Oh no, yet again a clip had failed and all of one of our precious tanks of fresh water had gone through the bilge and over the side 🙁 Empty tank.
Simon and Catherine managed to fix the leak, Nigel and I mopped out bilges. Still 200 litres in the 2nd tank so we were ok for a while.

Nigel wanted to watch the England - France 6 Nations, so he went ashore in search of a bar, and Catherine and I, having read in the book that there were some free public showers not far away went there.

The showers were located, in the open air, overlooking the harbour. We enjoyed cool fresh pressured water for a “proper” hair wash and wonderful scrub. Bliss. It really is the little things!! 

We tracked Nigel down in a bar, surrounded by very vocal French rugby fans, sitting as quietly as he could! It was a great game and although not the result we wanted, the patrons in the bar were all very friendly (as you’d expect having just beaten the old enemy).

We got up early on Sunday to take the dinghy to Pigeon Island; went about 40 yards when the engine stopped... wouldn’t restart so rowed back to Cassini for investigation. Minor issue with the fuel pipe having come adrift, easily sorted and off we went again.

The snorkelling was indeed as good as we had been told it would be, and we enjoyed a happy time exploring. Then it was back to the public showers for all of us.

After a late breakfast, we pulled the anchor up and had a gentle 2 mile sail to Bouillant where we anchored beside Jean Marc and Vanessa on Adventura, who themselves were on an urgent hunt for a new gas bottle, having unfortunately discovered their spare was corroded and leaking. Their search was successful with one small bottle available in the local garage. They were very kind and supplied us with 80L of fresh water.

We invited them for drinks and nibbles as a thank you and spent a couple of happy hours chatting about boat live-aboard life and rugby.

One of Simons delicious risottos for supper and then off to bed… Only to be up again at 01.30 when Nigel realised our anchor bridle had come off… don life jackets for Simon and Nigel, start the engine, reattach the bridle, drop 5 more metres of chain and all back to bed again…

Today, Monday, we are waiting for the response from the engineer about the water maker. Fingers crossed.

Sally

Simon's note: heard from the local dealer this evening, spares available. Have a temporary fix in place for the water maker thanks to a very helpful factory manager in the local energy plant who amazingly was able to give us some of the right washers to align our water maker high pressure water pump drive pulleys (back to front so the broken clutch is not a problem - another story). Should be able to make water again tomorrow. In the negative column, a vicious swell swept the dinghy and engine under the dock and we have a broken gear control for the engine which is now unserviceable. Off to the marina on Guadeloupe tomorrow to find someone to help fix it.