A lovely crossing from Antigua, sweet Caribbean sailing.  A near empty anchorage, as usual, in Little Bay.  Pleasant formalities, again as usual, and the pretty little passport stamp, a shamrock.

The taxi tour was four hours long, Jan looked to be running out of steam by the end, she was in the front seat so received the bulk of the commentary.  A number of highlights but I will mention only one.  We were asked if we would like to attend, briefly, the parliamentary session that was sitting, yes please.  The proceedings were exemplary, DC and EM could do with a visit here.  Questions well phrased, and if not so they were asked to rephrase the by the excellent and understated Madam Speaker.  We were enjoying the whole experience but it was to get better even if only for Jan and myself.  Bernard was escorted from the room by the Sergeant at Arms in full regalia, white trousers and jacket with red trimmings and a topee.  Bernard outside explained that in London he was a judge, to no avail, he was wearing shorts!  Jan and I left in good time with reputations intact.

Grim sail back to Antigua, I having misread the forecast.  Usual trivial but irritating boat damage.

Tom

After overcoming the indignity of my being ejected from the the Parliament building, we went to the outskirts of Plymouth passing a police checkpoint at the entry to the Exclusion Zone where our mobile telephone number was taken so that we could be advised, if the volcano became more excited, to flee for our lives.

We passed many empty houses collapsing through lack of maintenance, with gardens now completely overgrown and reverting to jungle. We went into an abandoned hotel with the swimming pool now filled with volcanic detritus.

All rather strange and rather sad.

I am toying with buying one of the grand abandoned mansions in the former 'Beverley Hills' of Montserrat which must be going for a song.

Bernard

We also went to the famed AIR recording studios which were owned by George Martin and where some of the Beatles albums were recorded, plus Eric Clapton, the Stones etc.etc. It was damaged first by Hurricane Hugo and then of course the earthquake so is now a shell but in a fabulous position with views out to sea. We were shown the 'Games' Room' - queue for ribald comments from Tom and Bernard about under-age girls!

Great lunch on a black sand beach - red snapper, rice and salad and numerous beers!

Jan