The rain continued overnight, but at least that gave us some peace of mind since we figured that no one would be strolling along the docks in the rain. But with the extra people on board, the toilet system gave us some problems as the black water tank filled.

However, as if by magic, we were paid a visit that morning by the people from EcoTank, who were demonstrating their wares at the WCC Technical Exposition. EcoTank is a small mobile barge that can visit your boat and pump out your black water tank, to save you the trouble of going to the pump-out station on the other side of the canal in Toulouse (or simply pumping it out underwater into the canal when no pump-out station is available, as is the case in most French ports). They pulled up alongside Kanumbra, explained their services, then connected their hose to the pump-out nozzle on the starboard deck of Kanumbra. However, despite their best efforts, nothing seemed to be pumping out of the tank. Since they had other boats to service, they said they would go away while we checked out our plumbing, and return again later in the day. They were doing the pump-outs for free, and seemed keen to learn about the set-ups on as many barges as possible.

So while the girls went to the Sunday Market, the boys played with the toilet plumbing on Kanumbra. I first sent an email to Chris Farmer (the previous owner of Kimasut) asking what he had done for previous pump-outs, but he replied that he had never used a pump-out station with Kimasut (since they are so rare in France). He suggested we explore the plumbing under the bench in the bathroom. So Peter and I took off a panel on the bathroom wall to explore the pipework associated with the toilet and the various pump-out options. Having done this, we saw light coming in from a hole in the bathroom cabinet (which I had never seen before, since it was hidden from view from the front of the cabinet). From the location of this hole, and an inspection of the piping, we figured out that the three-way valve we saw in front of us was the key to switching output from the holding tank to either the stopcock for underwater pumping or the deck outlet for pump-out station pumping. So we switched the valve anti-clockwise so that one of the arms pointed "upwards" in readiness for the EcoTank re-visit this afternoon.

The official DBA Sunday Lunch was the next event on the calendar, and this was held at the dockside cafe near the Capitainerie. The meal was excellent, with the best Confit de Canard that we had in our entire time in France - the meat literally fell off the bone.

After lunch, we all headed off for the second round of the Boules Tourament in the nearby park. However, we had no sooner arrived before we got a message that there had been a break-in on the barge Sirius during the DBA Lunch. Serius was moored on the eastern side of the canal, so everyone else moored on the eastern side rushed back to their barges to make sure that their boats were OK. Luckily, for the rest of us, the break-in was isolated to the one barge, but this still left a sour taste in everyone's mouths. Clearly, the thieves had watched everyone go to the lunch on the other side of the canal and timed their break-in accordingly. They took computers, cash, jewellery and passports from the boat, not just from the owners but also from some guests who were staying on board with them. The reputation of Toulouse continues unabated.

As I returned to Kanumbra following this incident, I notice that Peter was talking to some people, and on joining them I learned that they were the legendary Serge and his wife and daughter. We talked about barges and other stuff, and I managed to arrange with Serge that we would bring Kanumbra to Toulouse in September 2014 for her to be taken out of the water and to have her bottom scraped and repainted and have some other underwater work done as well. We will contact him early next year to finalise the appointment and its timing.

Since no one really felt like leaving their boats unattended again, we invited everyone on our side of the canal to come for drinks and nibbles on Kanumbra. It was here that the value of the rear deck design on Piper Barges became apparent, as we opened up the rear doors to join up the wheelhouse table with the rear deck and managed to have about a dozen people sitting around the two tables.

This arrangement was repeated in the evening on the other side of the canal, when Stuart and Christine invited about 20 people to drinks on board Hilda May.

In between the two Piper Parties, the guys from EcoTank returned and were now able to pump out our black water tank successfully. They explained that they were trying to get pump-out facilities installed in all the major towns along the Midi Canal, with mobile barges in some of the larger ports to avoid congestion near the pump-out stations. We wished them well.