Just before 10am, we pulled back out of our mooring spot to allow Moving On to depart. The guy on the boat behind was very quickly on deck, wondering what the hell we were up to this time! As soon as Moving On had moved on (been waiting to use that phrase for a few paragraphs!), we pulled into their spot, tieing up along the stone key and onto the pontoon. By far, this is the best of the three moorings we have had in three days, and can reach the bourn with a single power cable.

In the morning, the Capitainerie opened, and Rita went across to meet Angelique. She got the good news that the port would not be closing before the Ballooning Festinal on Sept 13, so we sent this news to Judy and Peter, who will now cruise up to Montbéliard for that weekend. We will also come up by car.

Dark clouds gathered in the late morning, so we sat inside and studied or blogged. Since the boat was now partially accessible from two sides, I decided, when the clouds cleared, to continue cleaning the paintwork with Zif to remove the oxidisation. It was sometimes awkward work, but I now have over half the boat cleaned, including both sides of the bow, which was always going to be a problem.

By the early afternoon, the sun had re-appeared so we decided to do a bike ride to Dampierre-sur-Doubs. As we headed south, the first thing we encountered was the white bridge over the Doubs at the confluence of the Doubs and l'Allan, where the canal crosses the Doubs. Given the size of this confluence, it is hard to capture in a photo, but I tried my best with these two panorama shots looking up and down the Doubs.

As we approached Dampierre, the church stood out like a beacon at the end of the canal.

As we returned, we saw two Haflinger horses that we had seen on our way to Dampierre, but this time they were accompanied by their little foal, and their owner/trainer.

They were also joined by the farm dog, who proceeded to join in with some fun with mother and foal.

We were lucky enough to capture a video of mother and foal mucking around, and this gathered quite a few walkers and cyclists on the adjoining pathway who stopped and enjoyed the frolics.

When we got back to the port, the port cafe was still going strong (it seems to be a favourite spot with many locals), but we were happy to have a relaxed dinner on our rear deck.