We snuck out of St Kitt's under the cover of dawn, and no one approached us; we think we arrived after Customs closed, and left before they opened. We sailed on past Nevis and then beat our way up to Montserrat. It was a great sail except for the last bit, where the wind and current were wrapping round the island making sailing all the way tricky - so we motored in the last five miles. Just in time to check in with some very friendly Customs and Immigration folks, and then we went ashore for a long-awaited swim on the black sand beach which involved landing the ding through some surging waves. Let's just say we got a bit wet.

In the evening we dropped in to say hello to our anchorage neighbours who were flying the same club flags (OCC & CA) and it turned out it was Paul and Rachel Chandler who we last saw in Portugal in 2017. (Worth a Google if you don't know who they are). We enjoyed a fine dinner ashore with them - including the treat of home made ginger beer.

Today we took a tour of the island with Lawrence, who had seen us approaching the bay and called us up on the VHF to market his services. The tour is really about the devastating impact of the volcano, that started erupting in 1995 and is still smouldering away under its pall of sulphurous smoke. Half the island is covered by an exclusion zone that you can only enter with a police permit; they control who goes into the exclusion zone and how far you can go to view. There is an observatory constantly monitoring the status of the volcano, which last erupted in 2010. What is really amazing is the trail of rocks and ash down the side of the volcano that has completely buried the town of Portsmouth - now a ghost town - and extends out to sea and in-fact extended the island well into the sea. The southern part of the island is basically impossible to live in, the lush vegetation taking over any houses that still stand, and those still on the island live in the north. It was a humbling lesson on the power of nature.

We should just mention the fact that we are across the water from the uninhabited island of Redonda, famous for its kings, goats and guano.

47 nautical miles; 290 nm to Grenada.