It seems hard to believe that it's been 10 weeks since we arrived in France, and this will be our first day of cruising! But finally, the big day has arrived, and we were away at 0900h to head north up the Saone. It was good to be moving on the water as we headed away from Port Royal.

Fri 7 July - 0900h, cruising, Lamarche, Pirol, Heuilly mooring, Ashes, whistles

At Lamarche, we saw Cochon Noir and Polaris moored nose to tail, and so we slowed down and pulled close to have a chat and see what their cruising plans were. From what they said, it was obvious that we would be crossing paths again in the near future. We continued on towards Pontailler and found ourselves following another boat. We were happy to slow down and follow them, but as we approached Pontailler, they slowed and waved us past. It was only as we drew level that we realised it was Pirol with our Swiss friend Frank and his wife aboard. They were stopping for the night at Pontailler, and so were happy to let us pass.

We continued on at a leisurely pace, which gave me plenty of time to appreciate the smaller things about cruising, like the beauty of the standing bow waves out the wheelhouse door at the side of the boat.

As the afternoon moved on, we approached the mooring at Heuilly where we had often stopped in the past. This time, we were considering going on to the mooring at Ste Pierre, but were unsure whether it would have a vacancy (it is usually full). As we were debating this, the decision was made for us when Rita received an email from Auxonne Port Captain Alain, saying that a parcel Rita had been waiting for had arrived in the mail today. So we decided to stop at Heuilly, so that Rita could ride back to Auxonne and collect the package before we got too far away from Auxonne. So, that she did, which enabled me to watch the second half of Day 2 of the 3rd Test. Once again, Ben Stokes was the only English batsman to score any runs (80, and last man out), and England was bowled out for even less runs than Australia managed in their first innings.

In the evening, Rita arrived home with her parcel of bird whistles. She was pretty tired after the long ride, so it was a simple dinner and then an early night to bed.

(Note: now that we are cruising, I will revert to the normal format of one day per page, until we again settle down in port)