When we arrived in Placencia last week, we were delighted to see Ten Years After anchored nearby. After chatting with Pat and Dave on the VHF, it was a treat to have them onboard for Sundowners where we could visit in person and catch up on the news of mutual friends from our Bahamas cruising seasons. They are on their way to Rio Dulce and we hope they will love it as much as we do. It is always a chancy thing - to rave on about someplace that might or might not be quite as pleasing to someone else!

In Sapodilla Lagoon this time, Canadians - Rob and Cathy (Quetico) and Germans -Patricia and Karl (Belize) were our anchor mates. We had met them both before, but they hadn't met each other although they have each spent time exploring the Eastern Caribbean. Over drinks and munchies in the Madcap cockpit, we were interested to hear of their travels and how the Eastern Caribbean compares with the Western part (steadier winds, more boats, more expensive, more variety between islands and countries). The unsuccessful attempts by the men to rescue a glass knocked overboard and some good Canadian music (Stan Rogers, k.d. lang, Jill Barber, Leonard Cohen, David Myles and Lennie Gallant, to name but a few) added to the entertainment.

And in Garbutt Cay, we joined Marie Rose and Claude and their visitors for aperitifs on Ameleo. These folks are from France and as we sipped Pastis, that delicious anise flavoured beverage, I was working hard to come up with enough French vocabulary to participate in the conversation. Fortunately, Jim is quite fluent and they all understood each other well (although he said it was a test of his memory, he sounded really good to me!) but I am sure I caught the man seated next to me rolling his eyes at the way I massacred tenses and grammar. Jim shared a taxi with them when he went to Big Creek to renew our visas, and it was lovely of them to invite us over.

We both enjoy this simple way of sharing food and drink with friends - people usually bring their own drinks (although sometimes the host boat will have rum punches or some other special drink to offer) and some food to share. Nuts, olives, dips, cheese and crackers are easy to have on hand and make for good shareables. The important thing is the company but it's always nice to sip and nibble too.
(I didn't have my camera out on these occasions - what was I thinking?! This pic shows members of the Madcap, Rendezvous and Quetico crews at Hideaway Cay with Dustin looking on.)