Another year has passed and it is Swiss National Day again (or Horses Birthday, if you’d prefer). I finished draining the galley bilge, and then proceeded to replace the grey water pump. Luckily we had bought a new one last year when we were having troubles with the floats in the grey water container, and while replacing the floats was enough to fix the problem at the time, Iain Noble warned me that the pump itself was on its last legs and would soon need replacing - well, that day has come!  I had to learn how to be a contortionist to get access to the various parts of the pump, and found that my iPhone (in selfie mode) was a very good substitute for a mirror in seeing the retaining screws underneath the pump. After a couple of hours of fiddling around, I eventually got the new pump into place, and was somewhat surprised when it kicked into action after I ran the shower for a while to get some grey water flowing through the system.

Since I had managed to fix this problem, I thought I would push my luck and see if I could get the generator working as well. We have often had problems with getting the generator started, but have usually been able to fix it by jump-starting from one of the engine starter batteries (the engine is 24V, but the generator is only 12V). However, this time, it didn’t seem to do the trick. I tried various options, but nothing seemed to work, so eventually I had to reluctantly admit defeat. It has been more difficult in port this year, not having Iain around to do the odd mechanical repair. With his experience, he was often able to identify problems (and solutions) very quickly. I can identify the problem (the generator won’t start) but finding the solution is a bit trickier.

Being the first Monday of the month, tonight was Fish’n’Chips night in the port. So we ordered online (having learned that lesson in the past), and took table and chairs over to near the Capitainerie Office. We sat with Jack & Sanne from Amadeus, and had a lovely night discussing all things barging and otherwise. When they decided to call it a night, we switched tables and sat with Don & Laura and their grand-daughter Addie, and John and Irene Plunkett. As the night wore on, Don & Laura invited us all back to their boat (Largo) to play cards and have a few drinks. We learned a few card games we had never heard of before - Spoons, Golf and 99 - and had a great night before eventually wandering back to Kanumbra around midnight.