Well the weather has been totally horrendous. Huge winds and seas and we have been tossed from pillar to post spending a night and a day at sea trying to find a small oasis of rest. Finally we found an anchorage just north of Saint Barts with bouys. This not before we had blown out our mainsail again. And the bruises from being thrown around whilst trying to deal with it all. I steered for about twenty hours out of thirty as the autopilot was not up to the task. I can tell you we flew past Antigua, Montserrat which was smoking still in a volcanic manner, St Kitts and Nevis before safe haven.

We had bruised bodies to rest while the wind howled around us and the turtles bobbed their heads up in the protected anchorage. A little recuperated I started to sew curtains and cushion covers with some lovely material I had bought in Guadeloupe. Thankfully we were well victualled so as ever we ate well.

Yesterday we broke for cover. The wind had died down but the seas were still huge so not a comfortable passage but good to be on the move again. And so we landed in St Martin/Saint Maarten depending on which end of the island you are on. A great campaign to get some Internet was immediately started only to find that Rohan Peter Soens Hughes had been born the day after we left on the great voyage. He's gorgeous of course as one could on,y anticipate with two such parents.

Today we have been exploring immediate St Martin. As a duty free island one thing that is immediately apparent is that the booze is really cheap. Twenty four dollars for two litres of Mount Gay rum is pretty amazing. Not that we have bought any yet. Well we were roaming the Main Street when a gorgeous girl wearing a bikini, high heels and plumes approached us and gave us a free ticket for a play. Colin was exceedingly dubious not being a gambling man but I said what the hell. He won 43 dollars with his ticket and we found that there was a free paella lunch, free chilled white wine and free Internet. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings they have free Chinese buffets, So we may live here for a week although I believe it may be closed on Sundays. I spent a little of the winnings on the roulette wheel but we are still well up and who knows if we stroll along again tomorrow a different lovely may give us a free play ticket.....