Lin.......
I was now on my own. I had several jobs to do on the boat that kept me occupied and I met some very pleasant people. I had troubles changing my gas cylinder - my strength isn't good when connecting the regulator and Paul said we probably needed a new one in any event.

Luckily the gas is in a sealed locker in the cockpit so there is no danger, which is fortunate really as it emptied within two days. This was repeated again and I had almost decided to live on salads and cold drinks until Paul returned but a lovely couple who had been sailing for 16 years, Brian and Jane took pity on me and invited me over for a meal the first night. Brian had been brought up in India and cooked a fantastic dahl that I very much enjoyed.

The next day he came over to Sareda and connected another new cylinder for me that thankfully is still going strong.

On the Thursday after Lucy left my sister-in-law Jenny arrived on a cruise ship for the day. She was booked on a trip in the morning but I therefore caught a bus, very cheap and reliable to meet her in the afternoon. We found a caf� in the marketplace for coffee. I hope she and her friend enjoyed it - I tend to go to venues frequented by the locals as I enjoy experiencing the local culture. I did enjoy meeting them as it broke up my time alone.

Everything seemed to work well for me because during that week I also heard that my friend Sheilagh from Nottingham was arriving on a cruise ship on the Sunday with her son Ceiran. Unlike Jenny she had no trips booked for her time in St Lucia. Her sister Maureen paid for me to hire a car for the day to take them around the island - as part of an early 60th birthday present for Sheilagh.

I picked them up from the cruise ship in Castries. It was lovely to see them and we wend our way down the west side of the island towards Soufriere. When we reached Anse de Raye we saw a sign to a waterfall. As I had not been there before we decided to give it a try. The road soon deteriorated into a track but we persevered - it was not nearly so bad as the track I had encountered with Lucy when we headed for the Turtle Watch!!

After a short while a sign pointed down a pathway and we parked the car and walked the rest of the way. There was a small charge to enter but it was really nice when we arrived. The waterfall was obviously man-made, although it was aesthetically pleasing with the water flowing down stone steps into a fresh water pool that was large enough to swim in.

We quickly changed and took the plunge. It was delightfully cool and refreshing and we enjoyed approximately � hour on our own before two minibuses arrived from the two cruise ships.

Everyone enjoyed it but we were pleased we had arrived earlier and had it to ourselves for a while. There was a small lizard sat on the changing room roof and unlike some did not run away before we could photograph it. We also found a pineapple bush - I had always assumed pineapples grew on trees but actually they grow out of bushes that look like a large version of the green outgrowth that you find on the pineapple - a picture will be in the gallery.

I then took them to the sulphur springs which they enjoyed, unfortunately the botanical gardens were closed.

After having coffee at a little restaurant/bar overlooking the harbour at Soufriere we made our way back to Castries and the cruise ship. The scenery on this coast is awesome with its lush vegetation and mountainous landscape.

On the way back I had trouble with the gearbox on the very steep hills, it was the first time I had negotiated them with a manual gearbox. I was beginning to get panicky as the cruise ship was setting sail at six and Sheilagh and Ceiran had to return by 5.30pm.Eventually, having to change to first gear on many occasions I coped well and Sheilagh and Ceiran managed to board the ship before it sailed. Phew!!