After the July 14th fireworks the other night, we noticed that the swans, who are normally prolific in the port, had disappeared. But this morning we saw a group of them doing a reconnaissance cruise up and down the port, just checking that it was safe for all the others to return to port.

Mon 17 July - swans, new battery, 1115h leave, Ray-sur-Saone, last one, Basel

My attempts to re-charge the generator battery yesterday came to nothing. It seems you can only discharge a battery so many times before it gives up the ghost. So I went up to BricoMarche and bought a new starter battery and installed it, and then taped the switches in the engine room, so that H2O would not turn off the charger again like they did earlier this year. After attending to a few other chores, we bid goodbye to Hans and Muriel on Polaris, who had moved up river to Gray yesterday, and departed the port around 1115h. No doubt we will see them again as we both continue our trips north up the Saone.

We then embarked on a 5.5h cruise up river, until we arrived at the port of Ray-sur-Saone. We had seen this port last year when we rode our bikes up here from Savoyeux, and were impressed by the town and the port. Despite not getting to the port till about 1700h, we were lucky to get the last available mooring space (from the total of 5-7 spaces). The port has no services but is very pretty, just down from the little town, and with Chateau Ray-sur-Saone towering overhead.

The people on the boat upstream from us were from Basel, and when Rita heard them (and vice versa) it didn't take long before they were engaged in a Swiss-Deutsch conversation.

Because the port is on the river itself, which is a side arm of the canal which carries the through traffic, it is blissfully quiet at the moorings, apart from the flood of hire boats arriving late in the day and (unsuccessfully) looking for a mooring. We enjoyed a peaceful evening, watching the fish and listening to the birds.