Cooler morning so I took the opportunity to clean all the railings on the deck using CIF (David Rothery's suggestion). Works very well, and also cleans a lot of the brown stains off the deck area itself.

In the afternoon, went over to Kaz and Iain and talked about the procedures for buying a house in France. When I explained the situation, involving being able to host visitors from Marysville, Australia and Switzerland, it was interesting that they said we should look for an eclusier's cottage (as they had done at Buzet) and said that Tom had all the contact details. Went into town to Maury Immobilear to see about an inspection of 4 Bassin du Canal. No one there spoke good english but with hand gestures and a mixture of languages, we managed to communicate, and I got an inspection within 10 minutes. By the time I walked back, the agent was there opening the shutters. Looks pretty reasonable inside and out, with many recent renovations. Sent details to Rita later that night.

When I returned to port, Jerry and the gang were there talking with Iain. Jerry reminded me that he still had to look at my generator, so everyone came over to Kanumbra around 6pm. Jerry and I disappeared into the engine room, and everyone else stayed on the back deck with a cool drink. We talked about the cooling water circulation failure, and Jerry suggested we try to back flush the cooling water pipes, like he did on Vertrouwen. He cycled down to Vertrouwen to pick up the tap with connections that he had used. He then attached the tap to the outlet hose and our boat hose to the tap. He also disconnected the inlet hose just above the water pump (impeller). We then turned on the hose and Jerry gradually turned on the tap to force water backwards through the cooling pipes. It took a while for the water to emerge at the inlet end (either empty or blocked pipes) and when it did it was quite muddy with clay deposits. Repeated this a few times until the water was relatively clear. Then decided to do the same to the inlet side, by removing the impeller, connecting the hose and tap to the outlet of the water pump and disconnecting the inlet pipe from the water filter. This was fairly clean, so it seemed that any blockage was downstream of the water pump. Then connected the hose and tap to the inlet pipe from the canal and established that this was clear.

Connected all the pipes again, replaced the impeller and started the generator, but could feel that the impeller bowl was getting hot (because there was no water flow into the impeller). Thought that perhaps there was an airlock in the inlet pipe system which was stopping the water pump from lifting water up to the pump. So closed the inlet stopcock, filled the water strainer bowl to the top, sealed the lid, then opened the stopcock. Still unsuccessful, because the pipe from the strainer to the generator box was upward, thus containing air. To overcome this we decided to prime the pump using the hose connected to the inlet pipes, thus forcing water into the water pump impeller. Jerry was concerned about forcing too much water through the cooling system, and getting into the cylinders etc, so we went carefully with the pressures. On trying to start the generator, no luck. Adjusted the jumper lead connections several times (including making sure that the connections were tight on the generator battery and getting the jumper cables the wrong way round on one occasion), but still no luck. So Jerry thought we should check that we hadn't forced water into the cylinders. He did this by removing the three glow plugs (now I've seen a glow plug!) and hand cranking the engine to bring each cylinder head to the top of the piston, but no problems there.

So rechecked all the battery connections, and she started OK. Impeller chamber stayed cool this time, indicating good water flow! Removed the hose connections, reconnected the inlet pipes to the water filter bowl and tightened the inlet pipe clamps to the generator box (noticed some slight leaks when they were under pressure). Fitted a new impeller, checked all the connections and restarted. Everything worked great, so we left the generator running for an hour or so to recharge the generator battery.

Sat down with a cool drink, then Rita rang, so I put Jerry on for them to have a chat. Found out that Jerry has just bought an old banjo-ukulele, and will bring it along next year. A new member of the Bankside Buskers? The thing that impressed me most about the evening was not Jerry's practical knowledge but his sheer willingness to help out. When everyone else went off to dinner around 8pm, he stayed on till we got it running around 11pm, then chatted some more till midnight. This is what barging friendship is all about.