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A while after we set off two yachts passed us. One was Swedish and the other Indian. On it was a crewman who was clearly a paid hand. He sat at the bow all day not joining the enjoyment in the cockpit. We passed through Chalon where they had clearly made an effort to make the river approaches to the town attractive. Eventually we grew bolder, our speed increased and we overtook the two yachts. Blandine was at the helm and so won a medal. Then we went aground. The canal guide indicated the shallow marked as ‘site of historic interest’. ( How did they know we were going to run aground there? ) Six of us including Blandine jumped overboard and in half an hour we had Sufiana floating off the gravel bank where she had grounded. The next lock waited for us so we lost little time.
At last we arrived at Macon and tied up in the marina. The girls made some soup but miscalculated the quantity of rice. The soup turned out solid.
In the morning we were without Patricia and Jean-Noel who watched our departure from his Citroen. After just 1 km the engine stopped. It would not drive though it ran out of gear. We put the dinghy alongside and used its Seagull to take us up river again towards the marina. Jean-Noel appeared on the bank so we pulled alongside and took a look. The level of oil in the drive leg was too low and the thing had been assembled without any sealant. (That’s what you get when you employ professional marine engineers…) In the past there had been no loss in level and I had only been checking annually. Perhaps they had not bothered to fill the leg at all. We filled the leg with SAE 80 and tried again. It ran beautifully. By now we were not sure we would reach Lyon by the evening so Anne-Marie left for the station with Jean-Noel.
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