Woke up to some serious rain showers this morning. Isn't it one of the nicest feelings ever to just settle back into the comforts of bed, even if only for a moment, and listen to the sounds of nature going on around you. Not so much if you left your hatches open.

With morning coffee the rain was gone leaving behind wet (and somewhat clean decks) and the sun was already poking its way through the wispy grey clouds. Nice!

My agenda had a priority this morning: two bags of laundry. Dave was doing more research.

Did I mention that we're in the midst of shooting a movie onboard ?
Yup. A horror movie no less !!

Dave is the star, producer and director !! Y'all know the plot. Wonderful cruising couple goes on vacation. Grabs a mooring ball in an idyllic setting. Sun is shining. Birds are chirping. Life. Is. Good.

But then at dusk. The sun is gone. The weird scary music comes out, the kind that eerily adds to the plot and signals an foreboding and ominous sign of things to come.

Eek, and oh my, the creatures have come out to play !!



Big, bad, ugly, blood-sucking creatures they are !!

And they are Chomping Down on the blood of their unsuspecting victims. My, what big teeth they have !!



'Round here they call them no-see-ums. Wiki calls them Ceratopogonidae (or sand flies, or punkies). They live in an aquatic environment and suck your blood !

(And one wonders where stories of vampires evolved from ?)

You really wouldn't think that something so small (and oh-so invisible) could cause so much damage. They're everywhere. And what damage they cause. Our legs are pock-marked with the red bumpy results of the bites of these damn little things. Ouch and itchy.

And for the life of me I cannot explain what happened to the bottles of Calamine Lotion or Benadryl we had bought to bring along in our First Aid kit. I did have "all natural" stuff: tea-tree oil, which was offering up relief for me, but not so much for Dave. Who seems to be reacting (badly) to these bites with major red welts.

I think at the moment, HE's the Creature from the Big Lagoon.

We joined Cotinga for lunch at The Riverside a waterfront pub conveniently located next to the Marina, just under the bridge, with docks ready for dinghy tie-ups. How FUN is that ?

We shared stories over burgers (for the guys) and what looked like a lovely salad (for Gloria) and yup, rice for moi. But just cause I was feeling daring and reckless, added some frizzled onion strings for fun. Yum ! Already looking forward to meeting up with them "somewhere south of somewhere". And definitely going back to this place, delicious food, great service, and wonderful location.

As we were having lunch we saw Meltemi motor by into the marina, and so after we said our goodbyes to Mike and Gloria, we went in search of them hoping to say "hey so nice to finally be at the same place at the same time" and where did we find them but rafted up right next to us, très-cool. Better the devil you know, right (wink, wink) ?

We chatted for a bit and then high-tailed it back to the marina, planning to catch the bus to town to get some meds for my poor Dave. As we were only minutes from the bus bench, we heard the bus drive up behind us, and we started to jog as we saw the bus drive by us, then we started to run waving our arms frantically as the bus passed us, and then we saw the bus not even stop (there was no one at the bus bench), and saw the bus keep 'on drivin' without us. So not cool.

The driver must've been on a one track, all systems go forward, fast-track to somewhere. Not to mention blind.

Plan B had me walking towards the Beach to find the pharmacy, to overload on Creature Killer and Itch Relief. By the time I got back, the meet and greet at the club was in full swing. Always fun to meet people you hear chatting on the radio as you travel down the road, putting faces to names.

We made it home just seconds before the rain showers downpoured, had a bite of supper and enjoyed some one on one chat time with Meltemi, finally !!

Stay tuned to hear how the cruising couple not only survives but gets their revenge!