Monday 17 June

After a tough yesterday the original plan was to stay in Agen another night.  We need to do shopping and we understand there is a very good art gallery.  So we go off to a large Casino supermarket and get nearly everything we need.  Unfortunately I forgot to buy a number of things, but hope we can put that right later.

There is one thing that is worrying me.  A couple of days ago we found a pump out station for the holding tank.  But when we decided to try it (though the tank isn't full)  we couldn't find the key to open the pump out point. We have searched the boat high and low and it is nowhere.  We definitely had it last year in Holland and as the point is tightly shut, we must have had it after we used it.  We must have put it somewhere safe, but obviously too safe.  We shall be in real trouble if we can't find something that will do the trick.  Richard is relaxed about it sure that we will find something, but I am less sanguine.

We then go into town.  From the outskirts it doesn't look very nice, but the centre is quite nice.  The main streets are pedestrianised.  There is lovely street furniture, including benches and chairs.  And the streets are line with machines spraying out cold mist to cool you down.  It is still  quite warm, though because it is rather overcast, not as bad as yesterday.  But the cool mist is very nice.  Oddly, given the apparent need for cooling spray, some of the tree trunks and street furniture have been clothed with hand knitted covers.

So we make our way to the museum.  It is in a wonderful building.  Apparently it is a combination of four old houses.  Some of the rooms are nicer than the exhibitions.  But really for a provincial museum it is very good.  There are 5 Goyas, but other than a wonderful self-portrait they are rather poor things.
But we are very pleased with our visit, particularly as we got in free because they are not charging this month due to previous closures!

We then walk through the main shopping street.  We manage to buy better mosquito repellant.  Then we pass a hardware store and Richard gets the bright idea that they may have something that will open our pump out point.  The problem is trying to explain what we want in French!  After a few minutes of being shown things which are not suitable at all I get the bright idea of describing what we want as a large Allen Key.  The shopkeeper understands what that is and takes us to some very oversized Allen Keys which look like they may do the trick, but we are unsure which size to buy and as they are rather expensive (14 Euro each) we would rather not waste our time and money.  So instead we go back to the boat.

The plan is to fill with fuel (as they have a fuel berth here) and then to try to go on for a bit to get a head start on tomorrow.  But as we try to arrange that we ask if they have anything that would open our pump out point.  They think they might.  Their mechanic comes with a number of various key like things, but nothing fits.  In the meantime I have made a tracing of the opening.  Finally Richard takes it back to the hardware store and comes back with one of the oversized Allen keys and it fits!  So that is another problem solved.  I expect we will find the proper key any day now as we have bought something else!

Now the weather has turned rather poor.  It has completely clouded over and the wind has got up.  Looking at the sky, there is a very dark patch coming and surely it will rain.  We are not sure what to do, but having made our plans we press ahead.  We aren't going far, so we fill up with fuel and set off.  It is very slow going through the town - the last speed limit sign we saw said 3 km per hour compared with the usual 8 (about 4 knots).  We eventually give up on the lower speed limit when we are out of the centre of the city.  The weather is getting worse and worse and it is now raining lightly, but steadily.  We press on.  We will not try to go through the next lock.  We will just get to the next mooring place.

As we aren't going through a lock I reorganise the fenders and lines.  I should mention here that as we are no longer a sailing boat, we are proceeding like a canal boat.  That is to say we go along with all fenders out.  Much to Richard's disgust I refuse to keep taking them down when we get to a lock about every half an hour.  Anyway all the other boats keep their fenders out.  In fact the hire boats have fenders permanently mounted on the sides of the boats!

By the time we get to the mooring point it is pouring with rain.  We find a finger pontoon, but it is at a very awkward angle and has a distinct lack of cleats.  It is also very low.  We would have had a problem getting in ourselves, but luckily the boat next door is English and the skipper comes out and helps us.  So we get in, albeit at a very strange angle because there is no way to get lines on both sides of the bows.  The next problem is that the pontoon is very short and we have trouble finding a place to tie on the fender step to get me back on board.  The pontoon is so low even Richard needs the step!  But at last he finds a solution and I finally get back on the boat.

This might be a nice spot.  It has a shower and toilet and water.  But the weather is so bad we aren't moving out of the boat.  As I write, it has just stopped raining.  Maybe it will be better tomorrow.