We finished on the yacht today and then hired a car out to go and have a look at a bit of the island before I leave tomorrow.

My flight is going to be a bit of an ordeal. Check-in at Piarco International at 0400 hours and then leave at 0600 calling at the following:

- Grenada
- St Vincent
- St Lucia
- Antigua
- St Kitts
- St Maarten
- Tortola

I've also had a complete communications failure through being unable to top-up in Trinidad the Digicel SIM card purchased in St Vincent,(according to the helpline this is a problem that 'they' are trying to address.); my UK SIM card is 'locked out'; and the Internet cafe at Peakes has no connection - joy!

Spent a day or so preparing the yacht to be taken out of the water and pleased to say that the operation was carried out very professionally by Peakes and all went very smoothly:

Not much wind about so we had to motor down to Trinidad.

A beautiful sunset on the way down:

Go through the Dragon's mouth in the morning:

Into Chaguaramas bay:

and then the necessary:

Just before we left Grenada we filled the diesel tank from some cans Andy had stored on the yacht. Unfortunately, one of the caps had worn through and I got covered in diesel.

Had to resort to some drastic measures to try and get the diesel out:

Spoke to one of the taxi drivers who agreed to take Andy and myself on a half-day tour of the island.

The devastation caused by Hurricane Ivan (7th September 2004) and then by Hurricane Emily (14th July 2005) is still evident throughout the island.

Following the hit by Ivan, 39 people lost their lives, 90% of homes, and more than 26 schools were damaged. 80% of Nutmeg, Cocoa, banana and other agriculture trees were destroyed.

Some of the other places we visited:

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Called up Dive Grenada on the VHF and booked in to do a couple of dives tomorrow. Their dive boat is moored in the marina where we are so it's a straight-forward lift there and back.

The dives were okay, nothing brilliant about either of them but didn't really get any decent photo's. Would've liked to have dived the Bianca C but they weren't doing it that day.

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Andy and myself took a stroll into St Georges to try and find an Internet cafe and a chart for the passage from Grenada to Trinidad.

Couldn't locate an Internet cafe but we found a small scale chart that'll enable us to sail the passage to Chaguaramas. Unfortunately, the chart is 7 years old!

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Sailed down from Carriacou to Grenada and moored up at the marina in St Georges.

The first thing you see as you enter the marina is the old hotel that was used as a base by the Cuban advisors back in 1983. According to the locals, this is the first thing the Americans destroyed when they invaded:

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We clear-out and leave Union Island at 1130 and motor sail down to Hillsborough Bay, Carriacou to clear into the Grenadan Grenadines.

A slight problem with no-one being present at customs and immigration but fortunately Andy has the foresight to go to the police station and inform them of our arrival. (Apparently, fines of up to $600 US have been levied on those who have failed to do this!)

There is a little bit of a party in Hillsborough tonight so we join in, have a good laugh, a few goes on the karaoke and then make our way back to the boat.

Departed St Vincent at 1030 this morning and a nice beam reach to Bequia. Unfortunately the sail only took an hour and a half but we're now moored in a brilliant location off Port Elizabeth, 50 yards from the beach.

Two dives are booked with Dive Bequia for tomorrow, but first it's Saturday night...

Departed Carlisle Bay and Barbados this afternoon and we've an overnight sail to St Vincent. Averaging around 7 knots so we should arrive in Kingstown around 10 am tomorrow morning.

Left Simone's flat today, it was really great of her and Remond to put me up for a couple of weeks. Still haven't been for a single dive with her yet - ah well, maybe later this year or next year!

Moved my gear onto Andy's yacht, Modi, this afternoon and had a look round and familiarised myself with the systems and layout.

Had problems at immigration so we'll have to clear out tomorrow morning and then depart Barbados around 1600 hours.

Jim and Jed (who have been diving with Roger's Scuba Shack this week) have put me in touch with a bloke, Andy Oates, who has a yacht in Carlisle Bay.

Andy is an ex-UKSA student and offered to give me a lift across to St. Vincent where I will be better placed to catch a lift to Antigua. Yee-ha!