The morning dawned warm, and promised to be hot later in the day. So we were quite happy that we had arranged with Raphael and his family to come for a cruise with us on the Tarn. But first we had to get down to the Tarn, so we arranged with the VNF eclusier to go down about 1100h. However, as we were readying to go, we had one of those incidents that reminds you that you can never be too careful. Since we were only going down to the Tarn, Rita and I had not put on the shoes we normally wear when barging, and we were both wearing sandals. As a result, as we were pushing the stern of the barge away from the quai in preparation for backing out, Rita’s sandal strap slipped, she lost her footing, and slipped down into the canal between the barge and the quai. I immediately ensured that the engine was in neutral (hence no spinning prop), and then straddled the gap between the barge and the quai with my legs to ensure that the barge did not return to the quai. I then grabbed a ladder on deck, and held it over the edge of the gunwhale for Rita to grab and get herself out of the water. The ladder was not strapped to the railing as per usual, so I just had to hold on as tight as I could until Rita got up the deck level, where she could then grab my hand and climb back on board. The whole incident only took about a minute, but it was pretty scary. It was probably just lucky that it was Rita in the water, and not me, since she is a better swimmer and not as heavy to get back on board. All in all, however, I think we did a good job of reacting to the situation. The last we saw was Rita's sandal floating down the canal!

After Rita had a quick shower and change of clothes, we repeated the casting-off procedure a little more carefully and were only 2 minutes late arriving at the double-lock to go down to the Tarn. As we moored temporarily on the end of the quai, we were greeted by Graeme and Lynda Barley, who had just returned to Moissac after a stint in the Netherlands. Lynda said that it was too cold and wet up there and not very interesting, so they decided to come back down south.

Having met up with them, I realised that there were currently six Piper Barges in Moissac; Kanumbra, Effie, Caliope, Ithake, Tesserae and Safron. I wonder if any French port has got more?

Even more surprising is the fact that Moissac currently hosts three boats that have the Port of Melbourne as their home port; Kanumbra, Madeleine and Rovi. I’m pretty sure no other French canal port can beat this!

We had arranged to meet Raphael and his family at the Tarn quai at 1230h, when Raph took his lunch break. Rita prepared some lunch and drinks, but as the time approached 1300h, we were starting to get a bit worried. So she rang Isobelle, and learned that they thought the cruise was for next Wednesday (despite all the emails saying August 2). So after much apologising, we got off the phone and then decided to go for a cruise anyway.

As we left the Tarn quai-side, the moored barges made a great sight with the town in the background.

As we cruised upstream, we noticed that a barge had decided to wild-moor along the river bank, just downstream of the Cacor Aqueduct. We have not seen anyone else doing this, but it seemed to be a long-term proposition for them.

There were quite a few boats out on the Tarn today, and this one decided to just drop anchor mid-river at a very quiet spot (apart from the noise of the water pump taking water out of the river for irrigation purposes). Since we could see no one on board, we figured they might be sleeping, so we turned our engine off and allowed the boat’s momentum to carry us past them silently. We did the same on the way back, but now they were awake and just wondered how we had got upstream of them!

Today, for the first time, we decided to see how far upstream we could go past the chateau at Ste Livrade. Since the charts said the depth was 2.0m, I figured it was reasonably safe, but still kept an eye out for logs and weed. We got a good view of the barrage across the Tarn and the fish ladder in the old lock on the right. The old mill also looked grand on the left.

As the extent of the floating weed mat increased, I decided it was time to turn around. So I did a 3-point turn, and headed back down river. When I reached the sheltered section below the chateau, I turned off the engine and just let the barge float with the river flow. Rita also decided to jump overboard (deliberately this time) and go for a swim. With the "noodles” between her legs, she looked like a three-cylinder jet-boat. She tried to clean around the waterline of the barge, but gave up when she realised it would be hard work this time. This reinforced in our minds that we would have to lift Kanumbra out of the water next year and get her bottom cleaned and painted.

Reluctantly, we eventually restarted the engine, and motored down river to go back up the locks at 1600h.

Since I had got a lot of backed-up work done in the past 24 hours, I gave myself a treat by watching a replay of the Hawks beating the ladder-topping Crows from about a month ago. Why can’t they always play like that?

In the late afternoon, we went up to the house to see the results of Lacen’s few weeks working on the facade. While not all the shutters were yet re-hung, the house looked very different from a few weeks ago.

That evening, we headed for the Night Market in the town of Saint Maurin, about 30 minutes north-west of Moissac. We had heard lots about this town from friends, so we thought we should try out the Night Market ourselves. The tables under the covered market were all full when we arrived, so we found a couple of spaces at a table in the open that was filled with local people, with a couple of English families at the next table. The atmosphere was very French, despite all the foreign-language speakers at surrounding tables. The band kept things moving, and while they were not the most accomplished I’d ever heard, they contributed greatly to the atmosphere and eventually had everyone up and dancing.

During the evening, Rita found the director of the Night Market, and started making enquiries about how they select the bands for each week, then mentioned about our band tour next year. When she asked what type of music we played and Rita said steel pans, she was in raptures, saying that she loved steel pans. So Rita gave her a copy of the “Stand by Me” CD, and said that we’d be back in touch. When Rita also mentioned that she was playing with a local traditional music band, she asked whether we could play at the opening of a cafe/bar that was scheduled for the next couple of months. So, I think Rita had made an impression. Soon after Rita returned to the table, the results of the Tombola were read out and we were lucky enough to hold a winning ticket. So Rita went up and had another chat with the Director as she gathered her prize.