Today was sunny and not windy, so it was a good time to move the boat further up Pontoon A. Like last year, it was a tight fit reversing into the space between the pontoon finger and the next boat, but we managed with relative ease. Soon we were snuggled up to Lionel d'Antan, with a rope lashing the bows together, to help us both from swaying in the wind.

Since yesterday's wind had abated, today was a good day to get started with some outdoor tasks in preparation for winter. First job was sealing some gaps where the wheelhouse windscreen folds up into the front of the wheelhouse, using some black foam strips that I had originally got for sealing around the edges of some doors. Next job was doing a light sanding on the wheelhouse woodwork, and then a varnishing with Sikkens varnish. Then time to wash the cabin roof, and dismantle the dogbox flytent. Then it was time to re-assemble the supporting structure for the winter cover, which I had designed and built for the first time last year. This year was much quicker because all the components were already cut to size, labelled and pre-drilled. It was just a matter of putting it together, like a piece of IKEA furniture.

While all this was going on, one of the biggest barges in port, Ateron II, left port and turned left towards Lyon. Not sure where they will end up for the winter.

That evening, a few people had organised a small non-BBQ on the port office boat at the head of Pontoon A. When we got there, the place was packed, and as we chatted with various people we noticed lots more people arriving on the walkway along the river. Obviously, no one had told the rest of the port residents that there was no real BBQ this evening. So after a short while, everyone just left the port office and the usual Friday BBQ took place at the port entrance. It was a good opportunity to catch up with several people we knew, and lots we didn't know, and also good to see Capitan John getting a chance to relax (that's a sausage in his mouth, not a cigar!)