Off to Netto before breakfast to get some bread (and wine and other stuff we didn’t intend to buy) and then got stuck into today’s tasks.

Heddi did lots of painting. The bow area in particular now looks much smarter.

I tried to drill out the eight screws holding down the inspection hatch into the fresh water tank. Water has been leaking from here into the space behind the step where the bow thruster tube is. I had previously tried to remove the screws but they wouldnt budge, so I decided that the only option was to drill them out and re-tap them. The screw heads where flush level and took an allen key, so I drilled down through the hexagonal hole where the allen key fitted. I guessed that they might be about 5mm screws so started with a 4mm drill. It soon became clear that the drills I had weren’t going to be man enough for the job. I walked over to B&Q and bought some new drills. After much effort I managed to remove three of the eight screws, but by now even the new drills I had just bought were blunt! Back to B&Q for more drills a 7mm and an 8mm. With these and much more effort I evenutally got the inpection hatch up. It had taken nearly four hours!

Inside was a butyl liner like a large bag, with three connections one for filling, and air vent and the outlet. It was difficult to check it out while still down in the hole, but I could see quite a bit of water outside the bag. We put a rope through some eyelets and heaved it out. It soon became clear that there was a tear or split on one of the seams near a corner. This must be the cause of the leak. Because of it’s position it was clear that we wouldn’t be able to repair the leak with a patch. So it would mean replacing the whole liner, in that case it wasnt worth putting the old one back in and we decided to manage the rest of the weekend without running water.