We think we'll stay here today. Montureux-lés-Baulay

I must admit it is a little disconcerting to wake in the middle of the night to find that one's boat is floating half of a metre higher against the landing than it was when one retired.

After ensuring the lines were slack enough to avoid mishap in the event of a further rise, one then needs to decide if one should actually remain on watch lest further rises occurred.   In continuos rain and temperatures getting very close to freezing point, it seemed a lot easier to set the alarm and go back to sleep.  After all, we were in a boat, it worked for Noah didn't it?

In the daylight we resumed a careful monitoring of the water level, after first doubling the lines and rigging them to ensure the boat would not float across the top of the landing if it were inundated, we settled to watch the river, which continued to rise but at a much more sedentary rate.   Sedentary is not a word to be used to describe the current though, although it is by no means a rapid and we could certainly make headway against it if we were forced to move.

Amazingly, through a quirk in the river's hydrology, throughout the day and night the logs and powerpoles and flood debris continue to whizz by on the other side of the river, leaving us alone in what appears to be a protected eddy.

So here we sit, safe and comfortable as the flood peaks, fending off offers from passers-by who stop to watch and chat, to buy us bread or bring us heaters or to drive us for groceries or to help us get to a better mooring downstream.  What a lovely bunch of neighbours we have!