Hi All,
 
Well here we are in El Yaque, Margarita Island again :0)
 
We had a pretty uneventful journey other than having to push the taxi out of Grant and Lisa's road because of the snow, having to unpack a couple of kilos of stuff from our cases and stuff it into our already crammed hand luggage to avoid €60 excess baggage charge, our flight to Madrid being delayed an hour (so thinking we might miss the flight to Caracas), arriving at Caracas and thinking that the nails which we were bringing out for Dave, our friend from Canada, had been removed from luggage (but they had just slipped down to the bottom of the case), our flight to Porlamar being cancelled (oh no! so thinking we would have to overnight in Caracas) and being put on earlier flight to Porlamar - which wasn't on the departure board and was an hour late so there was much confusion - but eventually we arrived an hour earlier than planned! So not an easy and stress free journey - but actually all went really, really well! :0)
 
We have been having a good time - great wind for windsurfing all but one day so far. We've met up with lots of people who we met here before which is rather nice. Everything is all very familiar. There are the usual pelicans, frigate birds and flying (or jumping) fish which make being on the water a pleasure in itself. We've both been enjoying getting out on the water in such nice conditions and getting some jumps off the chop and blasting along. It has been unusually quiet here so far with plenty of room on the water for everyone but I guess it will get busier as time goes on.
 
I had a bout of very bad sickness the second night we were here - but it only lasted about 5 hours (felt like forever at the time!) and I was fine the next morning for breakfast. No idea what caused it as I had eaten the same as Dave, had plenty of water, not been out in the sun long - the only thing I suspect is that I that maybe I am allergic to Porcini mushrooms as we had mushroom risotto made with some dried porcini mushrooms we'd brought with us!!! Almost as soon as I ate that I felt ill and only ate half of it despite it being really nice (sorry Nancy) and then within 10 minutes I was in the bathroom :-(
 
Other than that we've been fine until this morning when Dave woke up with an upset stomach. I've left him in bed while I sit in the garden and eat brunch and check my mails. Hopefully he will feel better soon.
 
My only problem now is that yesterday afternoon I hurt my knee. I wasn't doing anything spectacular. I came in toward the beach and there wasn't space to gybe so I thought I'd try to tack (which I rarely do these days as it is tricky on smaller boards). For once I actually got the tack round, and was about to sail away when I sort of stepped off the front of the board with my left foot and my right foot stayed where it was meaning that my knee bent sideways - ouch!! I just lay there for a minute or two and then thought I would have to go in, but the way round my kit was it was easier to waterstart outwards so I did and my knee felt sort of ok - so I carried on sailing for another 45 minutes or so - possibly a mistake.  Last night my knee was really sore in bed and I couldn't really move it - I've iced it a couple of time and put some cream on to help bring the bruising out. It is a lot better this morning but I don't know whether I could windsurf on it... although I think windsurfing might be easier than walking actually.
 
Anyway, we'll have to see - maybe a day off for both of us would be good. And sitting in the garden in the shade isn't at all unpleasant. All that's missing is a hammock.
 
We were staying at Dave's house earlier in the week, which is a fantastic place at the top of the hill with great views and spacious cool rooms. We've moved out into our second set of accommodation for ten days and then we'll move back to Dave's. We are now where we stayed last year, although we haven't got the same room (this one is not as nice but it's fine) - but there is a really nice garden here. I'm sure Dave will have a lovely garden in time - but not yet as they are still finishing the house off (hence the need for the nail gun and nails which we brought out with us) - although he has a great living room space that is really nice to sit and chill in which is more or less what we did on Wednesday (light winds) for most of the day :0)
 
The only trouble is that with such nice bases it is easy to not bother to go to the beach! If your digs are a bit small and cramped then you have more incentive to get out. Whereas I could just sit and chill here in the garden quite happily :0) Shade is hard to come by on the beach. Although Ale and Nancy (who live in Dave's house too and are friends we've known for a few years) have a nice place on the beach - a kite sufing school with lots of shade and hammocks - so I may just have to have some kiting lessons so that we can go and use their shady areas!!
 
As usual we seem to have met a lot of dogs here. There are street dogs, beach dogs and people's own dogs. The posada where we are staying now has three dogs. One of these is a small husky (like the ones in Geilo, Norway) with one brown and one blue eye and she is very, very friendly. There are also two rabbits here who live in a hutch in the garden. The husky sits by the hutch and tries to lick the rabbits. We can't decide whether she is trying to be friends or whether she is trying to eat them. Time may tell! She also decided this afternoon that I needed a lap dog and to be honest even though she is a small husky that is still quite a lot of dog on your lap in the heat of the day! There is also Mancha on the beach - she is the resident dog at the Vela windsurf school where we hire our kit from. She is friendly in a cool undemonstrative way and seems to think she is doing you a favour when she lets you stroke her! At Dave's house there are two dogs - Saki, another husky, who belongs to Ale and Nancy, and Mica who is a small short haired dog with large ears who looks rather like the dogs on the Pharoah's tombs. She is also very friendly and loves to lick your toes. So I have plenty of dogs to fuss with none of the responsibilities of looking after them!
 
That is about all our news for now, so I'll sign off...
 
Best wishes to you all,
from
Sarah and Dave