The weather had improved, and we were greeted by sunny skies which lasted for the entire weekend.

While standing on the quai after breakfast we were joined by a guy who was manning one of the tents on the quai for the technical exhibition associated with the World Canals Conference which was also in town. Turns out he was originally from Coffs Harbour, but he has been in France for many years and is responsible for the Guide Fluvial series of map books (which is what we use on Kanumbra).

After we finished talking to him, Peter and I went down to the exhibition tents to see what else was on display. The very first tent was for Beta diesel engines, and I was very surprised to see a picture of Kimasut (the previous name of Kanumbra) on their poster. I brought this to the attention of the guy in the booth, and he asked me what type of engine we had (expecting, I guess, that I would nominate some model of Beta engine). He was somewhat taken aback when I told him it was a Perkins Sabre 135!! I have no idea why Kimasut was on their poster, because it has never had a Beta engine, although many other Piper Barges have Beta engines. I suspect that Kimasut may not stay on their poster for much longer!

In the late-morning, Stuart came over to Kanumbra in his dinghy and then took Rita back across to Hilda May so that they could practice for their performance this afternoon.

While they were practicing, Peter, Judy and I went for a bike ride down the canal to Port Ramonville, in the hope of meeting up with Serge, the well-respected barge mechanic from Toulouse who everyone seems to recommend. Unfortunately, he was not at home on his barge and no one seemed to know where he was, so Peter just left a message saying that he had called by. While we were there, we checked out the festival site that they were setting up for the weekend for the Ramonville Music Festival - another possibility for next year?

We then cycled back for lunch at an Italian restaurant that Serge had recommend to Peter and Judy when he was working on Zee Otter a few years ago. Turned out to be a very good recommendation - they even let us park our three bikes behind the counter, since we had forgotten to bring our bike locks and didn't want to just leave them in the street - that would be tempting the Toulousians just a bit too much!

In the afternoon, many of the DBA Rally people went down to a local park to participate in the DBA Boulles Tournament - I joined up with "Mrs. Pip" and we won our first game 13-8 but lost the second game 6-13.

On the way back to the port, we stumbled on a concert in the park in the centre of the roundabout near the port. A group of young guys playing French music, with the obligatory artist in attendance as well.

When we got back to the port, there was another concert happening on the dock, with Rita and Stuart playing the steel pan and melodion. Stuart soon had a bunch of us up square dancing, with him playing the melodion and doing the calling.

That evening, there was the official DBA Rally Dinner at Puerto Habana, a local restaurant/bar specialising in salsa dancing. After a meal of very substantial finger food and several drinks (but too much shouted conversations because of the poor acoustics), most of the DBA people went home, but several of us stayed on to first watch some very good salsa dancers, and then once the ice was broken everyone took to the dance floor with a variety of dance styles. Rita and Evelyn danced the night away, while I pretended to be a clothes hanger holding onto their excess clothing and handbags. Around midnight, we decided to leave, only to find that the weather had changed and so the walk back to the barges was in constant rain.