by checking the main fuel filter on the fuel line from the diesel tank. After disconnecting the filter, we found that it was indeed clogged with impurities. Luckily I still had some spare filters that Chris Farmer had left on board, so one was quickly fitted. On trying to start the heater, we could tell that fuel was entering the system, but the heater refused to continue running after an initial attempt. So we read the manual again and saw that the system might need bleeding to get air out of the fuel line. So we cleaned the small filter on the heater, and then bled the air out of the system, and on trying to start ot again we got a reassuring "Pharoom" to indicate that the main heater had started correctly. It was nice to have some confidence in keeping the boat warm again.

In the afternoon, I used Phil's equipment to test the coolant levels in the main engine, generator engine and bubble jet heater. All gave readings of between -40°C and -60°C, indicating that there was suffiicient coolant in the systems to guard against such very low temperatures over winter.

In the evening, we invited Kathy and Phil over for drinks to learn more about their trip to the Montpellier Prefecture.

The day started foggy and then misty in Port Royal at Auxonne.

But despite the somewhat gloomy conditions, there were still things of beauty to be found such as this misty web.

We had decided to escape the mist by driving up to the Jura with Phil and Kathy to visit Salins-les-Bains, the companion site to Saline Royale that we had visited a few weeks ago. Salins-les-Bains mined the salt solution that was then transported by pipe to Saline Royale, where it was refined and evaporated into salt.

Salins-les-Bains is an attractive town, located at the head of a valley with imposing fortifications on rocky outcrops on each side of the valley.

We decided to take a guided tour of the mines; even though the commentary was all in French, we hoped we would understand enough to make sense of the tour. This turned out to be the case (with some help from Rita), even though the visuals by themselves were highly impressive, especially the huge waterwheel which drove all the connected pumps and levers.

After we emerged from the mines, we walked over to the nearby drying rooms, where some drying and packaging was done on site (the rest of the salt slurry being piped to Saline Royale). The scale of the drying room and the size of the timber beams were as impressive as the description of the drying process.

When we finished the tour, we went looking for a place to have lunch (since our initial option was fully booked for lunch). We eventually found the Commerce Cafe (which is a very popular name for restaurants in France). It turned out to be a wise choice with good food and wine and a very friendly waitress. In addition, we had a local resident at an adjacent table with his dog, who was the ultimate in patience as he quietly waited for his master to finish his drink.

After lunch we headed over to the nearby town of Arbois, but it was fairly busy in town so we decided to continue driving and go up the hill to the top of the Circ at the head of the Arbois Valley. There we stopped at the edge of the Arbois Communal Forest and then walked to the outlook at the head of the circ, where we got a good view on the Arbois Valley.

Since we were now near to, and headed in the direction of, Besain, we decided to go visit Sarah and Albon and see how they were going on the farm. But on the way, we stopped to show Phil and Kathy the Karstique Forest. They were just as impressed as we had been when we first found this place, and we also discovered some new features, such as a series of sculptures, carved from the karstique rock, that were scattered around the forest.

When we got to Besain, it was almost time for milking of the cows, so we headed over to the farm to check it out. While all the mumma cows were busy being milked indoors, we checked out the newborn calves. Rita kept one of them happy by allowing him to suck her fingers until the milk from the newborn's mother was ready to be used (with the right colestorum content). Albon then showed how to encourage a day-old baby to drink milk from a bucket.

In the meantime, Sarah was doing her bit of farmwork by raking and feeding hay to the young steers, who would eventually go to market. Phil was feeling nostalgic, having recently sold his farm and cattle in Northern NSW.

While we had intended going back to the boats for dinner, we didn't take too much convincing when Sarah invited us to stay with them for dinner. She served up the usual good tucker, while Albon served some local wine specialities. All in all, a great way to finish off a busy day (but on seeing this photo I figured the time was soon coming that I would dispense with the Karl Marx look!)

The morning was foggy but, even so, there were some nice views in port.

After yesterday's busy day, today was destined to be somewhat quieter. Because of the slightly warmer overnight temperatures, there was no condensation on the inside of the wheelhouse windows this morning, so I didn't need to use either the Kartcher window vacuum or the dehumidifier. Sadly, after our little triumph with the bubble-jet heater the other day, it again refused to start today. So I bled the diesel fuel lines again, and that got it running again (for now).

In the early afternoon, Capitaine Pete knocked on our door to let us know that someone on another boat (that they were getting ready for sale) was interested in selling two electric bikes for 300euro, before they took the boat down to St Jean de Losne. Around 1300h, the sun made an appearance, but as luck would have it, we were scheduled to be indoors for the next hour or so participating in a Zoom meeting with NECEN (North-East Community Energy Network) to talk about battery systems for solar energy installations. Later that afternoon, Pete contacted us again asking if we were interested in the electric bikes, since the boat was leaving port in the next hour. So we went across to Pontoon D with Phil to have a look. When we got there we found two people doing a lot of tidying-up on the boat. We mentioned that Pete had said there were two bikes for sale, and the lady on board immediately said we could have the two for 200euro!  Clearly, she could see that we were hard bargainers and had knocked 100euro off the price without us saying a word! We had a quick look at them and concluded that they might be very useful, but we had no ready cash with us. So Phil rushed back to Effie and raided the piggy-bank, and we were soon the proud owners of two foldable electric bikes, with batteries, battery charger and lots of other accessories.

We quickly charged the batteries and gave them a test-drive on Pontoon C (with Phil's participation), and concluded they were definitely in good working order. Later that evening, I did a little Googling to get some background on the make and model of this bicycle, and found they were made in England by a company that specialised in electric powered mobility scooters and wheelchairs. They were no longer in production, but I found several ads for secondhand versions, and saw that they still sold for between 600 and 800 GBP!!  So I think we got a bargain at 100euro (I almost felt guilty, but not quite). Some more Googling showed that replacement batteries were readily available from third-party sellers for about 100euro each. I think we will get good use from them next year, and that they will increase our touring range away from the towpaths and into the surrounding (more hilly) countryside.

After some overnight rain, the weather cleared and we had bright sunshine by late morning. For most of the morning, I sat in the sun-warmed wheelhouse catching up on some long-overdue posts to this blog. When the weather cleared, the view north was very different from yesterday!

As I was working on the blog, I heard some strange noises overhead, and went outside to inspect, only to see a skein of geese migrating south for the winter, unlike our broken-wing goose and her mate who will be staying in port for the winter.

Given the warmish weather, the highlight of the day for us was a short walk up the River Saone. It was a very calm day with tranquil water, which became very evident as we walked north and then turned around to view Port Royal from a different perspective. It was one of those days when it was hard to tell which was up and which was down in a photo!

Since we had no real destination for this walk, we just strolled along and noticed things that we probably would have missed on a more purposeful walk. For example, the fence-posts used in French farms have lots more character than those on Australian farms, but they seem to last for just as long.

And while I might complain about mistletoe in our trees back home, the French trees take it to another level.

We continued walking until we reached a spot on the river bank where Rita often comes for a swim. At this point, the riverside path is covered by an avenue of trees, which I captured looking north, and then looking south over Rita's shoulder as she took a photo of the trees.

On our walk back to port towards the setting sun, I saw another good example of trees reflecting on the millpond river.

PS: the photo above IS upside-down, just to demonstrate the quality of the reflections!

When we got back to the boat, we had drinks on the rear deck (a beer for me and a panaché (shandy) for Rita). The reason for the photo below is to show the price of the bottle of panaché - 18 cents! It's not only the wine that is cheap over here.

The day began with me connecting to a streamed video on Facebook of a Murrindindi Shire Council meeting from back home, when a decision was to be announced on the funding of projects within the 2021-22 Council budget (for which we had submitted a couple of proposed projects after a request from the Council). However, after listening for a couple of hours, they got to the item about the funding and then voted to accept the recommendations without any discussion! So I am none the wiser as to what has been decided, since the Minutes of the meeting contained no further information. Guess we'll just have to wait until we get home to find out what's happening.

The heater was still playing up, so Phil came over and we checked the second major cause of potential problems: electrics. And after doing a bit of exploration and testing, he found a problem in the connection plug leading to the heater. He then cleaned the connections and tightened them, and Pharoom! The heater started and continued running. Phil had also been having a look at a timer I had bought for a powerpoint. Unlike me, who followed the instructions that came with the plug, Phil just played around with it and got it working.

As thanks for his assistance during the day, we invited him and Kathy over for drinks that evening, as we watched the sun set over the Saone.

Given that our departure date was now only a few weeks away, and we had some other trips to be done in that time, we took advantage of today's fine weather to start preparing for departure. We spent the first half of the morning, clearing the deck of various items and also gathering rubbish from down below and taking a run to the port decheterie (rubbish bins) where we left some items which we knew others would scavenge on their next visit.

During the late morning, I erected the scaffolding on which the winter covering would be draped.

Then during the afternoon, it was the awkward job of getting the heavy folded covering up from down below (definitely a job for two), then getting it laid out over the scaffolding (with the correct side up). Then the short bungee cords and S-hooks were used to secure the covering to the side railings. As the job progresses, this task becomes more and more awkward (especially on the side away from the pontoon) as more and more of the side walkway becomes blocked by the bungee cords already in place.

As sunset arrived, the job was completed and Kanumbra was nearly ready for her winter siesta.

Given the weather forecasts for the next week, we realised that today was likely to be the last day of our extended Indian Summer. So I started by doing the last step of fitting the winter canopy to the barge when I put the black straps over the canopy and tied them down to the side railing. These straps take the strain off the bungee cords under the stronger winds that we will experience.

To take advantage of the last of the good weather, we drove over to Mont Roland near Dole, to check out the church and surrounds.

As always, when Rita finds a quiet church she pulls out her flute and plays an impromptu tune. She did this again today and it sounded great, so I started filming. But when she finished, I realised I had not pushed the start button correctly when she started and only started filming when I pushed the button again after she had finished. So I got some great video of the floor and the ceiling but none of her flute playing, and I didn't have the heart to ask her to do it all again.

So we went outside and found a nice view of the church and surrounding buildings, which are used as a day school for disabled students.

Since the weather was so fine, we decided to go for a walk around the stone boundary fence of the church and surrounding grounds. Along the way, we spied a sheltered statue inside, with a classical Burgundian slate tile roof.

Towards the end of our walk as we were sitting under a linden tree, a local lady came past who was taking her dogs and cat for a walk. The dogs and cat got on very well together, and after a brief chat with her, they all disappeared along the path back towards the church.

When we finished our walk, we realised that it was past lunch time, and after walking back towards the car we saw a restaurant; but it looked like it was closed. However, just as we were about to give up, we saw a couple of men walk up to the entrance and enter. So we followed them in and found a large crowd gathered inside. We were glad that we gave it a try, because the food, drinks and atmosphere was well worth the effort.

After lunch, we went for another short walk, and then returned to the car to drive home. As we left Mont Roland, we passed a most unusual "Stations of the Cross", with each of the 14 Stations lined up along the side of the main entry road.

When we got home, I spent some time online catching up with Covid news back home, and was surprised to see that while the New Case Rate in Victoria and New South Wales was higher than in France at the moment, the Australian Government SmartTraveller website still classified France as a "Do Not Travel" country!

We spent a quiet evening on board appreciating the last sunset of the Indian Summer, and then snuggled down in our cosy wheelhouse for the rest of the night.

We awoke to a grey and rainy day in the port, given that the Indian Summer finished yesterday.

Given the weather, I stayed indoors for most of the day. Since the T20 Cricket World Cup had commenced, and Australia had won their first two matches, I decided to see whether there was any way I could stream it live online to watch the game between Australia and England. My best option seemed to be with KAYO, but unfortunately I could not get it to work with the VPN making it think I was in Australia. So I settled for streaming the live scores on the cricket.com.au website. I shouldn't have bothered, as Australia batted poorly to only make 125 in their twenty overs, and then England made 126 for the loss of only 2 wickets in 11 overs. Australia had met their match, and now needed to win all their remaining matches to qualify for the finals. Not a likley prospect given their performance today.

In the afternoon, two sailing boats came into port and I helped them tie up, whereupon I found out they were both Dutch. From the way they interacted with each other, I assumed they were longtime friends. But further conversation revealed that they had only met each other a few days earlier, a bit further north up the River Saone. Such is the nature of boating friendships. When they asked where the Auxonne supermarket was, we described how to get to Intermarche and offered them our bicycles to get there. They gratefully accepted the offer, and in return they bought some cakes for us as a gift. Now we were also their best friends!

The morning was cloudy, but gradually gave way to sunny but cool conditions. The Dutch sailors made the most of the fine weather to carry out repairs to one of their boats, which had ripped off a section of the rubbing strake in a lock incident. Within a couple of hours (and a lot of glue and a few nuts and bolts) they had reattached the strake to their satisfaction.

As I went out to collect something from the car in the late morning, I saw a tanker truck in the parking lot from my favourite company, and so couldn't help taking a photo (and using just a little Photoshopping) to convert it into an Irish tanker truck (say the name out loud!).

In the afternoon, the wind picked up until it was quite blustery. The newly fitted canopy over the cabin was getting quite a workout, so I took the opportunity to adjust the straps over the canopy to take up any slack.

While I was outside tightening the straps, I noticed that, even though we have only been in port for a couple of weeks, the weed growth on the hull was already commencing. Heaven only knows what it will be like by the start of next season!

The wind continued throughout the afternoon, and sunset was highlighted by several weather-front cloud formations moving in from the south-east.