Good to be back in Prickly Bay

Imagine Of Falmouth Online Log
Jon Constantine
Sun 19 Jul 2009 23:00
Mon 20th Jul 09 to Tues 4th August 09

It's been a busy 'ole time doing little boat jobs and catching up with friends.  Had a few dry days so I've now sewn the side panels onto our boom-tent in the hope that  the cockpit will stay reasonably dry now, and boy have we had some rain with the odd lightening and thunderstorm thrown in too.  At least all the salt has been washed off the boat although we have been getting a lot of a browny/orange dust.  We've heard that it's actually sand that's been blown over from the Sahara!  It's not a problem with our water collecting system as we just let the dust settle and then filter it into the tanks and it's fine for general use.  We have a separate tap for drinking water which is attached to a filter that removes pretty much everything, so no probs there.

We had to move a few days after being here as a French yacht decided to drop their anchor a bit too close to us for our liking; especially as we have a tropical wave coming through in a day or too.  In theory, as we were here first, we could ask them to move but Jon has done a recky in the dinghy and reckons he's found a better, more protected spot.

    
                                                                         Our new anchoring spot - not a bad view!

Had a fab evening over on sy Tranquility.  Lee & Cindy are great hosts.  They'd invited Kajun Diva (Greg & Willena) and Daniel Storey (Dave & Michelle) over too and it went way beyond the usual sundowners!  Great fun to catchup with everyone again and needless to say, there were a few sore heads the following morning!!
 
        
                              
Our hosts                                                                                           Willena, Jon & Dave

    
                                  
Greg & Michelle                                                                                 Sam & Willena

    
                                                                              
.....and so the night goes on!

We also met up with Barry & Lindy on sy Samarang at long last.  I've not seen them since Sardinia where I first met them about 3 or so years ago.  They were also in Lanzarote but missed them.  We just seem have been a few steps behind them and not caught up until now.  They did make a detour to Brazil, hence the reason we didn't catchup last year, and have only now come back to the Caribbean.  Great to meet up with them again and swap stories. 

One evening,  the 4 of us went over to Clarkes Court Bay Marina to listen a cruiser's presentation regarding visiting Venezuela.  Barry & Linda are keen to go there and we've considered it although we have our doubts due to all the troubles over there.  The talk was very useful for us.  The fact that the majority of the talk related to security and how to protect yourself if boarded by pirates was a big decision-maker for us.  Do we really want to be arming ourselves with washing-up bottles filled with fuel to squirt at potential pirates?  I don't think so!  What defence is a squeezy-bottle of petrol against men with guns.  We know it's cheap  and there are some great places to visit but quite frankly, why would we want to put ourselves in that situation.  There is a certain amount of risk in everything we do but quite frankly, we have no desire to put ourselves in that kind of danger; even the stress of it.

Anyway, moving on, we've been going a bit stir crazy sitting at anchor for the last 2 weeks and waiting for our looming departure back to the UK in 2 weeks time.  There's only so much prep work that can be done this far in advance so a run back up to St George for the Carnival was a welcome distraction.  All the main events are happening up there so we've decided it'll be much easier coming and going while in the thick of it instead of catching buses there and back each day from here.  Party time...........!