6th August was a significant date for two reasons: it would have been by brother Bernie’s 67th birthday and it was also the date on which my SFR data plan became active again (after mysteriously consuming its entire 4GB allowance in 4 days last month - I will monitor it more assiduously this month!)

The 40/25 reducer that Iain ordered yesterday from Marine Diesel in Corbigny arrived today. It turned out to be 38.5/25, but some plumbers tape should get the 38.5mm up to about 40mm pretty quickly. But first I need to unblock the output pipe.

While I was in the bathroom working on the unblocking process, I heard a noise in the wheelhouse. After yesterday’s stories of break-ins, I raced up there since I had left the laptop in the wheelhouse. When I got there, all was safe and sound, so I sat down to check email. A few seconds later, I heard a knocking on the door and it turned out to be Iain, who was passing the boat and wondered whether I had managed to fix the bowthruster. He had earlier suggested that one person switch the joystick on and off while the other listened to the bowthruster in the bedroom cupboard, to see if it was making any attempt to work. But since Rita had gone for a morning swim at St Nicholas de la Grave, we hadn’t had a chance to do that yet. So Iain came on-board and went to listen to the bowthruster, while I switched it from left to right. After a few attempts, I heard a call “Do you have a hammer?”. After giving Iain my smallest hammer, I went back to the wheelhouse to control the joystick, while he gave each solenoid a tap when I had it engaged. You have to admire a seasoned professional; just as Nico had got the toilet to work by tapping it with a screwdriver handle, so Iain got the bowthruster to work both ways by tapping the solenoids with a hammer!

After our meeting with Jacques last night, I got to work on producing a draft Fetes schedule and emailed it across to Kaz and Iain for comment. We agreed to meet and discuss it later in the afternoon. Strange how email is the most efficient way to transmit a message 25 metres, when a canal is in the way!

Over the past few weeks, a number of people have suggested that I might be eligible for a British Passport, given that my grandfather was born in England, then served in the British Army in India, where my dad was born, and that my dad also served in the Australian Army after they moved to Australia, but my dad never obtained an Australian passport. A British passport would give me access to unrestricted travel in the European Union, which would help substantially with barging, house renovations and quick access to Switzerland for extended periods. So I Googled and found a website called WhatPassport.com which answers questions about eligibility for passports. I provided all the information about me, my dad and grandfather, and after a few email exchanges they concluded that "Your case is rather strong as your British Ancestry stems from your paternal line, you have a father born in a British Colony as well as a grandfather who was in Crown service”. I have asked them to investigate further, as this could be a useful line of investigation before making a formal application.

In the late afternoon, now that the bowthrusters were working, we cast off and navigated in reverse up the canal to the fuelling station. Initially I tried doing it without using the bowthrusters, just for practice, but after Iain reminded me from the quai-side that I now had bowthrusters, and should use them, I did so. It made reversing so easy; just keep the rudder dead centre, watch the flagpole at the back to see the direction I was heading, and use short bursts of bowthruster to do the steering. If the stern headed to port, give the bowthruster a short burst to port to correct the path, and vice versa. Moving in reverse at the slowish speed, it apparently looked very smooth from the shore, as some neighbours said when we reached the fuelling station.

We then filled up with diesel; I forgot that we had a 1500L tank, and was somewhat surprised at how much it took to fill the tank. Luckily, we won’t have to do that again for quite a while. While we were filling up, we met up with Alan (from Marianne) whose wife Annie was joining him next week. While I have been making pan-stands on my side of the canal, Alan has been sanding and varnishing his wheelhouse.

Alan, Iain and Kaz then gave us a hand to load the catamaran (still thinking of a name for her) onto the barge. They all thought we should have simply sailed her across to the other side of the canal, but I was happier with putting her on deck from the dockside. When we got back to the other side (again very smoothly and professionally, so we were told!), I put the tent over the cat and the dogbox, so that now we can continue to leave the dogbox windows open during light rain (heavy rain may be another matter!).

Later that evening, we went to Auvillar to see a concert being performed by the visiting musicians from Rubingen in Germany. This is the group that Rita met up with last week when we were looking for a venue for one of our medieval music workshops. They had set up trestle tables in the round in the old Grain Market for a giant pique-nique.

The musicians then performed in the central area at the heart of the Grain Market. Tonight, the emphasis was on having fun, with many of the classical musicians playing out of their comfort zone, doing jazz, rock and folk music. They will be playing more serious music in a number of concerts over the coming week.