This morning was cool again, and just as well because Iain Noble turned up to do the engine and generator maintenance as arranged. However, despite checking earlier, it turned out there were some missing filters which prevented him from finishing the job, so he arranged to get them and return tomorrow. The generator battery also appeared to be flat and unable to crank the generator engine, so I connected my battery charger to recharge the battery.

Rita and Ruth were off with the birds today, hiring canoes at the St Nicolas plage to go explore the bird sanctuary on the River Garonne. I’m sure Ruth will be in seventh heaven. In the meantime, I was doing a bit of my own birdwatching, when Dexter and the Heron were having a “face-off” on the log on the barrage.

I paid for the barge covers by direct money transfer, so that we could go pick them up tomorrow (wanting to make sure we didn’t leave Moissac at the end of the week without collecting them).

That afternoon, I noticed that the tour boat St Andre was damaging the electricity borne on the quai, when the driver continually pushed off the quai by pushing against the top of the borne. As a result, the borne was becoming very wobbly, and potentially dangerous if an electrical cable or water pipe were to break because of the continual pushing. With all the departures and mooring movements on the Tarn Quai, I had to move Kanumbra in order to reach an electricity borne, so I moved it backwards to use the borne that was being damaged. That served two purposes; it gave us power and also protected the borne from further damage. I made sure I was ahead of the red line drawn on the quai denoting the limit of the St Andre loading area.

That evening we had dinner at Irene’s house with Ruth, and on the way home we noticed that it was that time of year again, with millions of white bugs flying around street lights and all the lights along the quai. They only last for one day and the entire phenomenon is finished within a week, but it sure lets you know that the end of summer is coming.

When we got back to the boat around 2330h, we noticed that two girls had set up camp on the quai just outside our bedroom windows. Since the entire quai is reserved for Plaisanciers between 2300h and 0700h each day, with signs to that effect at all entrances to the quai, I asked them politely if they could move up to the Uvarium Park area to continue their conversation. They moved up the quai a few metres and then sat down on their blanket again. I explained that they were directly outside our bedroom and they then said that they would stop talking (they both understood and could speak English). I figured that this was enough, and went inside to go to bed. But after a few minutes they starting talking again, just as loudly as before. I went outside to ask them to move again, but they simply refused. I was a bit worried because the previous night we had seen a “family group” above the quai, and afterwards they started throwing rocks at the barges, breaking a window and damaging the paintwork on Connie. So when they refused to move, I got out my phone to take their photo, just in case something developed later on and we needed any evidence for the Police. But the idea of having their photo taken spooked them, and they quickly got up and ran off into the park with their blanket, leaving all their paper cups, food wrappings and other rubbish behind. So I got down off the barge to collect and take their rubbish up to the bin at the top of the stairs. I then came back to the boat.

But about 10 minutes later they returned to just above the quai with members of their family, screaming and yelling abuse, and chucking more rubbish back down onto the quai. At this point Rita decided to go up and try talking to them in French, explaining why we wanted them to move. But it did relatively little, as they continued to complain loudly. So she came back to the barge and we locked up. I then sat watch at a window for an hour or so to ensure that nothing else developed. When all appeared to have settled down, I went to bed but slept fitfully, expecting trouble to return at any time.

This incident highlights one of the few disadvantages of mooring on the Tarn quai. It is relatively isolated, and right next to, and lower than, a park area where many people gather to talk at night, especially on warm summer nights. Most times, these gatherings are harmless, but incidents like the rock-throwing last night make one feel a bit nervous of anyone there at that time of night.