Tues 1 Aug - P'n'P tie, windy, rainy, money matters, sunset

Rita and I stayed up late last night writing a thesis (for her) and a blog (for me). But the real reason was that it was the last day of the month. So as I headed from the wheelhouse towards the bathroom very early this morning, I politely asked her as I passed her in the loungeroom when she was coming to bed. But we each had the same thought, and simultaneously we lunged for the other's arm and cried "Pinch and Punch". We agreed to call it a draw, and closed our computers and went to bed to finally get some sleep.

It was however a bumpy night as the wind picked up and rocked the boat against and away from the pontoon. The thumps and the squeaking of ropes woke us several times, so we were still a bit tired when we woke this morning, to a windy and rainy day. Since there was little prospect of us venturing off the boat in this weather, Rita continued with her writing, while I attended to money matters, here and back home. Firstly I had to prepare and send the three-monthly invoice to our tenants in Moissac. Then I had to find all the Moissac house costs (such as property tax and house insurance) that I had paid over the years which came out of my personal French bank account, when they should in fact have been paid by TUTI (which actually owns the house). These will now have to be paid back to me by TUTI, so I sent the list to our accountants to sort out the paperwork. I then had to pay for the boiler repair work on the boat, which I had forgotten about after some confusion with making these payments to a UK company. Finally, I had to sort out some issues with TUTIsuper (our self-managed superannuation company back home). Along with checking emails and Facebook, these activities took most of the day.

So before I knew it, the end of the day was approaching, which I greeted by sipping on a cold 1664 beer on the back deck and watching a non-spectacular sunset over the Saone.

Wed 2 Aug - windy, no iPad, Kanumbra valuation, rates, gig off, huge storm

This morning was again very windy, so we kept on reading and writing on board the boat. Unfortunately, my library back home has changed the format of the digital books I have been borrowing for a few years and reading on my iPad. I can no longer do that, and have to read them on my computer, so reading in bed looks like a thing of the past.

I received an email from my accountant today saying that the ATO (Australian Tax Office) has asked for an updated valuation of the Kanumbra land, on which our tree farm is located. The land is owned by TUTIsuper (our self-managed superannuation company) but the trees are owned and managed by TUTI (because TUTIsuper cannot run a business). So TUTI pays TUTIsuper an annual rent to lease the land on which to grow the trees. This rent is calculated as being approximately 5% of the value of the land. In the past I have obtained valuations from a local real estate agent, but she has now retired. So now we need to find a new way of getting a valuation. One problem is that the valuation is only for the land itself (and not the trees on the land), so the valuer needs to imagine what the land would be worth if the trees were not there (which they generally find difficult to do). Another problem I have had is that the estate agent's valuation has always been much lower than the valuation done by the State Valuer-General, which appears annually on our rates bill from the local council. And this issue raised it's head again today, when I received another email from the Shire containing the rates notice for the Kanumbra land fornext year. Because of the sharp increase in the value of rural land close to Melbourne (because of Covid and the work from home movement), the difference between the estate agent's valuation and the Valuer-General's valuation has increased even further, with the former now less than half the latter. Go figure! I really have no idea what the Kanumbra land might be worth.

One of the reasons why we cut our recent barging period short and returned to Auxonne was that Rita had agreed to perform a steelpan concert to assist with a fundraising event at a historic castle restoration site near Besain, where Sarah and Alban live. However, because of the ongoing inclement weather, they have decided to postpone the outdoor event from tomorrow until a date to be decided when the weather clears (whenever that may be). Hopefully, that won't cut too much into our next planned barge cruising on the River Doubs.

As it to illustrate the inclemency of the weather, we literally had to batten down the hatches this afternoon, as a huge wind and rain storm deluged the port. The storm cloud looked impressive, but not too threatening as it approached from the south, but its intensity increased as it fully arrived over Auxonne,

Thurs 3 Aug - windy creaky night, damselfly, alternating sun and rain

Despite adjusting the mooring ropes yesterday, we had another windy creaky night of disturbed sleep. The weather was so unpleasant outside this morning, that even the creatures, such as this damselfly, were seeking refuge inside.

During the afternoon, we had alternating rain and sun. This meant that many attempts to go shopping were aborted at the last moment, so we ended up going nowhere at all. What an exciting day!

Fri 4 Aug - non-windy night, on/off rain all day, fill water tank, evening walk

We finally got a non-windy night and some decent sleep, but woke to a morning of on and off rain, which continued all day. I found it ironic that while it was very wet outside, we ran out of water on the boat. So I had to fill the water tank in the rain. In the evening, the rain cleared for a while, so we went for a little walk up river, before turning around to get back to the boat before it started raining again. Just made it!  (not even one photo for today)

Sat 5 Aug - fine, Hawks d Pies, Road to Ruin, SJDL, bike, lunch, clothes shop

We woke to a fine day - yes, you read correctly, a fine day! And the day got even better as I watched the AFL game between the Hawks (down towards the bottom of the ladder) and the Collingwood Magpies (sitting on top of the ladder). Despite having few realistic aspirations at the start of the game, the Hawks ran out comfortable winners 105-73. Having beaten second-placed Brisbane earlier in the year, this game shows that this young team has the talent; they just need to reproduce this sort of  performance for four quarters in each game. A highlight of the game was the performance of young Finn McGinness (son of Premiership player Scott McGinness) who held Pies superstar Nick Daicos to just five disposals – 11 less than his previous lowest disposals this season – across the first three-and-a-half quarters, before the Brownlow Medal favourite ended the game sitting on the bench with a knee injury. Finn has been playing this tagging role well this season, but this was his best performance - not getting many possessions himself, but starving the opposition's best player of possessions, and hence minimising his influence on the game.

Later in the morning I started reading a book called "Road to Ruin" by journalist Nicki Savva, about the rise and fall of ex-Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott. Having lived through this period of Australian politics in the early 2010's, I was aware of some of the incidents and misadventures, but was unaware of a lot of the insider actions and thoughts, especially concerning Abbott's Chief of Staff Peta Credlin and the way she treated people inside and outside of her office. I thought it was telling that, when Abbott was deposed as Prime Minister, so many of his Parliamentary colleagues said things to the effect of "the only way we could get rid of Credlin was to get rid of Tony; so we did!".

In the afternoon, we went over to St Jean de Losne to check that the campervan was still there and in good condition, and to get one of the bikes which we had promised to give to Georgie MacDonald (wife of ex-port captain John), after theirs were stolen from their barge late last year. While we were there, we had lunch at a cafe near the steps on the river, and then Rita made an obligatory stop at the second-hand clothing store, where she picked up some small gifts for friends back home.

Sun 6 Aug - Bernie, replay, SunRainSunRainWindSunRain, phone holder, sunset

Today would have been my brother Bernie's 76th birthday - I can't imagine Bernie being that old, but then I can hardly imagine me being not too far behind! I enjoyed yesterday's AFL game so much that I watched the entire replay again this morning - they won again!

To say that today's weather was variable would be a gross understatement. But during one of the sunny periods, we managed to dash out to some shops, and at one of them I managed to pick up an iPhone holder for my eBike, which I had been looking for for quite a while. Now I should be able to follow the GoogleMaps route while I am riding, without having to stop and take my phone out of my pocket.

Then it was back to the boat for more work on the thesis and the blog, before enjoying a cool drink on the rear deck during one of the sunny periods just before sunset. The walkers around the port didn't realise that they were caught three times in this photo; once for real, once as shadows on the barracks wall, and once as reflections in the water of the port.

But this sunny weather didn't last for long and, as sunset approached, some storm clouds moved in to provide a contrast with the setting sun.

Mon 7 Aug - sunny, Matildas, painting preps, Scenic hood, Patrick on Lucie

The storm clouds from last night had disappeared by morning, and we were greeted by sunshine. I spent the morning following the Australian Matildas Soccer team playing their first match in the knockout round of 16 in the Soccer World Cup, being held in Australia/NZ. They were playing against Denmark and ran out winners 2-0 to advance to the round of 8. This has been a good effort by the Matildas who have played most of their games without the injured Sam Kerr, one of the best players in the world. But several other players have risen to the occasion to fill the gap, including fellow indigenous player Mary Flower, who is a star in the making.

In preparation for a couple of weeks of work on the boat, I ordered many cans of International paint last week. So in anticipation of their arrived by courier, I did lots ot preparatory cleaning of the boat and other related tasks today

Rita will be driving to Besain tomorrow, so in anticipation she asked me today whether I could check the water and oil levels in the Scenic. So we went across to the parking lot, but when I tried to open the bonnet to get access to the engine compartment, nothing happened. I could feel the release lever moving, and could hear some movement under the bonnet, but the catch would not release to be able to lift the bonnet. I tired getting access to the catch from other directions, but access was too restricted to enable me to reach the catch. So we decided that te car had enough water and oil to get to Bern, and she would get it checked while she was there.

During the afternoon, as I was walking along Pontoon A, I was stopped by a guy who asked if I was Tony Richardson. I said yes, and then he explained that he was coming to say hello at our boat, because he also had a Piper barge, called Lucie. I had known the original owner of Lucie some years ago, but had never met Patrick the new owner. So we had a good chat, before we each had to go on our ways.

Tues 8 Aug - early rise, Bern, Locaboat, GLS, damaged tins, clear decks, Pini

We were up early, because Rita had to leave this morning for Bern, where she was going to camp (in a tent) at the campground on the River Aare where we stayed in the campervan in May this year. She was doing this so that she could catch up with Sarah, and go to the Circus School performance in which Sarah's boys would be performing. So in mid-morning she was ready to leave, as we noticed some commotion on the pontoon as a Locaboat was preparing to leave port. It seems that somehow, as they tried to depart, their fender got caught on one of the bollards on the side pontoon. Despite many people, including myself, standing on the pontoon to try and lower it under the fender, it would not budge. Eventually, a Locaboat repair van arrived and it would seem that the Locaboat mechanic had seen this situation before, because after a while he had it unhooked and they were on their way.

While all this was going on, Rita was trying to get all her baggage into the Scenic for her trip. However, because of where the Locaboat repair van was parked, it was impossible to get the Scenic down the access road to Pontoon A, and turned around. We didn't want to disturb the mechanic, who was trying to free the hire-boat, so we just carried all her gear in multiple trips up to the car in the carpark. Just as we were carrying the last load to the Scenic, a GLS delivery van arrived and parked behind the Locaboat van. So I ran back to Pontoon A and accepted the delivery, which was all my tins of paint. He then backed all the way back along the access road, and left, followed soon thereafter by Rita in the Scenic.

I then went back to Pontoon A and carried the deliveries down to the barge. The packaging was quite unique. Each can was wrapped in some bubble-wrap, then they were placed inside a large PVC pipe, which was then wrapped in bubble-wrap and LOTS of tape. It took about 20 minutes to unwrap each of the PVC pipes and extract the individual cans, only to find that all the cans were damaged, some quite severely.

Luckily, the paint was not damaged(!) and the lids were taped down with more tape, so there was no spillage. However, as I was to discover later, once some of the cans were opened, it was impossible to re-seal those cans properly. So I would have to plan to use the most damaged cans in one go, with no necessity to re-seal them for any length of time. They really need to find a better way to pack the cans for shipping across Europe. At the very least, they could use most of the bubble-wrap that was on the outside of the PVC pipes to wrap the cans better inside the pipes, and then use a bit more bubble wrap (or paper) to stuff into the PVC pipes to stop the cans from moving around while in transit.

Anyway, the paint was now here, so I spent the afternoon clearing everything off the cabin roof and around the decks, so that the scene was set to begin a thorough washdown tomorrow with the Kartcher pressure sprayer, ready for the start of painting. During this cleanup, I had an unfortunate accident when the gangplank (which I had made a few years ago from an aluminium ladder and re-cycled plastic boards) decided to jump off the side-pontoon (where I was storing all the stuff from the cabin roof) and into the water. It floated for a little while, while I tried to retrieve it, but then because of its weight and the fact that it was not particularly bouyant, it did a Titanic and slipped to the bottom of the water. Luckily the port water is only about 2 metres deep, so I will wait for my underwater diver (Rita) to return from Bern before we try to recover it.

While all this was happening, I noticed that the big green barge moored on Pontoon B had some people aboard. From what I overheard, it seems that this was the new owner of this barge, and he had taken the wise precaution of engaging a more experienced person to show him around his new boat. From what I later heard from others, the new owner had bought the boat without a personal inspection, and had relied on someone else to do an inspection (perhaps the guy who was now onboard with him). When he finally saw the boat in person, he was a bit surprised by its size! Methinks he has a lot to learn about this boat.

That evening, I got a phone call from Rita. She had reached Bern OK and settled into the campsite, but she had learned this evening that her good friend from early steelband days, Claudio Pini, had died in his early 50's. We had learned he had cancer several months ago, but he had recently been showing signs of improvement. Alas that was a false hope. He was an extremely talented musician, and leader of the Ferrum Helveticum steelband in Bern. He was also a composer and arranger of steelpan music, and our band (Pans on Fire) plays many of his arrangements. He will be sorely missed in the steelpan community worldwide. One of his more recent songs "How do I Know" was performed by many bands of different sizes and configurations, and the title encapsulates what many of us now feel about Pini's premature passing; How do we Know, how do you any of us know when our time has come to leave this place?

Wed 9 Aug - fine, 1000h start, Kartcher, returns, primer rust lines, beer, sunset

The morning was fine and promised a good day for working outside. I made a start at 1000h by finishing the preparations including removal of the dogbox tent. I then got to work Kartchering the boat. I was drawing water from the port using a vacuum pump in the Kartcher. Recently, I had trouble with this because the hose that goes down into the water had a permanent curve from being rolled up in the box when in storage. This meant that the end of the hose, which was supposed to remain under water, would often rise up and be above the water surface, breaking the vacuum and stopping the flow. So I fixed this by tieing a wooden pole to the last 2m of the hose, preventing the end of the hose from rising out of the water. It took several hours to do the cleaning of the cabin roof and the decks, with lots of loose paint coming off in the process. I then spent a couple of hours drying the Kartchered areas, and then giving all the cleaned areas a good brushing with a wire brush to lift off the flaky areas of paint. I then gathered all the paint flakes so that they wouldn't be caught under the new paint later. They say that preparation is the worst, and most important, part of painting, and I totally agree.

As I was working away, I noticed that Swiss Frank had arrived back in port on his little red boat, as had John, who had the attack of shingles when he was last here. I talked to him later and asked how he was going; he replied that he still had the shingles around his eyes, but was learning to live with them!

In the late afternoon, I started the actual painting job, by priming all the areas affected by rust spots, especially in the seams where surfaces joined at right angles along the side decks. By 1800h I had had enough for the day, so I enjoyed a quiet bear on the back deck in the sun. I then had a shower, made dinner and downloaded some new eBooks, before waiting for the sun to set, and then going to bed, since another long day loomed tomorrow.

Thurs 10 Aug - 0600, starlings, dew, prime, painting, Yack, murmur, late dinner

I was up very early at 0600h for what promised to be a long day. Indeed I was up so early that the moon hadn't yet set as the sun was rising behind the Army Barracks.

As I was pottering around looking at what I would have to do today, I heard chattering to the south of the port, and then silence as hundreds of starlings departed from a tree and flew north. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera at hand, but now I have an idea of when this happens in the morning, just around sunrise.

It had been a dewy night, so there was a lot of water condensation on the metal surfaces. So I spent a fair amount of time walking around drying the cabin roof and all the edges and railings.

And then I finished some priming that I had missed yesterday.

Now I was ready to start the real painting. But before I did that, i went around with my camera getting photos of the front, rear and side decking areas, so that I would have some good Before photos to compare with what it looks like at the end of this painting process,

The front and rear photos (and the edges in the left and right photos) show that a lot of the green paint (painted in 2010) appears to have peeled off the underlying blue paint (which was the original factory colour). However, a closer inspection of the paint flakes shows that one side of the flake is green, and the other side is blue, indicating that the green paint has adhered well to the underlying blue layer of paint, but one layer of blue paint has peeled off an underlying layer of blue paint. This suggests that the original blue paint was painted over by another layer of paint of the same colour, but perhaps the preparation was not thorough enough and the two blue layers did not adhere properly to each other. Hopefully the deck has now been cleaned well enough and the new (grey) decking paint will adhere well to the underlying paint whether it be green or blue.

The left and right edges of the cabin top (behind the wheelhouse windscreen) tell a different story. The cabin top was last painted several years ago, before we made the cabin canopy which we now install over the cabin every year before we leave the boat in port over winter. This canopy, however, only covers back to the wheelhouse windscreen, and the small sections of the cabin top at the sides of the wheelhouse are left exposed to the weather. One can see clearly in the photo at left above that the paint under the canopy back to the side-light is in relatively good condition, while the section behind that is very patchy with the brighter recent paint interspersed with the darker creme paint from earlier years. The same is evident on the right side alongside the wheelhouse.

I started painting at 0900h and finished at 1600h, having painted the cabin top, the cabin sides and the hand rails on the cabin top with Internationl Toplac-Plus Ivory #812. It was now time to sit down, drink the last beer in the fridge, and watch the paint dry. As I was doing this, the wife of John (the Shingles man) came over to ask how I had managed to keep painting all day in the heat, I told her that my trick was to set myself a specific target and then stop for the day, and to drink lots of water to stay hydrated (both of which I'd done today). When she saw the t-shirt I was wearing (Yackandandah Folk Festival 2013, where Pans on Fire had played), she said "Oh, my grandma came from Yackandandah", and then proceeded to tell me the story of how her family had lived there for a couple of generations before moving to New Zealand, where she now lives. It's a small  world.

After I finished my beer, I decided it was time to compensate for my early rising this morning, so I went downstairs for a 2-hour nap. But I was up in time to get a sunset photo, which was pretty similar to yesterday's sunset photo!

But today's sunset was subtly different, because I was using it to time the behaviour of the starlings in the nearby tree and make sure I had my camera ready. They had been arriving at the tree from the north for about 30 minutes, and now the noise was cacophonous. But just a few minutes after sunset, all went quiet for a few seconds and then the tree erupted with a murmuration of starlings as they flew off to their final resting place for the night. It was as though the tree was their favourite pub and they all dropped in there for a drink and a chat after work (in the fields). Then the bartender called "Last drinks, please", they finished their drinks and then they all left the pub at once to go home!

After sunset, I pottered around the barge for a while getting things tidied and ready for another day of painting tomorrow. Then I prepared some dinner, and at 2200h I sat down in the wheelhouse with pasta and a glass of Buzet Le Baron Rouge, a just reward for today's efforts. I still had the fan running in the wheelhouse, because today was the first really hot day of the season for me, and even now it was still quite warm. But I know there is still more work and hot weather to come.

Fri 11 Aug - 0637h, murmur, hot, west side work, shop, east side, Dijon storm

I was up early again this morning at 0637h, but still in time to check out the morning murmuration of the starlings. And sure as eggs, soon after sunrise, the tree went quiet and the starlings started to fly north en masse to go work in the fields. The tree must be like an early-opener pub, where the workers drop in for a quick breakfast beer before heading off to work.

The morning started hot, and was now getting hotter. This restricted me to working on the west-side of the barge, shaded by the cabin, wire-brushing and priming the side deck on that side. Working on the east-side in the morning was too hot for me (and too hot to kneel on the steel deck), and also made the paint dry too quickly as I was painting. I finished this painting in the late morning, and then I made an emergency trip to Intermarche for beer, wine and bread. Since Rita had taken the Scenic to Bern, I had to ride my eBike to the shop. It was amazing how you can fit a dozen 33cl bottles of beer, a wine cask and two baguettes in the panier bags on the back of the bike.

By late afternoon, the sun had shifted to the other side of the boat, so I got to start work painting the east-side deck around 1800h. Around 2000h I noticed a rainstorm to the west centred over Dijon, and moving towards Auxonne. This gave me motivation to finish the priming as soon as possible, but the rain drifted to the north and passed us by, so I got to finish the east-side deck priming at my leisure.

Sat 12 Aug - 0700h, prime, Matildas, emails, Dali, paint side decks, reading, sunset

I was up at 0700h to start priming the front and rear deck areas, and then painted the western deck grey while it was still in the shade. Since I know that I would be forced to take a break from painting while the sun was directly overhead (and hottest), I decided to relax a bit and follow the Matildas quarter-final World Cup against France. Well, I thought I was going to relax, but the game kept me on the edge of my seat, as I followed the updates on the Guardian website (since I couldn't get a live stream of the game online). But I got into the spirit of the game and even sent an email to the journalist who was providing the updates. I was surprised a few minutes later when I saw my name mentioned on-screen.

The 90 minutes finished in a scoreless draw, and went to penalties and at the end of the five shots by each team, the last penalty shot by Australia (to win the game) was surprisingly taken by the Australian goalie, Mackenzie Arnold, who had already saved two goals in the shoot-out. But the shot turned into an anti-climax, as she missed, and the shoot-out entered a sudden death format. At this stage, I realised I was not the only one in Auxonne following the game. Just before the result of her kick appeared in the Guardian update, I heard a collective cheer erupt from one of the rooms in the Army Barracks, and realised that a group up there must have been watching the game live on TV. So as the penalty shoot-out continued, I kept listening to get some advance warning of developemnts in the shoot-out, either through cheers or groans. When French player Dali missed her kick, there were groans soon followed by cheers when the referee ruled that the Australian keeper had moved before the kick, and ordered a re-kick. It was all a bit surreal!  And so the shoot-out continued until, after 10 kicks by each side, Australia held their nerve and ran out winners 7-6 on penalties. Soon after I had another email published.

When Mackenzie Arnold was announced as Player of the Match, I sent a final email, and was starting to consider a new career in sports journalism.

It took me a while to settle down after this game, having gained a new appreciation of the drama involved in scoreless soccer games being decided on penalties. But as the day wore on, and the sun crossed to the western side of the boat, I finished the day by painting the eastern side-deck. I then had a beer and dinner, and some time later I was grateful that the paint had had time to dry when stormclouds appeared on the horizon. Indeed as the sun was setting in the west, the short clouds hovered over the port in the east, as shown below. A dramatic way to finish a dramatic day.

Sun 13 Aug - rain, Hawks, Storm, Donegal Green, swan, Rita, sunset, dark clouds

There was some early morning rain when I got up at 0500h to watch the Hawks play the Western Bulldogs. Unfortunately, the internet reception was particularly poor this morning, so I had to continually refresh the connection and ended up watching the game in a series of freeze-frames, with occasional snippets of video. Nonetheless the Hawks won narrowly 67-64, despite the Dogs scoring the first three goals of the game and the last three goals of the game. In between, the Hawks dominated play.

Meanwhile, on a different TV channel in another universe, the Storm beat Canberra 48-2 in the NRL.

I started the work day doing touch-ups on the painting I had already done, then added a border stripe around the top of the cabin in Donegal Green, which unfortunately was not the same shade of green that had previously been used on the boat (because International Paints had dropped that green from the range when they updated their formula from Toplac to Toplac Plus). We now had to make a decision as to whether to repaint with the new Donegal Green or try to find another brand of paint that better matches the old green colour.

Nonetheless, I was pretty satisfied with the new paint job so far, which is very different to what it had been just a few days ago.

As I was finalising the painting today, my attention was caught by one of the swans sleeping and drifting around the port, while the other one kept watch for any intruders.

Rita came home from Bern today and was suitably impressed by the painting. Now she'll have to find another job that I haven't managed to finish on the boat. As we were unpacking the Scenic, two hire-boats came into port bearing a family of Spaniards and a family of Italians. The decibel level in the port tonight with probably increase somewhat.

As evening approached, there was a spectacular sunset in the western skies.

But soon thereafter, storm clouds approached from the east. Soon, day turned to night as the dark clouds covered the port, followed by heavy rain. Note that the photo below is not a Black&White photo; this is what it actually looked like.

One advantage of the rain however was that it kept the Spanish and Italian families indoors that night. While we could hear their muffled discussions till late at night, it was better than having these discussions outdoors on their open decks!

Mon 14 Aug - footsteps, rain, Taxe, dry decks, Avesol II, swim, railings, book

One of the advantages of being moored at the hammerhead (the end) of the pontoon is that you can hear anyone approaching the boat during the night, as their footsteps are accentuated by the rocking of the pontoon. And amazingly, even when you are fast asleep, your brain detects these sounds as being unusual. And so it was this morning around 0300h, when I heard footsteps on the dock. So I was out of bed to check, and as I looked out the galley window and along the length of the pontoon, I saw this ghostly figure appearing and disappearing in the early morning mist. It had me puzzled, and so I continued watching as the image disaapeared, and then reappeared a few minutes later and came closer and closer to our boat. It was only when it was about 10 metres away and close to the next boat, that a security light came on and showed the lady from the next boat who had just taken her dog for an early morning toilet walk! I went back to bed feeling rather silly.

We had read recently that second-home owners in France had to register their homes online, in connection with the Taxe Fonciere (property tax). We had tried, but failed becuase our Moissac house is actually owned by TUTI (our company), and TUTI is registered in Australia, not France. Bit Rita got in touch with the Montauban Prefecture, and they have been very helpful in getting the house registered. What difference it will make to the amount we pay in Taxe Fonciere, we don't know.

After some morning rain, I dried all the railings and the decks before I will start to paint again later today. As I was doing this, I saw a boat departing from port, and immediately recognised her as Avesol II, a boat that I had seriously considered many years ago when looking for a barge. She's still a wonderful looking boat.

Having sorted out my internet problems (by connecting my iPhone directly to my laptop, rather than connecting via wifi), I spent some time during the middle of the day (when it was hottest) watching the Hawks game that I followed yesterday in freeze frame. Then later in the day, while Rita went for a swim in the river, I painted all the railings on the boat. Then after the sun set, I finished reading a novel, "Dark Matters", which is based on a "Sliding Doors" concept that with every decision we make there are two "universes"; one based on the option we took, and one based on the option we didn't take. Stretches the imagination, but very intriguing!

Tues 15 Aug - rain, deck edges, nap, migraine, four dogs missing, cat

Today was one of those "blah" days. We woke to find it raining again, and so we turned over and went back to sleep. And then when we woke several hours later, it was still raining. So we got up and waited for it to stop, after which I dried the decks and did the final edge painting around the decks, while Rita kept working on her report. In the afternoon, I had a nap, while Rita retired to the second bedroom with a migraine. In the evening, I started on a new novel "Four Dogs Missing" about a series of deaths connected to a boutique winery in Mudgee, NSW.

Since there was nothing worth photographing today, I include a gratuitous photo of a cat.

Wed 16 Aug - clear sky, Matildas, paint, wrap rear railing, bollards, sunset

The day started with a clear blue sky, but we slept in anyway. Today the Matildas played England in the semi-final and were brought back to earth with a 3-1 defeat, despite a great long-range goal from Sam Kerr. Oh well, back to watching footy again.

We had decided to try getting the old Norfolk Green paint for the boat, so I contacted International Paints, but they said they were no longer making that shade of green because of lack of market demand (except from all those who had already painted their boat Norfolk Green!). However, they did say that I might still be able to get some from Yachtshop. So I contacted Yachtshop and they said they still had some, but since it would be coming from England to France, there would (since Brexit) be some indeterminant import fees to be paid when shipped. So I gave up on the idea.

Having painted the railings yesterday, I realised that since we often store the bikes on the rear deck (espcially the eBikes which are much heavier to lift up onto the cabin roof) then the railing would soon be subjected to scratching. So I decided to wrap the railing with polyester cord to protent the paintwork and the bikes. The end result was pretty neat.

In looking around at what painting remained to be done, I couldn't avoid looking at the bollards, which were a motley collection of green and blue (and a bit of grey). So I posted a question on the Piper Barge Owners Forum asking for suggestions of what I should do with them, noting that the chrome bollards on a neighbouring Piper looked much better. I got a surprising number of replies say that while the chrome ones look good, they don't perform very well as bollards, because the ropes tend to slide around them very easily. The main advice was just to paint the bollards each year and put up with the fact that they will always look a bit "used" - the sign on a real barge!

And what would Auxonne be without an interesting sunset!

Thurs 17 Aug - rain, no painting, Montrond, hill, castle, concert, dinner, sunset

There was overnight and early morning rain, and so because we had another activity scheduled for later in the day, there was no painting attempted this morning. So around noon, we set off for Montrond, and little town near Besain where Rita had agreed to play the pans a few weeks ago at a fundraising dinner for restoration of the castle on the hill , and now the rescheduled date had arrived.

We got there well before the guests arrived, so that we had plnety of time to set up and get a feel for the venue. When we arrived at the bottom of the hill on which the castle stands, we were surprised to be greeted by a little tractor. However, after we had loaded the pan and other gear onto it, and they started out up the stoney steep hill, we saw that a baggage tractor with treads was a very good idea.

As Rita started to set up her gear, I went for a wander around the castle grounds. It was easy to see that this "castle" needs a humungous amount of work to restore it to its formar glory, and this little fundraiser would just be a drop in a very big bucket. But every little bit helps.

Soon the guests started arriving, and it was clear that they were going to be a keen audience, because they had to walk all the way up the hill (without a tractor) to get to the venue. They enjoyed the music (which was a first time seeing and hearing steel pans for most of them), and joined in singing the chorus of a little song about the castle that Rita had composed for the event. After she finished, many people came up for a closer look at the pan, and to have a tentative play on the pan.

Then it was time to sit down for the dinner prepared by the event organisors, and served by a bunch of volunteers (including Sarah and Alban's boys).

As sunset approached , I noticed that a number of people were leaving the table and heading down the hill. Initially I thought they were just leaving early for another engagement. But when I saw some of them coming back, I realised that something else was happening. So I wandered down the hill and found a bunch of them taking sunset photos from a good vantage point. Given my predilection for sunset photos, I thought i'd join in to get a sunset photo with a difference.

After another hour of eating, drinking and chatting, many people really did start to leave, so that they got down the hill before darkness arrived. So we packed up all our gear, and used the tractor once more to take everyting back down to the Scenic. We then returned back to Besain, where we spent the night with Sarah and Alban.

Fri 18 Aug - Besain, Mobier, relax, handball, Arbois concert, late night

Having stayed the night at Besain, we decided to stay another day and escape the heat on the boat. In the house at Besain, it was a constant 24 deg C all day, so much more pleasant. In the morning, Alban and the two boys headed off to the Mobier Cheese Fair in a neighbouring town, while we stayed at home and relaxed, and enjoyed little highlights like this bumble bee (which we don't have in Australia).

In the afternoon, Theo went off to handball practice in Poligny and later Sarah returned home from her teaching job in Bern where she works for two days per week. We all got together for dinner at home and then around 2100h, as the sun was starting to set, we headed off to the nearby town of Arbois to go to a concert. The warm-up group was very loud and very modern, but the main act was more to our taste. If my French was better, I'm sure I would have appreciated the stories they were telling. They played till about midnight, and we got home around 0100h.

Sat 19 Aug - sleep-in, Plasne Comte Cheese Festival, cool shops, Storm, fans

After the late night yesterday, everyone took the opportunity to have a sleep-in this morning, even Alban, who was not scheduled to milk the cows this morning. As we sat around the table having breakfast, I was glad to see that we are not the only ones who improvise when something is not working properly, as illustrated by the chopping board and pair of scissors, which are just the right weight to keep the toast in the toaster (just don't forget to take them away when the toast is done!).

Since all of the milk from Alban's farm is supplied on contract to Comte Cheese, it is not surprising that he and the family are involved in various Comte events, including today's Comte Cheese Festival at nearby Plasne.

One of the highlights of the day was the tour of the cheese production factory at Plasne, where the milk is converted into rounds of cheese. But first, you have to dress up in the appropriate safefy gear.

We were impressed by the speed with which the milk is converted to cheese rounds (less than 12 hours), and also by the rows and rows of cheese, worth a small fortune. We were also impressed by the merry-go-round provided for the kids, which was powered by pedal power (for which there was no lack of volunteer riders).

It looked like the party at the festival was going to go on for quite a while, so after lunch we bid farewell and headed back towards Auxonne. However, because it was still stifling hot, we visited many cool shops along the way (cool, as in low temperature, not stylish) and even found a mosquito net that we had been looking for in order to sleep on the rear deck at night when the temperature refuses to drop. Tonight was almost one of those nights, but we made do with fans left on in the bedroom in order to get a good night's sleep.

Sun 20 Aug - Hawks, window shades, organ concert, crepes, swan sunset

I watched the early morning AFL game between the Hawks and the Melbourne Demons, won by the Dees 87-60. While the end result was clear, it was mainly due to a poor 10 minutes by the young team, who were missing two good players, Newcombe and Lewis. Because of the heat, we make things bearable in the wheelhouse by using our quick-dry towels as window shades, and moving them around the wheelhouse windows as the day progresses. One of our most useful improvisations.

In the late afternoon, we went up to the Auxonne Cathedral to listen to a concert on the church organ. The theme of the concert was organ music before, during and after the French Revolution. It was quite interesting, especially because the organist came to the balcony of the organ at the beginning of each of the three sections to explain the music we would soon hear. My favourite story was from during the Revolution when organists made sure they could play La Marseillaise, the national anthem composed during the Revolution. Since many traditional buildings were attacked by military marauders trying to destroy all signs of the previous ruling class, the organist was instructed to play La Marseillaise if marauders were rumoured to be entering the church. In this way, the marauders would think that the church was on the side of the Revolutionaries, and move on to the next target. Perhaps apocryphal, but nonetheless a good story

After the concert finished, it was getting close to dinner time, so we stayed in town and had dinner at the nearby Crepes Restaurant. They were very tasty (both the savoury and the dessert crepes), and we returned to the boat well satisfied, just in time for sunset. But my attention was caught by the port swan, rather then the sun itself.

Mon 21 Aug - cool, then hot, clean weed away, Rita to Besain, blog

The morning dawned cool, but then gradually got hotter as the day progressed. I cleaned the weed away from around the boat, to try to find the location of the gangplank at the bottom of the water. Rita had been away from Sarah for more than 24 hours, so she felt the need to go to Besain again. It was too hot to do any painting today, so I did some work on this blog. All together, a very nothing day.

Tues 22 Aug - sunny, green barge, fighter jets, blog

It was another sunny morning, but not too hot, so I got to work on the painting job, by putting masking tape around the bottom of the cabin and gunwales, in preparation for painting tomorrow. It was a tedious job which took far longer than expected. As I was doing this, I noticed that the new owner of the big green barge was taking her out for a run northwards on the river, accompanied by the guy who had been helping him all week.

During the afternoon, I was suddenly startled when two French Air Force jets zoomed over the port at less than 100m altitude (or so it seemed). They came from nowhere and disappeared in a flash. This is a common occurrence along the rivers, where they do their practice runs, but it never fails to surprise!

Wed 23 Aug - up early, trim painting, green barge south, RGB green, evening sky

I was up early this morning to get some painting done before the day heated up. My target today was to get a lot of the trim paining done along the masking tape I had put in place yesterday. The purpose of this was to not have paint colour changing at a major change in direction of the surface e.g. where the vertical cabin wall meets the horizoantal side deck. Having a change in paint at those joints is often the initiator for the formation of rust spots, and I had read that continuing one of the colours for a distance on the other surface can minimise this opportunity. In my case I will continue the grey decking paint up the side of the cabin wall for about 2cm (the width of the masking tape).

While I was painting, I noticed the big green barge going out for another run, but this time they turned south. They returned around 1300h, and were accompnied back into port by the two port swans, who swam on either side of the bow of the boat as they entered the port (as they do for many entering boats).

During the afternoon, I experimented with an app on my phone trying to find the RGB (Red-Green-Blue) combination for the original green colour on the barge. This was difficult, because the green paint has changed slightly over the years, it looks different depending on the lighting and the wetness of the surface, and the colours on the phone are different to those in real life. But I think I got an approximate RGB which may prove useful when searching for a paint supplier who can mix the right colour for us.

As sunset approached the sky was filled with an interesting cloud pattern, which promised an interesting sunset. But the clouds dispersed, to give just an ordinary Auxonne sunset.

Thurs 24 Aug - up early again, finish trim, wind, rain, Rita, gangplank, sunset(s)

I was up early again to ensure that all the trim painting was finished and cleaned up, because Rita was returning from Besain today. So after finishing all the trim painting on the cabin and deck, I let it partially dry, and then removed the masking tape. In the late afternoon, around 1630h, the wind picked up and became very gusty as a forerunner to an approaching storm. It became so strong that it blew over one of the bikes I had put on the pontoon, and it was only saved from going into the water (on top of the gangplank) when it landed on some mooring ropes from a neighbouring boat. So I lay both bikes down on the pontoon, and secured other items around the boat as the wind continued to increase. At 1710h, heavy rain arrived and continued for about 30 minutes. This was a bit of the test for the recently completed painting.

Soon after the rain stopped, Rita arrived back and luckily we were able to unload the Scenic in dryer weather. As we did, we chatted with Port Capitain Alain, and asked him if he would prepare an Attestation for us, declaring that Rita and I lived toegther on the boat in Port Royal, because we felt that this would be useful in showing that we lived together in France (as part of the conditions required for me to claim Freedom of Movement within the EU, rather than being subject to the Schengen conditions).

Given that the weather had now cleared, Rita decided that she could now try to recover the gangplank form the bottom of the port. So she got her swimming gear on and jumped in. We found the gangplank OK, but it was very heavy (filled with water), so we were grafeful when Alain came down the pontoon and offered his assistance. Within 10 or so minutes we had it out of the water and ready for a good clean-up.

Later in the afternoon the sky shimmered with interesting cloud formations, whoch again promided an interesting sunset. And unlike yesterday, today the promise was delivered with a beatu=ful, peaceful sunset, with developed over time into a rather dramatic sunset.

Fri 25 Aug - thunder, rain, wind, delay, sunny arvo, laundry, van, sunset cloud

We were awoken at exactly 0630h by a huge thunderclap - who needs an alarm clock? So, since nature had gone to so much trouble to awaken us, we decided to get up early, since we planned to get away cruising today. However, today was much cooler than the previous week, with solid rain all morning and strong winds. It was actually a bit of relief, but not very pleasant for cruising, given the number of locks we planned to be going through today. So we reluctantly decided to delay our cruising for another day.

But having accepted this decision, the weather then turned sunny in the afternoon. So we decided to make the most of this by doing some laundry and hanging it around the boat to dry, and preparing the boat for cruising. We also moved some stuff over to the campervan, because we planned to leave in the van immediately after finishing this stint of cruising.

In the evening, we enjoyed our last dinner in port for a while, on the rear deck in the setting sun. Tonight, instead of looking at the sunset in the west, we enjoyed some cumulonimbus clouds in the east, lit up by the setting sun.