One of the neatest thing about the floating village of cruisers is reuniting with old friends in different parts of the world. It was no surprise but nonetheless fun to find Swiss friend Peter Schaub working on his s/v Aquataurus at the boatyard in Le Marin. We last saw Peter and his wife Ruth 14 years ago at our dock in Annapolis, when we were the local reps of the German-based Trans-Ocean Club. Holiday newsletters and our blog have kept us in contact through the years so we knew Peter would be here. Ruth will be flying over after Aquataurus splashes so they can spend the rest of the winter cruising the islands.

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We joined Peter for Friday night happy hour at Mango Bay, the local sailors' hang-out, and then on to the bratwurst stand that attracts the German crowd. We fetched him next afternoon for an overnight visit at anchor, a welcome break from life on the hard.

Peter once had a thriving business outfitting yachts and is very knowledgable, so he and Burger spent time troubleshooting our headache with the starter battery. After much trial and error Burger finally solved the problem by adding a new starter cable connecting to the generator. Hooray!