It was time to leave St Croix and head back to the eastern Caribbean, we had hoped to go to Grenada but the wind direction was from the south east so we decided to go back to St Martin. The route would be close to the wind and the sea conditions were light which made it a fairly easy passage, to put out the fishing line to see what we could catch soon we had a bite but the fish managed to get off before we could land it. Later on we were able to land a nice sized barracuda so fish supper when we get to St Martin. There was plenty of shipping about during the night lots of cruise ships and we were treated to a fire work display although a couple of miles away we could enjoy the display. We arrived in St Martin just before the 1130 opening of the Dutch bridge so we were able to carry on straight to the lagoon and anchor there.

A short stay here this time just long enough to rest and get a few bits and pieces then it was off out and on to Martinique. This trip was going to be a bit harder as Martinique is 240 miles south east so a lot of beating into the wind. The beginning of the journey was quite pleasant the course was good and we were making a good speed, we could see lots of black smoke ahead of us and the French coast guard was organizing a rescue, we were making our way towards the boat that was on fire but a motor vessel was much closer and easily rescued the two crew. Our route took us down past Saba Eustacia, St Kitts and Nevis then down the leeward side of Montserrat, all these islands have volcanoes and all were shrouded in cloud. The next morning saw us sailing down along the Guadeloupe coast, once off the island the wind speed increased so time to reduce the sails, next came Dominica which has a very long coast and by nightfall we had almost reached the end of the island. We decided just to go under the foresail to slow the speed to enable us to reach Martinique in daylight as the French fishermen put out lots of pots that are almost impossible to see at night.

We had a nice sail along the coast up to St Pierre and then it was head winds all the way into Fort De France. Once we had anchored and tidied the boat it was time to go ashore and check in, this is much easier on the French islands just a case of filling out the forms on the computer, printing it and having it signed. Now it's time for a bit of rest and relaxation.