As noted yesterday, the next several weeks were to consist of lots of non-cruising activities. Since many of these days are rather hum-drum (something like being at home in Taggerty), I've decided to chronicle them all on one page, so that the boring days don't stand out quite as much! When cruising resumes, we'll go back to one page per day.

Tues 10 Aug - VMG survey, Serge, garden, Sarah, swim, train, lone tree, moon hill

Wed 11 Aug - SingAir reply, French Visas, swim, walk, raptors, hay, Manziwilegg

We continued walking across the top of Gurten and then down to our favourite little village on the west end of Gurten, where a number of old still-operating farms are located. As we walked there, I noticed an older man jogging up the hill, and as he turned a corner onto the path we were taking, both he and Rita stopped and called out each others names. It turned out that he and Rita had taken a computer course together some 30 years ago, and hadn't seen each other since then. But they both recognised each other immediately! While he and Rita caught up on old times and mutual friends, I took the time to capture an authentic, unforgettable piece of rural Swiss life.

We walked through the little village then round the hill and back up to the top of Gurten, where we eventually made our way to the Gurten Restaurant, where naturally I had the local specialty of Wurst and Frites. I also had a local beer, and thought it didn't taste as bad as the brand ("Special Hell") suggested. The balcony of the restaurant gave a great view over Bern, with the River Aare (where we walked yesterday) in the centre, and the old town (and Kuno's house) just around the upper bend in the river.

Rather than take the funicular back down the hill, we decided to get some exercise and walk down. On the way we spotted some Highland Cattle, and so I decided to wait for the funicular to come up the hill so that I could get a photo of the cows and the train together, as shown at left below. Obviously the cattle also got bored with waiting for the train to arrive.

Tues 3 Aug - lunch at Frank's, visit to Biglen

Today was a fairly quiet day. After a late start and then a morning catching up with emails etc, we went over to lunch with Rita's brother Frank, and his wife Annette. Annette gave me a novel (Truth, by Peter Temple) about a Melbourne Chief of Police and his activities, She said she enjoyed it, but found some of the Australian idiom hard to fathom. We'll see. After lunch we drove over to Biglen, a little town just outside Bern, where we plan to spend a few days relaxing next week at the B&B house of a friend of Rita's who we have known for years, and who made the carpet for our Moissac house using alpaca wool that we brought from Australia in our luggage several years ago. The garden at the house gave us a hint of the tranquility we were to experience there.

While finding the B&B was easy enough, finding parking was another thing. But we eventually found a HandyParken parking machine and bought a ticket for what we thought was a very reasonable amount for a full day (actually 0900h to 2300h, the overnight time is free). We put the ticket on our dashboard and parked in a spot near the B&B for the first two nights. Only later did we discover that the HandyParken tickets are only valid for the street in which the parking machine is located. Where we were parked was only for residents of that street who had a parking permit. Oops!  Also, the ticket was only valid for about 6 hours, and not the full-day that we had assumed. Luckily, it was raining for most of the first two days, so we hoped that the parking inspectors had stayed indoors. I guess time will tell.

We also discovered later that HandyParken could also be operated from your smartphone (because in Germany and Switzerland, a smartphone is called a Handy!) without buying a physical ticket. Thus, using the phone's GPS you could indicate where you are parking and for how long and then have the parking fee debited against an account that you had set up with HandyParken. The inspectors then check your car licence plate against the HandyParken database to see if you've paid for the parking. Because you register the GPS location of the parking space, you can also use the app to find your vehicle if you forget where you parked!

After we settled into the B&B and parked the car correctly (we thought), we undertook the 10 minute walk to find the Freies Musikzentrum München, the music school where Rita's workshops were being held. She had an introductory session tonight (1830h - 2100h), followed by three full days (0900h - 1800h) and a closing session on Sunday (0900h - 1300h). So several very full days, which would give me plenty of time to explore Munich, or otherwise occupy myself.

Because of the late finish, I agreed to walk back to the school again (in the rain) to walk home with Rita after her class. This was as much for making sure she found her way home, as for safety reasons. She mentioned that the class was intensive, but enjoyable, so we'll see how she goes over the next few days.

Thurs 5 Aug - rainy lunch, town walk, buildings, minicars, Marienplatz, park, surfing, Angel

This morning was raining as Rita set off for her first day class, so I took my time and got started reading "Truth". In the very first chapter (which included the collapse of the Westgate Bridge in 1970), I could appreciate some of the difficulties that Annette might have had reading this book. Much of the conversations between the coppers used colloquialisms and Aussie shorthand which would be difficult for a non-Australian to understand. Also there were oblique references to places and events that a Melbournian would pick up on, but not a non-Melbournian. But I kept reading because these very features made the novel even more authentic and realistic.

Just after midday, Rita rang because her class was getting the common European lunch-break from noon till 1400h. We arranged to meet at a cafe we had seen last night near the Max Weber U-Bahn station (which we continually referred to as the uTube). It was still drizzling, but we found a table under an umbrella and enjoyed lunch as the Munich trams trundled by.

After we finished lunch, Rita returned to her classes and, because the weather was fining up a little, I decided to go for a walk into the old town. I had been to Munich several times in the 1980's, but only for work purposes where I visited the Socialdata offices which are located in the suburbs. So I've never really seen the older part of Munich. I must admit I was impressed by what I saw today. The wide boulevard flanked by impressive stone buildings was a surprise, and there were many old buildings that were very impressive, even if some had been co-opted for modern-day purposes!

I continued walking until I found Marienplatz, one of the feature locations for Munich. I found that it wasn't only me taking advantage of the break in the weather, with thousands of others out for a walk in the sun. After our experience in Strasbourg, I was starting to get used to walking in crowded areas, but I did put my mask on whenever I felt that social distancing was becoming a problem. Marienplatz turned out to be an interesting square/rectangle surrounded by numerous impressive buildings.

Along the way I saw many interesting sites, but the most unusual was these three mini-cars (designed for tourist use), led by the guide in the white car. When he saw me lining them up with my camera, he turned and shouted "Photo!", which got the other drivers to turn and pose as well. Clearly, they get photographed many times per day

Wed 4 Aug - drive to Munich, find BnB, HandyParken, start of course

Today we set off to drive to Munich, where Rita was to attend a four-day workshop on an aspect of Music Therapy. Many highways in Switzerland were ungoing roadworks, which slowed us down a bit, but GoogleMaps on the iPhone got us to Munich OK. Unfortunately, there were also roadwaorks in downtown Munich which also led us astray, but we found our B&B without too much trouble. The B&B (bottom right below) was just a couple of kilometres out of the old part of Munich, and only 10 minutes walk to Rita's workshop venue (Centre right below).  We realised we were welcomed when we saw the door of our room. Our host, Ernst, was pleased to find that Rita spoke excellent German, and I also discovered that he spoke good English for me.

After exploring Marienplatz and surrounds for a while, I wandered over to Odeonsplatz, and decided to come home via a different route, as the fine weather was starting to disappear as quickly as it had appeared. One thing that surprised, and impressed, me about Munich was the amount of parkland in the the city centre, on both sides of the River Isar.

As i walked through one of these parks (which extends to the famous English Garden), I was in for another surprise when I stumbled across a group of surfboard riders riding a stationary wave, coming from a diversion of the River Isar at the entrance to the park.

While the photo above gives some idea of the activity, the video below gives a much better impression of the action involved.

After watching the surfing for perhaps half an hour, I started home again because of the gathering clouds, but stopped to catch this photo of the Angel (Friedensengel) just after crossing the River Isar.

Fri 6 Aug - Bernie 74, Ingolstadt, Baggersee, Munich exodus, move parking, cousin

Today would have been my brother Bernie's 74th birthday. He died aged 62, and I retired aged 62, so I realise that the last 10 years have been a bonus for me, and/or that he died far too young.

Given the continuing mediocre weather, I decided to take a drive today up to Ingolstadt, about 60km north of Munich. The reason for this was two-fold. Firstly to get the car out of the illegal parking situation that we now realised we had been in for the past two days, and secondly to check out the River Danube (the Donau, in Germany) which flows through Ingolstadt (I still barbour a secret desire to take the barge onto the Danube one day and go down at least as far as Vienna). So after Rita took off for classes in the morning, I read a little more of Truth and then grabbed the car and headed north. Since I was in no particular hurry, I took backroads (deliberately and accidentally) as much as possible, which was just as well since there were major roadworks underway on Route 9, the motorway between Munich and Ingolstadt.

I arrived in Ingolstadt in late morning, and as I crossed the Danube I was overcome by a sense of letdown! It was not as big or grand as I had expected it to be, to the extent that I didn't even try to take a photo of it! So I kept on driving around the streets of Ingolstadt looking for a place to pull over and have the cut lunch I had brought along with me. But nothing looked very promising, so I just kept taking random turns left and right to see where they would lead. I finally ended up at a lake, and since it was a weekday and it was still wet underfoot, I virtually had the whole place to myself. I could hear children's noises from across the water and presumed it was a youth campsite of some sort. But I finally found a bench and stopped for a relaxed lunch.

Little did I realise, till later, that the lake I had accidently arrived at (Baggersee) was the same lake at which Rita had played steel pans with her Swiss band in the 90's (Les Amis de Casserole - Friends of the Pans), when they performed on a pontoon on the lake near the kids campsite across the lake from where I stopped.

While I was having lunch I got a message from Rita saying that her teacher had told her that free parking was available near the park at the Friedensengel in Munich (which I had walked by yesterday). So I decided to seek that out and try to park there, rather than trying to find something near the B&B (which I now knew was a virtual impossibility). So after lunch, I started back for Munich, again along minor roads, but found myself in a 20 minute traffic jam going through a small town. The only escape route was via Route 9, and so i thought I would give it a try, despite the roadworks on Route 9. I did get held up for another 10 minutes at the roadworks, but that was nothing compared to the traffic jam heading north out of Munich (after all, it was Friday afternoon). I measured the length of the near-stationary queue of traffic heading north at about 30km!

Having fed Friedensengel into GoogleMaps as my destination, I just followed the prompts and very easily found my way from Route 9 to the Angel, who appeared to be floating in the trees when I arrived. I checked out the nearby parking and it did seem to say that parking between 1400h Friday and 0800h Monday was free and unrestricted, as indicated by these signs bordering a space not much longer than one vehicle.

However, this seemed too good, and convenient, to be true. So, given my previous record with misunderstanding Munich parking regulations, I sent the above photo to Rita and asked her to check with her teacher when she got the opportunity. In the meantime, I saw someone leave from a similarly signed area in an adjacent side street, so I grabbed that space and waited. Soon enough, Rita replied that her teacher had confirmed that my understanding, this time, was correct. So, I left the car there and walked the 15 minutes back to the B&B, secure in the knowledge that I could leave the car there until we left Munich on Sunday afternoon.

That evening we had a dinner engagement with Rita's second cousin, who lives in Munich, and who Rita had not seen for about 30 years. They booked a table at a restaurant about 20 metres from our B&B, and when they met that evening there was instant recognition. It was a very pleasent evening with her and her Argentinian husband, catching up on family news and other things and, at the end of the night, we had a very short walk home!

Sat 7 Aug - reading Truth, cricket in the park, park walk in the sun

I spent a very lazy morning, lying in bed and reading Truth (since I knew I would have to give it back to Annette next week). In the afternoon, I decided to go for a walk in the sun and explore the big park in which I had found the surtboard riders on Friday. I got about halfway down the park, to the Bavarian restaurant area with the Oomp-Pah band, and then decided to turn around and save the English Garden for another visit (in the future). On the way back, I got the unexpected surprise of the day, when I found a cricket match going on in the park. Naturally, I stopped and watched, and struck up a conversation with a fieldsman near the fence, to learn that he played for the Munich Cricket Club (MCC), made up mostly of English, Australian, NZ and Indian expats while the other team was Oberstetten (or something like that, he said) made up mostly of Sri Lankans. At one stage, I found myself standing near a group of German lads who were watching, and one asked me where I was from and did I understand the game. Is the Pope a Catholic? So I tried to explain the basics of the game to him, in a strange mixture of half-English and half-German, and then he explained it to his mates. Heavens only knows what message they were getting. Luckily, while I was explaining, a few wickets fell (they were falling pretty regularly), and so I could use the dismissals to explain a few of the ways in which you could get out, in a mixture of verbal and body language. After about half an hour, after they'd finished their beers, they wandered off, shaking their heads, but thanking me for my explanations!

Sun 8 Aug - still reading, end of course, drive to Biglen (the long way), the house

.

Today was the last (half) day of Rita's course, so I stayed in bed just that little bit longer to finish reading Truth. All in all, a very good read. I look forward the explaining the Australianisms to Annette if I get the chance.

Around mid-afternoon, we said our goodbyes to Ernst and our B&B for the past week, and bid farewell to our bedroom window over the doorway to the courtyard of the apartments. We then started the journey south to Bern (actually to Biglen, just outside Bern). We retraced our steps along route 96 back down to Bregenz (Austria), but as we got there we got a notification from GoogleMaps that there was a 60 minute traffic jam near Zurich (it was late Sunday afternoon!) and it offered us a quicker alternative route down the Rhine along the border with Lichtenstein. Since we had not been that way before, not even Rita, we took the offer and headed further south instead of west. And boy were we glad we did . The scenery was magnificant and, although I didn't have a chance to take any photos, we added it to the bucket-list for places to re-visit in the future.

Eventually, we got back onto the main road between Zurich and Bern, and then turned off at Burgdorf to head to Biglen. When we got there, we realised, by the look of the house, that this was going to be a very relaxed few days.

Mon 9 Aug - window view, BlümlisAlp, pool, baritones, evening walk, Alps, ginger cat, goats

Our impressions of last night were confirmed when we woke this morning and looked out our bedroom window. While the actual front garden was small (but colourful), the "virtual" front garden stretched to the horizon.

At the end of the "virtual" garden lay BlümlisAlp, which looked great in the morning light.

On taking a walk outdoors, we realised that our house was part of a 4 house hamlet, with the nearest neighbours being large farmhouses.

But while the area appears totally rural (in one direction), if you look down the hill in the other direction, you find swimming and diving pools (much to Rita's delight), and a few minutes further walking has you in the town on Biglen with all modern conveniences.

In the late morning, Rita went into Bern to visit her mum and see how she was getting along. While she was gone, I set up the baritone pans and started getting familar with their layout in preparation for learning "Island in the Sun" for a special gig on the coming weekend. Sure is different to playing the six bass!

When Rita got home, we practiced a few variations of the parts for the soprano and baritones, and then decided to give it a rest overnight to let it sink in. We had a light dinner and then decided to go for a walk up a nearby hill to get a better overview of the area. On the way up the hill, we got to get a good overview of our 4-house hamlet, with our B&B house hidden in the trees and our little car just visible to the left of the trees.

But it wasn't until we got to the top of the hill that I appreciated the wisdom of Rita's suggestion that we climb the hill. The view of the Alps was pretty spectacular, from Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau on the left across to BlümlisAlp on the right.

And the view of Niederhorn in the setting sun wasn't all that shabby, either!

Sadly, we couldn't stay up there forever as the setting sun faded, and it started to cool. So we wandered our way back down, and were joined on the last part of our journey by a very friendly ginger cat. i'm always amazed at how ginger cats seem to be so much friendlier than other types (just like Ginger at our Moissac house).

When we got back to the houses, we found several goats (belonging to our neighbour) waiting for us. Over the next few days, we found that they are the funniest little creatures. Every afternoon, the owner would open the gate to their enclosure and all ten of them would scurry out to eat the grass on the other side of the road, or occasionally venturing further down the road and disappearing into the meadows. But as soon as the owner whistled them (usually after just 4-5 minutes) they all raced each other back to the encosure!

This morning, while gazing out the window at the garden, the fields and the Alps, I got started on designing a survey that will be distributed to participants in our Virtual Microgrid project back home. I also contacted Serge Ribes, who painted the hull of the boat back in 2018, to enquire further about the cause and potential remedy for the problems identified by H2O in St Jean de Losne.

In the afternoon, Sarah arrived from Besain with her two boys (Theo and Louis), and it didn't take too long for them to disappear over the hill with Rita and down to the piscine for an afternoon swim in the sun.

That evening, Rita and I went for a walk into nearby Biglen to find a bank where we could withdraw some cash. We tend to use little cash over here, and rely on the Debit Card, but every now and then some cash is required. I was surprised to find that in such a bucolic rural environment, it was only a five minute walk from our house to the centre of the town. I was even more surprised to see that there was a train station on the line to Worb and Bern, with departures every 20 minutes or so.

But within a few minutes of leaving the town, we were back in the countryside, with an interesting sight of a single tree on a paddock rise in one direction, and a wooded hill behind our little house on the other side.

This morning I got a reply from Singapore Air, in response to my recent equiry about the status of my flight booking for my return home in October. Although it was still two months until I was due to fly home, I thought it was worth enquiring, given the trends with new Covid cases that we were seeing in Australia. Basically, they said that while they could confirm that I had a booking for October 14, they could not guarantee that I had a seat on the flight! Furthermore, because of uncertainty around Australian government border restrictions, they could not guarantee a seat until 48 hours before the departure time of the flight. This all sounded a bit ominous, so I started Googling about French Visas to see what options I might have if I had to overstay my 90 day Schengen limit because of the lack of flights home.

While Rita went for another swim at the piscine, I went for a walk around the area to discover the local sights. The first thing I noticed was a number of raptors circling above the fields looking for critters escaping from the farm activities in the fields.

I then found a roadside bench, where I could get a daytime photo on the wooded hill behind our house, and later got a shot of the neighbouring farmer making hay while the sun shines.

In the late afternoon, we drove across to the little village of Manziwilegg, where we parked the car and then walked further uphill until we got to a little cafe that Rita had remembered, and hoped was still open. Luckily for us, it was, and we then enjoyed a touch of Swiss cultural heritage.

After a delicious Cordon Bleu dinner for me, we started walking again over the hilltops, where we passed a school of horse riders and continued until we reached the edge of a forest where we found a building which was obviously a hunter's retreat.

We then turned around to return to the car, but along the way we found a picnic spot with shelter and BBQ built by the local community, where we waited for the sun to set. Great finish to an interesting evening.

Tues 31 Aug - sunny, shower sealing, water, washing, rubbish, birdsongs, MASScombi, Rita

Today was our last day in the house at Biglen, so we spent the morning doodling around, then cleaned up the house before we said goodbye to what had been a few very relaxing days. We then went into Bern in the early afternoon to say goodbye to Mutti, who had returned to her apartment at Alenia, before heading off to beat peak hour of traffic exiting Bern. On our way out of Bern, we stopped at a rest area, and it was one of those rare occasions when you really do have to "spend a penny" in order to go to the loo!

As we drove on, we heard of a wild storm coming up from the south which had already wreaked havoc in Lyon, and was heading our way. We just hoped that we would get to St Jean de Losne before it did. When we arrived there, storm clouds were hovering over the port. A close-up showed that the clouds were even more awesome on closer inspection.

But the storm bypassed St Jean de Losne to the west, and instead we were treated to one of the most amazing sunsets I've even seen. I took many photos and it was hard to pick the best, but the one below is a good example of what it looked like!

Indeed we were treated to two glorious sunsets, because 15 minutes later it had totally changed to this.

A very nice way to be welcomed back home to port.

The main reason why we picked this week to come to Moissac was that two good friends (Kaz and Iain Noble, ex-capitains of Moissac Port) were leaving next week to go to Dominica, where they would be setting up house for the indefitive future. I had heard that Irene was organising a small farewell lunch on Saturday, and so I asked if we would join them (as surprise guests for Kaz and iain), and they agreed. So, here we were!

As midday rolled around, and Kaz and Iain were expected for lunch, we continued softly playing on the pans, and as they walked through the back gates and recognised the sound, and then the people, the look on their faces was priceless. We had some welcoming drinks, but before we had any more we decided to play their farewell song (while we still could). The smile on their faces while we played, and then the few sobs towards the end made all the driving and practicing worthwhile. Even Ziggy seemed to enjoy the sound the pans made!

We then kicked on for the rest of the afternoon with food (thanks BBQ chef John), drinks and lots of laughs, plus a special encore performance of the song. When Irene first arranged the lunch, Kaz had warned her that they were so busy they might only stay for an hour or so. On the day, they stayed for 8 hours, so I think they enjoyed themselves. Bon courage avec Dominica!

We were up relatively early on Sunday morning for another busy day. After breakfast we headed up to the Moissac Sunday Market, which is always a buzzing event. This year did not disappoint, with lots of market stalls as usual and plenty of customers. I even managed to buy a new French cap to eventually replace the one I bought there several years ago.

On the way back to John and Irene's, we noticed that the old church at the end of their street (Eglise St Jacques) was finally open (for the first time in at least 10 years), and was now being used as a art gallery exhbition space. We couldn't resist taking a quick look inside. Still shows some signs of weather damage and wear and tear, but also shows great promise as a public space.

Soon, we were on our way to Coussan (near Mermande) to visit friends Phil and Terrie Chatfield (Mr. and Mrs. Pip). Their totally renovated house, which we have followed over the past few years, was flooded early in 2021 when heavy rains caused the River Garonne to break its banks (big time). They ended up with half a metre of water through their house, but have now just about got it back to good condition (taking the opportunity to rearrange their kitchen along the way). We had a delightful lunch with them, with lots of chat and laughter. It made us feel as relaxed as their cat on top of the roof.

But we couldn't stay too long, as we had to get back to Moissac to meet up with Raph and Isabelle, our tenants in La Maison. We had a lovely dinner with them up on top of the garage on the Terrasse, along with their daughter Coralie. We caught up on happenings in Moissac and France, and how they were coping with Covid (Raph being a GP in the town). After dinner, we retreated to the top floor apartment, where we slept the night.

After a quick stop at the Plunkett's to pick up some Comte cheese that we had forgotten in their fridge, we headed up to Puycornet to visit Miyu and Nico and the boys. Nico was returning from Brittany today after some work over there, so we spent the morning with Miyu and the boys, where Rita got involved with some games and drawing with the boys. They sure have grown in the past two years, especially Matoi who had not even been born when we were last here!

In the afternoon, we went up to Lac Molieres, which is a favourite local swimming spot. But Rita resisted the urge to go swimming and instead we just had a relaxed stroll around the lake.

Then it was back to Puycornet, in time to meet Nico who was returning from Brittany. We then had a long session catching up across the past two years, intermingled with a few drinks, and then a fabulous Japanese dinner of okonomiyaki and tempura, prepared by master chef Miyu. Massa was a bit unsmiley in the group photo, because he had just got into trouble for something or other, so we had to coax him to smile and then took a separate photo!

Despite finishing chatting late at night, we made our way back to Moissac to sleep at La Maison, because there were still a few issues to discuss with Raph and Isabelle before we left to head north in the morning.

Nothing needs to be said about today...

... and today was just about as exciting!

Finally, a day with some pictures! But don't get your hopes up too high - it's not all that exciting.

I started the day by following the NRL Rugby League match between Melbourne Storm and Gold Coast Titans. Normally I just follow the score updates while I'm doing something else, but today I found the link to follow the game on live radio. After a fairly even first half, with the Titans just in the lead at half-time, the Storm ran away with the game in the second half to win 34-20. This gave them 20 wins in a row to equal the old Eastern Suburbs Roosters with the highest ever consecutive wins.

Given the upcoming PiperBoats Salon Fluvial in St Jean de Losne, I went looking to see how many had arrived, but could only find two moored in front of "Piper House" at the northern end of the moorings along the Bourgogne Canal.

So I continued on to the Bricomarche in St Usage to look for materials to install new LED lights in our bedroom, and on the way back along the canal I saw a boat I recognised, Anna, in the drydock at the southern end of the moorings. We knew Anna from our time down on the Canal de Garonne, and had seen her moored up on the Saone a few weeks ago. I had a look but couldn't see owners Mark and Annie Pigden, and wondered why she was in drydock. Hopefully nothing too serious.

Later in the evening, I heard on Facebook that Kaz and Iain had arrived in Dominica OK, but that their container holding their vehicle and most of their possessions had not been as lucky, and was still stuck in France as a result of a transportation problem due to an overbooked cargo ship. Hopefully, it arrives before too long.

H2O finally managed to replace the water pump that was running forever after the tap was turned off. But I did ask them to leave the old one on board for use in case of emergency. And after going to BricoMarche yesterday I spent a lot of time online today learning all about inline switches for our new bedroom lights installation. I now knew about single-pole, double-pole, two-wire and three-wire switches. Now just need to put it all into practice. During the day I listened to the Friday night AFL game between the Western Bulldogs and Port Adelaide, the first game of the final roand of home-and-away matches. The Bulldogs needed to win to retain 2nd place on the ladder and keep the double-chance in the finals. And with 15 minutues to go and up by 15 points in a low-scoring game, it looked like they would do just that. But Port came home strong to win 66-64, and take 2nd place for themselves, with the Bulldogs eventually falling to 5th. After a great start to the season, the Bulldogs have fallen in a heap in the last month.

Today was a sunny Saturday, but I spent most of the day indoors reading. In the morning however, I listened to the AFL game between Hawthorn and 2020 Premiers Richmond. After a somewhat disappointing "rebuilding" season, the Hawks had finished the season strongly with several good wins over highly ranked teams. And with 13 minutes left and leading by 31 points, it looked like they would add another scalp to their bag. But the Tigers scored the last five goals (and a point) to tie the game 83-83.

To compete the trifecta of cliff-hangers (in even more dramatic style) the final game on Saturday saw Geelong leading Melbourne by 44 points halfway through the 3rd quarter. But Melbourne kicked the last 8 goals of the game, including one after the siren by captain Max Gawn, to win by 4 points, 81-77, and take out the minor premiership. Not the most classic of kicking styles, but this time he kicked truly when it mattered. As the commentators would say "a real captain's goal". What a way to end the season.

I think the heading says it all!

Gaeton, the H2O technician, arrived early to start work on the alternator belts on the main engine, which we had reported as being noisy during our recent trip to Mantoche (indeed they were in pretty bad condition). Just after he had finished and was telling me that one of the alternators was producing too high a voltage output, I got a phone call from Rita, saying that her mum had fallen during the night, and been taken to hospital again with a broken thighbone. Rita, and her brothers Frank and Kuno, were at the hospital awaiting news of the diagnosis. Not good news to start the week with.

As I sat on the rear deck wondering what would happen with Mutti, I was reminded that everyday-life goes on, when I heard a noise behind the boat and saw a "weed-muncher" cleaning up the vegetation in the water of the marina.

Our time at St Jean de Losne had seen Kanumbra moored on the pontoon normally reserved for boats for sale. However, because of the work being done on the boat, the technicians had asked for it to be moored there at the start of Pontoon A, to make access easier when they were doing work on the boat. Now that the work had effectiviey been finished, and we were due to leave port in a few days, the sales staff had asked if I would mind moving to the hammerhead mooring at the end of Pontoon A so that they could position another boat for sale in the space we had been occupying. That was fine with me, and so I manoeuvred the boat out of our mooring and up to the end of Pontoon A. It was actually a much nicer mooring, with less foot traffic behind the back of the boat!

Later in the afternoon, I got another call from Rita saying that Mutti had passed away before she had entered surgery on her thigh. A little while later, I got a message from my niece in Sydney, saying that my step-sister Valma had also passed away today, in very similar circumstances to Mutti. All in all, a pretty shit day.

The day after the deaths of Mutti and Valma was characterised by a cold northerly wind across the marina, and several phone calls with Rita in Bern. It was clear that she would now be staying there for a while to help with administrative arrangements and to make plans for the funeral. So I settled down to do some data analysis on the Electicity Meter data for the Virtual MicroGrid project.

The day dawned sunny but with still a bit of a breeze across the water. As I sat on the rear deck, I heard some swans flying above the boat (you can always tell by their "squeaky" wings). So I got my camera ready in case they made a more visible appearance, and within a few minutes I was able to capture some film segments as they flew across the marina. So graceful, except for the shaky landing!

Just after the swans had swum away, I noticed another movement in the water, and recognised it as a ragodin, which swam up to the boat and then disappeared onto the island in the middle of the marina.

When Gaeton was here a couple of days ago, he said that one of the alternators on the main engine (there are two alternators; one for starter batteries and one for the house batteries) was charging at 17V instead of the expected 14V. He suggested that this overcharging could cause damage to other components, but did not explain exactly what components, and what damage. So I've been talking to Phil Tyson (a qualified electrician) on barge Effie, to try and understand better just what the problem might be. Since we are communicating digitally, it is somewhat hard for him to give a specific diagnosis, but I am learning a lot anyway. We shall continue talking.

I continued working on the wiring for the new bedroom lights (now that I've realised that I had bought double-pole inline switches from BricoMarche), and hope to have them finished by tomorrow.

I got a call this morning from David Rothery (L'Escapade), who had arrived in St Jean de Losne a day earlier than expected yesterday. In the late morning, he came over to Kanumbra and we sat on the rear deck chatting for a while, but he soon had to depart as he had a lunch appointment with others (surprise, surprise; David is a noted nosherie expert!). But he mentioned that he was catching up with Marc and Annie Pigden tonight for a drink, so (since I hadn't yet caught up with them) I asked if it would be OK if I came along as well, which it was. So I went back to installing the bedroom lights, which were finished by mid-afternoon.

Later that evening, I wandered over to barge Anna and met up with Rothers along the way. We had a good catch-up over a few drinks with Mark amd Annie, with David at right below. After David rushed off to dinner with another party, Mark and Annie and I continied talking for a few more hours.

In the early morning, I tuned in to a Zoom broadcast of a Parliamentary Hearing for the Australian Local Power Agency (ALPA), an initiative of our local Federal Member of Parliament, Helen Haines. Several members of NECEN (the North-East Community Energy Network) appeared at the hearing. While they put up a good case for ALPA, it sadly won't go anywhere at the moment because the Government won't even tolerate a proper debate in Parliament. Perhaps it doesn't help having the initials of the Opposition party (the ALP) in the title of the proposed agency!

Despite this gloomy prospect, I spent the rest of the morning working on more data analysis for our Virtual MicroGrid project in the Triangle Region, because sooner or later the Coalition government will be voted out, with hopefully the balance of power going to sensible Independent politicians, like Helen Haines, who support real action on Climate Change projects.

Continuing the electrical theme of the day, I spent the afternoon measuring voltages on all the electrical circuits in the engine room to try to understand more about the supposed problem with the alternator charging voltages.

They say that a lot of sport is played with the muscle above the neck, and so it turned out as the Melbourne Storm played Parramatta in round 24 of the NRL. Having equalled the longest winning sequence last week, this was their chence to take the record for themselves, but after an even first half with scores tied 10-10 at halftime, they collapsed in the second half to lose 22-10, but remained top of the table.

During the day I communicated with Phil Tyson about the alternators and ran several tests, but still couldn't find the reason for the problem reported by H2O. In the evening I found, accidentally, that the SGP Speedway Grand Prix meeting in Russia was being broadcast live on YouTube for viewers in several countries, including France. So I watched the GP, which is developing into a two-horse race between Artem Laguta (Russia) and Bartok Zmarslik (Poland). Tonight, Laguta took the honours.

The morning dawned cloudy, so I spent some time indoors working on the Electricity Meter data for the Virtual MicroGrid project. I then cleaned all the windows on the barge (that's how bored I was feeling!) and then replaced the boat ID numbers on the side of the boat with new, larger size letters. Even though the Australian Register of Ships has changed its name to the Australian General Shipping Register, I have kept the old name because I like the abbreviation better (ARS).

As I was working away, I thought I saw a lot more people walking around the port today, and later heard music playing in the background. On going for a walk up the pontoon, I saw that there was an Art Show going on at various locations around the port, where artists were creating and selling their works. So I joined and went for a walk.

As I walked around the Art Show, I recognised the music that I had heard playing in the background earlier, and found that one of the artists was also a Hang Pan player, and was performing a little concert. When he stopped playing, I struck up a conversation with him and mentioned that I played the steel pans. He said that he had also played steel pan, but found it easier and more convenient to play the Hang Pan.

Later that evening as I was working on my laptop, I noticed a substantial reduction in download speed from the internet. On checking, I saw that it had surreptitiously changed back to the free wifi system within the port, which was operating at a miserly 2mbps (megabits per second) - no wonder it was taking forever to download! So I changed it back to my tethered  iPhone which was plugged into a USB slot on the laptop. On running a speed-check I saw that I was now getting 100mbps, which is twice the speed that many people in Australia get on the NBN Boradband, and four times the 25mbps that I get on my Fixed Wireless NBN at Taggerty. Not bad for a tethered iPhone!

The morning was cool with a breeze, so I stayed on-board. In talking further with Phil, and describing the results of my voltage measurements on the alternator outputs, we decided that there probably no major issue that needed to be dealt with at this stage, and I advised H2O accordingly. They responded quickly saying that they were happy "to hear that the alternator is back to a normal functioning". So, we'll probably never learn what the problem was and whether it was real or imagined. I also communicated with H2O about the estimates they were going to provide for re-painting on the hull. They replied that they were having some problems with overlapping of holiday periods for key staff involved, and could not supply the estimates until early-October. So I guess we'll just wait and make a decision then.

Today was sunny and warmer, which put me in a good mood for getting some jobs done, so I re-sealed around the shower with silicone sealant, filled the water tank, did the washing and then disposed of the rubbish. Much the same sort of things that I would be doing in Taggerty - just on a boat! I also started to download some birdsongs that Rita was wanting to create a soundfile for Mutti's funeral service.

Having resolved the alternator issue yesterday, my discussions with Phil led me to question just how the battery for the generator was being charged, since there seemed to be no connection between the generator battery and the alternators on the main engine. Clearly it would be charged from the alternator on the generator, but that would only be when the generator was running. And that would be a Catch-22 situation; you need the battery charged in order to start the generator, but the battery could only be charged when the generator was running! Phil mentioned that on Effie, there was a red wire running from the MASScombi inverter/charger to his generator battery, enabling the generator battery to be charged when the boat was connected to shore power. However, as much as I searched I could find no such connection with the inverter/charger. So we agreed to hold that problem over until we were moored together and Phil could visually examine my set-up to see what was going on!