Christophe and I started working on the battery rewiring around 10:30am. Really, he was working on it and I was trying my best to be a good lackey. We had to make one run to get some supplies and we also stopped by a camera store. Last night I discovered that my Fuji point and shoot, which I just bought in July after my previous camera died, wasn’t functioning. I took it out after my first flight at Dune de Pyla and attached it to my harness but never used it. However, I was concerned that some of the fine sand had gotten into it as it would give me a zoom error as soon as I turned it on. Added to my malfunctioning HD camera, I’ve pooched three cameras so far this summer...yikes! The camera store owner mentioned that no one fixes cameras in this town, Test La Buch. Okay, I’ll have to deal with that later.
We had some lunch, tasty sardines, salmon and tabouli. I was hesitant about the sardines as I thought we were going to eat them raw but no, they were deliciously cooked by Christophe on his plancha, a kind of barbecue with a solid, flat cooking surface. After that, we finished off the battery switch and fired up Betty, and she came to life instantly! Wow, awesome. We needed to reconnect the temperature gauge and while performing a number of ignitions; Betty began to sink into her old routine, getting slower and slower to start up. Oh well, she still has to be better for it.
Beautiful Sasha and her father Christophe:
The "work in progress" living room:
The view out of the huge windows:
Christophe had a look at my camera and suspected the same as me that some sand is probably screwing up the zoom. He tried blasting some compressed air into it to clean it out but the problem persisted. Then he fiddled with the lens as it came out and miraculously got it to work again! A few minutes later it went back to the error but a bit more fiddling and it seemed okay. Alright, maybe I’ve only messed up two cameras.
I pulled out the HD camera lately and checked on the warranty conditions on the web. It didn’t look good as I think spilling some beer on it didn’t look to be covered. Might as well open it up as I have an expert with me. In the past, Christophe has taken an old microscope and a dysfunctional digital camera and combined them to make a working unit that creates fantastic photos of the tiny world. This guy never ceases to amaze me. We opened it up, there wasn’t anything too obvious but we cleaned around the faulty button with alcohol and left it to dry as they went for a brief stint at the beach. Upon their return, I had yet another functioning camera! Wow...what a day, from replacing a motor and two dead cameras to a happy van and working cameras! Thanks a million Christophe! (or at least about 2000 Euros!)
Trying to figure out the HD camera:
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