As I sat doing more assignment grading in the morning, Rita was having a shower when I realised that I could not hear the grey water pump running to get rid of the water from the shower. The grey water pump is connected to a small holding tank into which the bathroom water outlets run. When the tank fills, a float switch triggers the pump and when the holding tank empties, the float switch turns off the pump. On opening the hatch to the engine room to check it out, I detected a musty smell and soon realised that the pump had not been working, with the result that the bilge areas in the engine room were filled with grey water.

So out came the Karcher wet-dry vacuum again, and after many bucket emptyings, the bilge area was almost clear of the grey water. I then had a look at the holding tank, and as soon as I started to loosen the lid, the pump kicked in and started emptying the water remaining in the holding tank. I then tested the float switch to make sure it was turning the pump on and off and all seemed to be working well. I can only imagine that some “gunk” in the holding tank had prevented the float switch from rising fully, thereby activating the pump. All now seemed to be OK, but it will be worth monitoring to ensure that the tank does not overflow again.

After our failure to find a swimming spot for Rita yesterday, we took some advice from Nico and headed off to find Rikiki Plage, which is located on L'Séoune near the town of Fauroux to the north of Moissac - he had assured us it was the best swimming hole in this part of the country. After a few false leads, we eventually found it down the end of a country lane that had been closed off to traffic (a local told us it was because it was too popular at weekends and the resultant traffic was chaos). But today was a Tuesday and when we found it, it was totally empty. For over an hour we had it totally to ourselves. It was a huge lagoon fed by a small waterfall, with lots of good-size trout (I think) swimming around.

And just in case you couldn’t quite see it, Rita was really enjoying herself.

Since Rikiki Beach was on the road to Lauzerte, we decided to “return to the scene of the crime” where we played a big concert last year. The atmosphere this time was totally different, with an empty square and just a few people sitting around having a quiet coffee.

We returned to Moissac for what we thought would be a quiet night on the barge, but our neighbour had different ideas. Seemed he was a fan of Country & Western music, and liked listening to it loud. We retreated to the wheelhouse, with doors closed, but a little later he changed to an old calypso album, so we opened the doors and enjoyed a much more enjoyable rhythm, and we finished the night doing a little more assignment grading.