Logging on that last time worked - remarkably! I tried to lower my baud rate & I increased the phone volume & somehow I�ve been managing to connect since. It�s good to be back online again; I really feel like a part of the virtual community down here. Teleadapt have agreed to send a replacement down when I have somewhere I can receive it.

Also, the local Autohelm guy came & replaced my drive motor yesterday & it seems to be working again, but he appears to have been telling them that it is a problem with my steering, so if it goes again in the future I could have a job getting it replaced again. It�s been quite a week here, all things considered. On Sunday, after I took Chris to the station, Fred & I got woken up by the Gendarmie coming alongside in a patrol boat to check my documents. That night Fred pulled a waitress & we went to a club called the Bobo Club with her & her really quite attractive dark-haired friend who payed very little attention to me & stood & snogged some other guy in a very horny way. We didn�t go out until 3am & I was standing in the club thinking...�Must close at 5am... must close at 6am...�, but no, we finally left at 7am! Knackered! A few hours after getting to bed we got woken up by customs boarding the yacht from a launch. They again went through all my documents, & finding that I did not have my registration certificate (as the yacht is currently being re-registered in Guernsey), threatened to impound the boat & fine me. I eventually persuaded them that I would get a copy faxed to them immediately, & they reluctantly agreed. They then proceeded to spend about an hour and a half searching the boat. I was naturally worried because I knew that Fred had hash on board & I didn�t know if he�d had time to put it in his pocket or not. After being asked for receipts for everything on board, they finally left. When Fred booked his train ticket later that day I didn�t try to get him to stay any longer!

I�ll be glad to get away from Arcachon, as I�ve been here a week now. Luckily we anchored so it hasn�t cost me a thing, but with the customs guys here & the fact that I want to keep moving, it�s been long enough. The tides & the firing range have to coincide properly too, which means that I need descent forecast sometime between tomorrow & Wednesday. I guess I�m not completely sure if I can rely on the autopilot now, & I�m not sure how well my acoustic coupler is working. Also, the fact that I don�t yet have the original registration certificate for the yacht means that I might have more problems. Anyway, these problems seem to be fixed at least for the moment, which is all I hoped for. I�ll get them all sorted out properly further down the road. I might have to come back to Arcachon to collect my Underwater Kinetics case from the post office here, but that�s no hardship if I can get further down the coast.