Sunday 29th June 2008 Toulouse on the dock

Hot and sunny again. Up early again and straight out to work. Mike put the wire brush over the oaks on the back and front decks, then I did a second coat on the colours around the stern again while Mike started on the second coat of antifouling. I helped him to finish that then made some lunch. We sprawled and dozed in the afternoon heat. Got up and went back to work. I emptied the wardrobe so Mike could replace the loo pipes. I connected up the hosepipe and added a spray nozzle to jet wash the gunge out of a short section of plastic pipe which we weren’t replacing. While Mike was doing the plumbing I painted the black bands around the stern. He did the blacking on the weed hatch plate. Bill asked if we’d go up to Le Segala with him on the summit level of the canal du Midi to give him a hand with locking. He said he wanted to take us out for a meal before he set off downhill to go to Agde where he would sort out the crane at the marina on the Herault while waiting for the transport guy, Garry, to get a delivery down to the Med so that Rosy could go back to the UK as a back load. He told us he was going to be taken to Napton on the Oxford canal. Helen phoned. She and George were at St Jean-de-Losne with a load to collect from Beaucaire on the end of the Rhône, they wondered if we were wanting a tow back up the river yet. A lovely gesture on their part, but we should be able to make it back up the Rhône under our own steam. We told them about Bill and said we were thinking of going back to the UK too. Helen said that as George was now seventy they were going to pack up soon and move back to the UK too. Looks like everybody is packing up all at once! (She’d already told us that their old mate Roger at St Jean-de-Losne was talking of retiring and going to live in Nyons. Made some sandwiches for a snack before Mike went with Bill to have a drink on Liberty in the port de plaisance ten minutes walk from the dry dock. They were moving on up the canal next day. Paul said he would see us later in the year. Bill broke the news that him he was going back to the UK. Mike was back at 9.10 p.m. just as I finished the ironing, he put the weed hatch back together and then connected up the PC to the Internet to send an email to Peter (our son) to ask him to check out prices for hiring a trailer etc, to bring our boat back to the UK, either from the Med coast or Terneuzen in the Netherlands.