As I type this, we have the island of Montserrat on our starboard side with its smoking volcano (photo above). It is quite amazing to see how the lava flowed down the mountain side and basically buried the village at the bottom. It must have been a bit of a nightmare for the people living there as there appears nowhere for them to have escaped the two flows.

Yesterday morning we stopped off in Marigot Bay, St Lucia, after spending the night navigating from the Atlantic Ocean into the Caribbean Sea. I had not slept the previous night and was a bit bushed. We tied up a the fuel jetty at 06:00 and waited for the fuel guy to arrive. He did, just after 08:00, and I purchased 66 gallons of diesel which cost me US$222.00. We then cast off our lines and headed for the sea. As we were heading out from the dock, a fellow in a green shirt was busy shouting and whistling at us. I was so tired that I ignored him and continued on our journey. It was only later when I figured out who the fellow was on the dock - the St Lucia Immigration officer - we had not checked in or out! Oh well, maybe next time.

We expect to arrive in Sint Maarten just before sunrise tomorrow morning, get our load-gear and be on our way to Tortola within a few hours. Hopefully there will be no delays as we will then arrive in Tortola just after sunrise. At the moment there is a lot of packing and cleaning taking place on board. It is weird how much junk we actually have on board that will be thrown away before we hand over the boat to the Moorings representative.

It is fortunate that we did stop and purchase fuel - we have little or no wind at the moment and the engines are working overtime. Richard, on the 46' behind us was just transiting the channel between St Vincent and St Lucia this morning and is two days behind us. He is making for Tortola for fuel and water and hopes to arrive on Christmas morning. He is sailing directly there and will then continue his voyage to Fort Lauderdale, his final destination. I am sure his crew must also be looking forward to spending Christmas day with their feet on dry land.

Our "Ship Spotting" competition came to an end just before entering the Caribbean Sea. The final score was: Shaheda 7, Terry 6, Shaun and myself drawn with 12 each. So, we have a draw and will thus each have a bottle of rum to drink or take home.

I will put out a final blog report tomorrow but wish to take this opportunity to thank everybody for taking the time to follow my travels and hope that something of interest was found in my ramblings. I also wish you all a pleasant festive holiday and may the fat man in the red coat and white beard leave you something you wished for under your tree. Please remember to leave him a cold beer in return as his work generates a great thirst!

Regards from Shaheda, Shaun, Terry and myself, John.