While riding the bus into Manta, our friend Marcie from "Nine of Cups" mentioned to Maureen and Buzz Hatheway from "Encore" that Benno and Marlene on "Diesel Duck" who she met in Panama, were arriving that day. Maureen said: "Oh, we used to know a Benno and Marlene, but they were on "Najade" and that was 24 years ago in Malta in the Mediterranean Sea, when we were sailing on "Gambit". Small world and a big hello again!
The picture is of Maureen, Buzz and Benno at the beach

Some weeks later, something funny happened while we were enjoying a movie night with dinner at Puerto Amistad's restaurant. The VHF on the bar came on and Buzz on "Encore" was calling: "I need some serious help here!" Someone in the restaurant quipped that Buzz was sitting on top of the mast and Maureen was hiding in the dinghy and that they have a bushmaster snake on board. Carlos, Puerto Amistad man for everything, now snake catcher too, took the diesel delivery boat and went over to "Encore". After an hour of ruckus and shouting he got the biest. It turned out not to be a poisonous bushmaster but a 4 foot long local snake. How she got on board, nobody knew. But Buzz and Maureen have a very large medicine cabinet with a hole on the side for ventilation. Buzz had gone below to get something out of the cabinet but did not switch on the light. Groping around with his hands in the cabinet he felt something very soft and moving. Buzz was moved too and broke out in panic after having switched on the light.
Of course Buzz didn't climb the mast, but Maureen was holding the door closed and going to lock the head (bathroom) with him in it, after he shouted there was a snake in it and that really got Buzz into a sweat and he screamed: "Maureen Maureen, let me out of here."