Senkaku may be tense but it's jolly in False Bay

While naval activity may be getting a bit tense around the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands, the latest war games in False Bay are much jollier. Simon's Town is hosting Atlasur IX with corvettes and frigates from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay participating alongside the SA Navy. Monday saw the arrival of the Latin American ships to the thump of 11-gun salutes from the lower North Shore battery. Even the upper North Shore gun let off a noon-day blast. This was all happening while a big yacht regatta was underway in the bay, part of the annual Simon's Town festival, with over 50 boats displaying their colours and weaving around the warships. The next few days saw loads of receptions and the sounds of numerous national anthems drifting up the hill, while in the main street quite a bit of broken Spanish and Portuguese was attempted by the village traders. On Friday the ships all nipped out across the bay and did a few manoeuvres before returning line astern before sunset, anchoring just beyond the harbour wall, neatly spaced as if on show for the locals. On Saturday they made a leisurely 1000 start (quite different from the army, which is all 0530 on the double) and headed out to sea. It'd be interesting to know what the Armada Argentina thought about the British nuclear sub and supply ship that stopped off here earlier in the year en route to the Falklands. The QSL is from Radio Maldonado in Punta del Este, Uruguay, my first AM QSL from there, heard at dawn in Johannesburg in 1987, using only 2 kilowatts.