Photos to go with the previous post.... I hope!!

One of the steel bands we saw on Independence day....pity I can't add the music too!

These women danced and sang...I don't know how they coped with the heat. It was stifling.

Waiting for the bus to take us to the "Pan" on Independence Day. L to R.. Elaine aka Ned Kelly, of "Virgo's Child"...Aussie if you hadn't guessed!, Dick, Pete, Pam and Jim. It was raining by the way!!

The brand new and very shiny dinghy gets pumped up for the first time.....it also floated some time later.....

Just a photo of an amazing thundercloud taken from the boatyard. We saw lots of lightning inside it but I just couldn't take a photo at the right time for some reason....... Anyway, it was rather spectacular.

I am waiting patiently yet again for these photos to upload....this must be the tenth time I've tried but at least I'm sitting in airconditioned comfort this time. And hoorah..because it worked this time...at last!

We are still moored in Chaguaramas Bay and just have to get a few more things sorted out with the new dinghy which has caused a hiccup or two... Then.....we plan to sail around to a quiet and clean bay on the north coast before setting out for Tobago where we plan to stay for a few days before striking out for the 300 mile trip to Guyana and the 40 miles up the Essequibo river

Pete on Troutbridge should be coming with us but he is out of the water again for a day or so while the boatyard people redo his antifouling. This antifouling which Moonshiner also has now (American "State of the Art", extremely expensive and on which absolutely nothing is supposed to grow...guaranteed for a couple of years... except that it doesn't appear to work in these warm, fertile waters!) is possibly going to be a cause for concern until we can get into cleaner water.

We have been on some serious stocking up shopping trips.....tins and bulk things like flour.... as we don't know what we will be able to buy in Guyana. Pam and Jim from Delicado are planning to join Pete on his really quite luxurious and very spacious catamaran(!) for this trip and I'm looking forward to their company. Guyana is still relatively unexplored by yachties...it is also therefore prudent not to go there alone?

We sailed on Troutbridge last weekend to a little island west of here, Chakachakaree (or something like that!). This island was a leper colony until they found the cure for the disease about 30 years ago and abandoned the place, leaving it to become a wilderness again. We wanted to go ashore but there was too much swell in the bay so we just contented ourselves with enjoying the peace and quiet for a couple of days......no photos would do it justice except the one that I shall try to upload after this post.....Pete has an anchor which is supposed to be the best in the world.....called a "Rocna"...that's "ancor" backwards...just in case you hadn't noticed. Past experiences have shown us that this anchor is really attracted to rocks and seems to attach itself to them whenever it can....just look at the photo when it arrives! We had one hell of a job to untangle it as you can imagine.

OK....more later but I just don't know when!!