I was wrong ... Mike did end up going back to Venezuela to pick up the other freighter. They left on Friday 17th Feb. after numerous phone calls and assurances that they would be able to leave Venezuela straight away.

They arrived in Margarita on the Saturday evening, tied up alongside the freighter, met the agent and officials, and were told they'd get clearance in the morning ... as soon as the drug squad had brought the sniffer dogs and underwater cameras on board and searched both boats.

They'd had a relatively good run down there. The 'only' issue on this leg being the Lister generator which went haywire and blew up the two fridges, the PC monitor and power pack, the laptop charger and the charger for the sat. phone. And the Yanmar turbo oil seal which leaked oil into the engine, ended up running away and nearly seized up. Apart from that all went well.

The drug squad were on board by 7.30 am Sunday, all 11 of them. Apparently the officers were fine but the young pups doing the search ended up taking a phone from James' cabin, which was in a box, in a holdall, in a cupboard under his bunk. They also took a watch and a pair of new sneakers from the freighter. (Mike's phone has also gone missing, which is causing no end of problems trying to contact people, only he thinks he had it after the Venezuelans left so we have no idea what's happened to that.)

By early afternoon the tow was underway with two of the freighter crew on board the Buzzard to augment Mike, James, Tony and Scott (an American friend who'd gone along to help). And they made fairly good progress, considering the freighter was twice our size and laden with 1,200 tonnes of cement, most of which was in the bow.

I got a sat. phone call saying all was well and they should be back in around 32 hours. Unfortunately, just past Los Testigos at 8 pm, the main oil-line on our Callesen sheared off. I can only imagine what that night was like. They were without power for 18 hours while Mike and James did what they could. Mike had to lower the dinghy and go alongside the other boat (in the dark, in 3m swells) to get the pipe brazed (which didn't work), and then again to get some hose and more oil to replace that which had sprayed round the engine room. (And the outboard got smashed on the crane bringing it back on board.)

Eventually it was fixed, during which time they'd drifted 40 miles in the wrong direction. At one point Scott said he was worried the freighter was going to hit the back of us because they continued going when we weren't. Of course I knew nothing of this until Mike called on the Monday to say all was fine again.

They eventually got in to Grenada on Wednesday at around 7.30 pm, I sat on Angie's balcony and watched them come over the horizon as the sun was setting. They anchored out alongside the freighter for the night and prepared to bring them in to the dock the next day. Only the swell was too big for cruise ships and they came into the dock instead, and then it was the weekend. So we spent the weekend on standby, which was just as well because they dragged on the Friday afternoon and we had to help them re-anchor.

First thing Monday Mike went back alongside them to bring them to the dock. And whilst they were pulling their anchor the chain snapped and they ended up having to leave the anchor there. Really does make you wonder about some of these boats.

While we were at the dock we got water and were then ready to leave and go back out to anchor, only apparently the Port Authority had other ideas. Because the freighter has no engine working we were required to stay tied alongside for the duration of the unloading in case of emergencies. The unloading was supposed to take 2-3 days. It's already been 3 and they've only just started the second hold, oh and it's raining so they can't work anyway. The noise and cement dust is really starting to get us, as is the throbbing generators from the container ship next door; makes it feel like we're back in Chaguaramas.

Not quite sure when they're going to be finished but it may be a bit of a problem because we need to leave on Saturday morning to go get more fuel and head up to Carriacou. The owner of the freighter has known about this prior commitment all along but nobody expected this part of the job to take so long ... although we really should know better by now.

Anyway, while the Buzzard was having adventures on the high-seas I stayed with Angie in her apartment over-looking Grand Anse beach, and tried not to be overly anxious. On the Sunday I went to Hog Island to say goodbye to some friends who were leaving for Trinidad, and to see June and Jeff, June's been back over three weeks and I've still only managed to catch up a couple of times. I was supposed to be having a quiet afternoon but Hog took hold, as usual, and I ended up staying on Tiempo with Pete.

The next day we sailed round to St. George's, had lunch at The Nutmeg and went to see a local art show. All so civilised ... wonder why Mike and I don't do things like that.

On the Wednesday the boys got back I went up to the local hospital to give blood as a friend of ours has been in for a couple of weeks and has needed several blood transfusions, and they're running low. There was quite a queue of yachties lining up to do the right thing, and apart from the mosquitoes in the room it was all relatively painless.

Last Friday I had to go to the dentist for a second opinion about my front tooth. Apparently this dentist could see something on the x-ray: I have an abscess which has been there a while and has been eating into the gum and loosening the tooth. Great. I'm on a course of strong anti-biotics and have a series of root canal appointments booked to start next week, lucky me.

In amongst all this we've been trying to repair damaged parts and services. We've replaced the relay and now have one fridge working, and we've bought new chargers for the laptops and the sat. phone. Mike's sourced and ordered a brand new 15kw generator which should be, fingers crossed, shipped from Florida at the weekend and be with us by the week after. Now all we have to do is move the tool box and one of the air-compressors, take out the Onan (which never did work), and build new brackets to mount it on.

Not sure what's happening with Tony since he got back from Indonesia. He hasn't seemed particularly motivated, almost to the point of laziness, and this morning has said he wants to return to Indonesia next month. Makes me wonder if his missing his flight wasn't an attempt not to come back at all. Only now we have to pay Julie for the extra flight she organised, and he wants us to spend another $2,000 sending him home again. After only working for us for a month, and sending $300 home already? Crew ...

So ... I guess that's enough for now. I've been a bit side-tracked from the new blog but will hopefully get back to working on it soon.

Love to everyone ....