The weather forecast changed again this morning (as it often does each morning in France), and predicted fine weather for most of the day. So we made the decision to leave Scey this morning, and were away by 1000h. Soon after leaving Scey we were at the entrance to the St Albin Tunnel and, unlike our trip up-river, we had a green light on arrival and so just followed the boat in front at a distance. The green weed that we had encountered on the downstream side of the tunnel on the way north had spread into the tunnel itself now, and so our passage through the tunnel left an interesting pattern.

Wed 26 July - forecast change, off, double-locking, Soing, Ray, rain, petanque

As we exited the tunnel and headed towards the ecluse at Rupt-sur-Saone, we noticed that the large peniche that had partially blocked the canal just north of the ecluse was no longer protruding, but had moved into a dry dock next to the ecluse. We took note of the TCS company sign, in case we ever need dry dock work in this area, as an alternative to having work done at St Jean de Losne.

As we worked our way through the locking process at the Rupt-sur-Saone ecluse, we noticed that the shy donkey was not as shy as he was on our way up.

Between this lock and the next, we picked up a travelling companion in the form of a very small boat, in which a couple of locals were going for a little cruise. Despite being small, they cruised along at a good rate and had no trouble getting to the next lock in time to double-lock with us.

As we approached the ecluse near Soing, we saw that Polaris and Cochon Noir (who have been travelling as a convoy for the past several weeks) were moored together again. They were still headed north, so we had a quick conversationas we headed south, and told them we'd meet them again when we meet them!

We travelled past the turnoff to Soing and through the Charpentenay ecluse, before turning right and heading towards Ray-sur-Saone, where we were again lucky enough to secure a mooring, under threatening skies overhead.

We moored behind a Scottish couple, so we immediately struck up a conversation about our recent trip, and discovered that we had passed through their home town of Erskine as we travelled towards Glasgow. The conversation drifted from topic to topic until we found out that they also had a University teaching background, with many commonalities between their backgrounds in psychology and ours in travel behaviour. We could have talked for hours, but were interrupted by a change in the weather, as the heavens opened and the rain bucketed down for about an hour. When the rain cleared and the sun appeared, they left their mooring to return to Savoyeux (they were only out for a short run today to test a new gearbox that had just been fitted), while we got out the petanque balls and headed to the local park for a couple of games. As the skies clouded up again, we returned to the boat for a quiet dinner aboard and then some reading and writing to fill the evening.