Monday 13th September 2010 Cercy-la-Tour. Day off.

Cold night. Sunny day with fluffy white clouds. Mike had to drive to Attac for bread as all three boulangeries were closed. He thought the Americans on a LeBoat were going uphill as the boat was pointing uphill and asked if the Loire was open yet, thinking that they must have crossed it the day before. No, they were heading downhill to Decize and didn’t know they had to cross the river to get to the hire base. He came back on the boat with the bread then went to ask the keeper about the river. Two Americans followed him. Yes, she said, the river was now open. OK, we’ll probably be moving in the morning. I got on with the chores. Mike took an inverter and his electrical toolbox to fix a wire that had come off the car’s alternator for the warning light. I made lunch. I put the laptop on to do the log, then had the bright idea to send a message to Paul’s friend Ron via Facebook. Mike started marking up a new “make no waves” board with lines and letters to be painted. Paul rang, he was in a lock coming down the Saône, in a panic as he hadn’t heard from Mike and Mike hadn’t answered his texts and calls so he was coming to find us! I’d had a reply from Ron with Paul’s number and he’d ‘phoned him too. Paul had been calling Mike’s UK mobile!! Mike said he’d call him back later once he’d got tied up, which he did. Liberty was at Seurre. Mike called him a daft wotsit after he’d checked our French number while he was still back in the UK and now in France he’d been calling us on our UK one!! Never mind. Mike said he ought to go back to St Jean-de-Losne and he’d go and find him the next day.