We were up late to grey skies. Since it had turned decidedly cooler overnight, we cranked up the new electric oil heater just to check that it was working. I then did some work on this blog, while Rita cycled up to the Gare to take the train to Dijon for the next set of classes of her Music Therapy course.

Since I would be on the barge alone for the week, I decided to get started on repairing the mast. So I started pulling it apart and marking boundaries to show the limits of where the mast sat in the steel base when it was raised and lowered (so that I wouldn't make any repairs inside this radius).

When I removed the mast from its base, I also found a nylon bushing between the mast and the base, on which the securing screws had been damaged. So I removed it as well for repair.

I then glued and clamped the mast across the split and let it cure overnight.

I then started a habit that was to last for the week, while the weather was good, of moving a deck chair onto the top of the cabin roof in front of the wheelhouse, and sitting in the setting sun with a beer and peanuts every day at 1700h.