Early morning
I’d slept forward the night before to avoid the diesel smell and that was the first time I’d used that bed. The sheets smelled somewhat stale, despite having been vacuum sealed in storage. Despite this, I got a good night’s worth of sleep and arose refreshed.
I had a number of teleconferencing calls and work to do back home in the virtual office, but my mind was occupied with what I could do with my fuel tank crisis. Jeanneau USA had responded that they didn’t have any spares in stock and that delivery could be anywhere from 2-12 weeks. I’m awaiting the local engineer Antoine to come by. I think I’ll search around for 2 55-gallon drums and make a fuel pump assembly to empty the tank, and then I could remove the fittings and access the bottom of the tank to see what the damage is. At the same time, I’ll attempt to locate someone who might be able to repair the old tank.
Afternoon
It is getting warm now, and the boat’s ventilation system isn’t fully working since here at the dock the wind is coming from aft, and I have the aft cabin door closed due to the diesel smell so the main cabin can use a bit of help in the cooling department.
Evening
I showered in preparation for heading ashore and walked to the main marina. I found a seat at one of the restaurants and ordered dinner, then found out that they were setting up for a quiz night. Despite everything being in quick French, the first section was identifying Rock & Roll artists and songs. With but one exception I knew the answers to each question but kept quiet and watched the antics and answers in the crowd. I still ask myself how one could hear 10 seconds of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black” and get both the artist and song wrong! My only mistake was hearing about one second of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” and blurting that out in surprise. It turned out that the MC was right next to me and heard my answer, so I got a drink coin. But he always asked the people what part of France they came from and usually that garnered some applause. When I responded “Allemagne” there wasn’t much of a reaction from the crowd at all – but it could have been worse, I could have stated “Etats Unis” and might not have survived the evening!