Sorry there hasn’t been a blog for the past few days but since we arrived we have been too busy having fun. We went to Razzmatazz the Indian on the 1^st night with everyone for a feast and then back to the boat to give out the Christmas presents of DVDs, Books and computer gadgets. The next day we went out in the rent-a-wreck, which is the best way to appreciate the slightly crazy local driving. We were entertained by a man doing aerobics on the, beach-apparently he likes to keep fit when he isn’t making necklaces. Then we went to Zaka’s where he makes painted masks among other things which was v cool. On the way back we had the quandary of how many men can you fit on a JCB, answered-apparently at least 9! That night Dougie and Sheila Kerr who were also staying treated us to a feast of pizza. The next day was wet (but still very warm) so we went swimming at the marina, stocked up from the supermarket, went to the beach. and cleared immigration-it’s a hard life out here. On Saturday we sailed out of Rodney Bay, St Lucia to Grand Anse D’Artlet, Martinique. Will can no longer say that he hasn’t been to France. The seas out here between Islands are quite big and its quite windy-the same conditions on the west coast of Scotland and you wouldn’t be wanting to get out of your four season sleeping bag! Even after the rough seas though the crew had no problems eating stew to the sound track of houchter-choochter music. Not a lot changes sometimes! On Sunday we sailed round to St Pierre where we got our passports stamped in a café(apparently its immigration too) and learnt about the big volcano that erupted(if you want a historical rendition its in an earlier educational blog by John) and wasn’t very good for the surrounding people because it killed them all. But that was a while ago so we were able to get the obligatory juice at the beach.

Yesterday we set off for Dominica which took about 5 hours and we are spending the next two days in Roseau. When we arrived we went to the Anchorage Hotel and went for a swim in the pool which was lovely and cool for the patches of sunburn! There also should be some photos to come now we have internet access.  We went onto Google the other day and found a film that Alan had made while crossing the Atlantic. It's on UTube and is called 'Swiftwing across the Atlantic' or something like that. It's quite good and shows just how much the boat moved around for those 22 days.

This is Zaka outside his studio with some of his masks and painted fish.

Just one of the many exotic flowers surrounding the fresh water pool in St Lucia.  Think this is a parrots beak flower

One of the lizards at the pool at St Lucia

The Pitons and the beach we swam off. This is also where the wee man was doing his aerobics.  Zaka Masks are located under the pitons

This is John's new friend because we didn't want him getting lonely and he looks quite pleased(Its an inflatable sheep in case you can't tell)

This is us in the fresh water pool in St Lucia-not included in the photo is the waterfall or the man who got us fruit and coconuts fresh from the forest behind the pool

This is the sunset at Martinique where we went swimming off the boat twice and this is us watching the sun going down at the beach with our obligatory fruit juice.