After last night's musical extravaganza, and because this morning was very cool and cloudy, we decided to sleep in and not get out of bed till 1000h. We had to get up then so that we had time for breakfast, before Phil came to our barge for his first guitar lesson! Some time ago Phil had said he'd like to learn the guitar, so when Rita saw a guitar in a brocante in Chanaz a couple of months ago, she immediately bought it, and gave it to Phil when we next saw him. Last night he said, in passing, that he really must take some lessons, so this morning Rita was holding him to his word. Despite several excuses (many of which I have also used in the past), Rita explained some basics to him, and within the hour had him doing a 3-chord accompaniment to some songs that he recognised.

In the afternoon, I did some work on this blog, while following the 4th Ashes Test. While Australia appeared to be in control, just as they were in the 3rd Test, it was unclear whether England would be able to hold on for a draw. Later, I wandered over to Effie to return something to Phil, and just as I was returning I saw two hire boats attempting to moor. Georgie (Captain John's wife) was attempting to instruct one of them where (and how) to moor on Pontoon A, while the other was attempting to back into a mooring on Pontoon B. He wasn't having much luck and had already backed into the bow of another moored boat, when Georgie asked me if I could take a rope from them and guide them into a space. I did this, and eventually they were tied up and stationary. When I got back to Kanumbra, I noticed one of the people on this hire boat standing on the bow with Captain John, who was making a call to someone to get them to come and help them. A little while later, I saw the guy from the boat sitting on the bow pulling on a mooring rope that disappeared into the water. It was clear that the rope had been swallowed by the bowthuster, and was not going to be dislodged easily. No wonder this boat was previously been having trouble reversing into the mooring space using his bowthrusters! A good reminder never to let mooring ropes dangle over the side of the boat anywhere near the bowthrusters (or the propellor).

Later in the afternoon, storm clouds gathered, and then the heavens opened.

But every cloud has a silver lining, and soon thereafter, a (very flat) rainbow appeared over Effie and the runners on the right who were taking part in a Triathlon event in Auxonne.

In the late afternoon, we drove to Sarah's house in Besain to collect a package that had been posted to her place, containing materials that Rita needed for her exam preparations. So we made the 1-hour drive over there, collected the package, and immediately drove back home (since we knew that Sarah and her family were away in Paris for the weekend).

When we got back to Auxonne, we didn't feel like cooking so we went to our favourite Asian restaurant in Auxonne, caught up with how the chef's holiday in Vietnam had gone, and enjoyed another one of his simple but tasty dishes (with a large side serving of hospitality and friendliness).

On our way home to the boat, our attention was caught by the church spire in the night sky.

When we got back to the boat, I remembered to check the scores from the 4th Test, and was pleased to see that Australia had won, thereby retaining the Ashes (no matter the result of the 5th and final test). England may have been given the World Cup One-Day title, but Australia had won the competition that counts.