At 2am, we were awakened by the mother of all thunderstorms. The first clap of thunder had us both wide awake, followed by heavy rain and cyclonic winds. While Rita closed all the windows, I ran to the wheelhouse to see how the bimini was faring. But by now the side screen on the port side had come adrift, and was thrashing around in the wind. It was too dangerous to go outside, because of the flailing hooks on the bungee cords and by the fear of literally being blown off the boat myself. So we just had to hope for the best and go back to bed with eyes tightly closed to screen out the continuous lightning flashes. Around 3am the storm subsided.

We woke properly several hours later and went to inspect the damage. The adrift side screen was not too bad, and amazingly a towel we had hung up to dry under the bimini last night was still there (but a bit wetter than when we hung it up). The bimini had been lifted off the wheelhouse roof but was still attached by the various straps. The starboard side screen had all the stitching torn out down one side, but was otherwise OK. So for the second time in a week, I got some practice reassembling the bimini - each time it gets a little more reinforcement.

After we had finished our repairs, while the rest of the port did a bit of clean-up as well, we decided to head down to Saint Jean de Losne for lunch and a look at the DragonBoat races. We were lucky to get a table at our favourite cafe from last year, where we had cold drinks followed by great seafood salads.

We arrived just as the DrogonBoaters were breaking for lunch, so as we finished our lunch, they were ready to go back out on the water again. There was some really close racing, and it seems that DragonBoat racing is a real community thing here in SJDL, with everyone having a go!

Since we were in the vicinity, we thought we would drop by Le Chatelet and see if Elizabeth was working today at her hotel. And we were lucky, because there she was, and the first thing she asked was "would you like a drink"! Sadly, the black kitten was no longer there to share it with me.

We sat in the garden overlooking the Saone and talked about lots of things that have happened since last year, and then made arrangements for Rita's mum to stay there in September while we moor Kanumbra at the dolphins right next to the hotel. Should be fun!  We then went for a walk around town, and Le Chatelet was as relaxed and peaceful as ever. I thought this rowboat in the lily pads captured the mood pretty well.

Around 6pm we wandered our way back to Auxonne via Saint Jean de Losne, and enjoyed a relaxing dinner on the rear deck.