Farewell Auxonne

Despite a dreary and somewhat wet morning, we were able to leave Port Royal in Auxonne this morning and head north on the Petite Saone River. We are glad to be on the move.

Our one lockage in a rather short cruising day (only 2.5
hours, perfect for a first cruise) was a little damp, but "there
is no bad weather, only bad clothing," so I tried to take 
that into account in dressing for the day.

Our departure was possible because Lon is recovering well from his fall on May 11th. Although his rib is still somewhat painful, piloting the boat doesn't put much stress on the injured area, so we concluded that he could continue to heal just as well when we are cruising as he would if we were staying in port in Auxonne.

Lon getting the tender secured in preparation for cruising. 

From now until we leave CARIB in the fall we'll be fighting
the nemesis of boaters in the north country--spiders and the 
webs they manage to produce with amazing speed in the 
overnight hours.

The new swan family is a common sight in the Port Royal
harbor, and we enjoyed watching them during our stay.
 Sadly, what were three cygnets is now just two.

A very nice result of having delayed our departure
from Auxonne is that we were able to briefly cross
paths on May 21 with our "boating buddies" of last
year, Australians Lisette and Ian. We're not sure
how they managed to look so awake on their arrival day.

We are moored for the evening on a quay at the small town of Pontailler-sur-Saone. It markets itself as a center for nature and watersports. We briefly walked through the town, but its "season" must not start until June, because that's when the Tourist Office was scheduled to open. Although the streets were very quiet at mid-afternoon, at least Pontailler still has a few local shops, including a boulangerie. Its 18th-century church was not open, and the chateau that inspired the name of the "Place du Chateau" (castle square) no longer exists. So back to the boat we went, and we will give ourselves permission to have a lazy evening.

We may have the neighborhood all to ourselves tonight.