Woke to thick fog, so no Le Mans start to the morning for the line-up of bateaux, but within half an hour El Spaniard (as we'd nicknamed him, due to his flag) had cast off and disappeared into the mist. We presume he knows what he's doing, or has a deadline that nothing can wait for. Or is a matador and not scared of anything. El fog? Pfff!

The rest of us swabbed decks, cleaned windows, had a leisurely breakfast and generally killed time waiting for le broulliard to lift. Which it did just after 10am, and then we were in our way.

The Swiss next door on Rosi wanted to know which way we were headed, upstream or downstream? We should have told them a lie, as you'll see.

The Le Boat hire craft on our port side didn't seem to be any hurry to depart, but we presumed this late in the season they'd be going back to the boat HQ at St Jean de Losne.

So, back onto the River Saone and more sailing like yesterday... wide river, not much discernible current, no or very little wind. The sky retained some of the fog for most of the morning but it was mild enough and visibility was fine so we made good progress and reached pretty Chalon sur Saone in sunshine about 1pm.

For the previous hour or so the Swiss had been slowly but steadily gaining on us from behind, until just before the bridge at Chalon sur Saone they made a dash for it, overtook and swung left into the marina... the same place we were headed for lunch. Now we knew why they were so keen to know which way we'd be headed.

We trailed them in, only to find them at the marina entrance stopped dead in the water having a gesiculatory conversation about what to do next. Just ahead on their starboard bow we could see the visitor mooring, with enough space for them and us, so what we they doing?

Turned out they selected a vacant mooring in the marina proper and headed for that, so we figure they planned to stay the night, which was fine by us, as we were able to take the visitors' mooring for ourselves, leaving just enough room behind for another smallish boat. Which arrived within ten minutes... the couple who had turned up last the previous evening at Verdun.

Without bow or stern thrusters the Englishman at the helm had some difficulty parking, swinging wildly side-on to the end of the pontoon, but I helped one of the Capitanerie staff rope him in, and it reminded me how thankful I should be for the thrusters on Liberty.

Lunch on deck a la yesterday, feeding scraps to the family of white swans in the marina. The couple from the hire boat behind who had gone into town for lunch arrived at the pontoon just as we were leaving, but since they're headed for Tournus also we half expect to give them a hand mooring again later.

I would hate to say the rest of the day was 'routine' so early in the journey, but truth is it felt a bit that way. The weather was calm and warm, it was bright and became sunnier the further south we went, but the wide river meandered through pretty much the same sort of countryside as yesterday, rural, with trees on the banks, crops lf corn and sunflowers, cows and sheep grazing. (Now you're saying, yeah, but at least you don't have to go to endless boring meetings. And you're right, so I will shut up)

You will also be wondering why we aren't going into the towns and villages to explore the old churches, discover local treasures, or immerse ourselves in the history. We will, eventually, but at the moment we need to head south before winter sets in, and anyway, due to the geography of the rivers and canals, we will have to come back this way when we want to explore the north, so we are looking forward to taking in the details next summer.

Meanwhile, we pressed on, managed another large lock at Ormes, the only one of the day, and pulled in at Tournus, mooring on the town's quai. Just downstream of us is a massive, absolutely gargantuan hotel boat called Excellence Rhone. Two stories high and I don't know how many metres in length... I'm guessing as long as a rugby field and about the same size as the wallets of the guests who can afford to stay on board. If we had wifi we would look it up online and be more knowledgeable, but there are no services on the quai, and for the first time on Liberty we are reliant on our batteries. A scary thought, given what two of them tried to do to us a few days back.

Liz and I strolled into town and checked out the location of the town square (market day tomorrow), took in some pretty back alleys, and stocked up at a small supermarket.

Tomorrow at the Saturday market we expect a festival of colour and culture, all manner of local produce, bargains, tat and treasures. We will set the alarm early.