We woke early to a foggy morning on the Tarn. As I went to put the kettle on, however, I realised that we had run out of water (having tried not to have much to dispose of when we leave tomorrow). So I hooked up the hose to the bourne at which we were moored, but found the water bourne was not working. So while everyone else was still in bed, I pulled the barge back one space to the next bourne, and took on board 15 minutes of water.

We were up early because we wanted to go on a morning Tarn cruise, so at around 0830h we were casting off. As we headed past the rowing club, the mist hung low over the water.

It wasn’t long before I handed over control of the wheel to Craig, who seemed to be enjoying himself.

Meanwhile, Ginger was getting into the relaxed life on a barge and starting some knitting.

We continued up river until we reached the Chateau on the hill at Livrade...

then went a bit further to get a good view of the old Mill and the weir.

We then turned around and came back downstream a way, and then turned the engine off and floated with the flow while we had breakfast. A lovely way to start the day. But we had to keep an eye on the clock since we had booked to go up the double-lock to the canal at 1100h. So all too soon, the engine got started again and we headed home. On the way, we saw another Piper, Calliope, out for a morning cruise.

A few weeks later, I saw that they had also been out with their camera as we passed each other, when I saw this photo on the Piper Barge Owners Facebook Page.

Photo Credit: Lesley Carr

We arrived at the lock 10 seconds late for our 1100h locking, and then headed up to the canal to prepare to moor for winter. While Craig and Ginger went up town for a walk and some lunch, I started to wrap the boat with the tarps we bought from Mr Bricolage yesterday. Hopefully, this will keep the cabin roof relatively clean over winter, and not require a full-scale cleaning again before we paint next year.

As I was doing the wrapping, a lady stopped to talk and it seemed that she already knew me (but I could not recall her). It all become clear when she said “We did our training on Kanumbra a few years ago”. This was one of the occasions when we gave Iain Noble permission to use Kanumbra in his barge training school, when people arrived without their own boat and wanted to train on something bigger than Orca (the Noble’s smallish barge). Since then, they had bought their own new 49ft Piper, Karanja, which was moored just ahead of us in port. I had seen it as we came into port yesterday, but did not recognise it as a Piper, given the design changes that had occurred over the years. So, a little while later I went down and had a good guided tour of their barge. Some interesting features included the extended roofline over the rear deck, the non-collapsible wheelhouse, the bi-fold doors from the wheelhouse to the rear deck, the faux-teak decking and cabin rooftop, and the array of flexible solar panels on the wheelhouse roof.

In mid-afternoon, Craig and I walked up the canal towpath to the Cacor Aqueduct over the River Tarn, and timed it beautifully to get back to the barge just as rain started to fall.

In the evening, we went up to Le Paris restaurant for a big farewell dinner with Craig & Ginger, Nico & Miyu (and their two boys) and lots of Rita’s music friends from Moissac (around 15 people in total). It was a great night, with lots of chatter and laughter (and just a little bit of singing of some traditional French songs, much to the surprise of some other patrons who came down the back to see where the music was coming from).

Luckily, I had driven to the restaurant, because just as we arrived home, the heavens opened and dumped lots of rain very quickly. Even just running from the car to the barge, we got very wet. I wouldn’t want to have walked all the way from the restaurant.