Boats are funny animals, especially old boats, and the sailors who ply the waters in them are even funnier. This series of columns from Caribbean Compass looks at aspects of boats and boating, and ponders the stranger creatures found in the Caribbean. From the boating basics, like anchoring, to marlinspike seamanship and how to find the best waterfront bar, it is all, when correctly viewed, humorous. Written while living at anchor and underway on an old wooden boat in the Lesser Antilles and Venezuela - at the southern end of the spiral arm of the West Indies.