The old fortifications and buildings in the park continue to fascinate me. We walked up the ramp towards the fort then carried on straight on into the woods. There were hermit crabs and lizards everywhere. Descending to the north side of Cabrits you come across the surreal picture of nature swallowing up the old Douglas Bay Battery. Cannon are laying where they were left 150 years ago and Fricus trees extend their roots around and through the old stone walls. A fabulous experience every time we visit. On the way back we walked up to the old Commandants quarters and on to the restored fort. Fort Shirley has been carefully restored but doesn’t hold the fascination of the ruins in the jungle. The views over Prince Rupert Bay are great and there is a magnificent Mango ... read more

We arrived safely in Dominica after 2 days travelling (which should have been one day) and with no luggage - thanks to LIAT, the Caribbean airline (either Leave Island Any Time or Luggage In Any Town). But we did have our beautiful home, a fridge for cocktails and a view of the Caribbean sea to die for. Five days later we had both our bags, a car, a fridge full of food and drink, and we were ready for the arrival of our guests. The ferry was late arriving due to a whale sighting en-route from Guadeloupe, so the skipper slowed down and drove in circles to let everyone see - only in the Caribbean. Val and Craig squeezed into our little car and we got them back and settled into Mango Lodge. For a week ... read more

Whatever next? After Anne and Joe left, we started comedy of errors - or was it a tragedy. First there was the visit to the doctor when Kate’s eye swelled up. After 15 minutes she had some cream, tablets and a 150 euro bill. After a little disagreement, Kate calmly said “what I am going to do is say thank you, give you 50 euros and leave now”. And she did - she was spectacular! Then after a couple of nice days we planned our passage east across the Aegean, but by then the weather was against us so we had to wait a week in Skopelos for the gales to go away. The high point of that week was being invited for cocktails onboard the beautiful “Margaret Anne”, a 97 foot sailing boat that oozed ... read more

We are now in lovely breezy sailing conditions - so much more pleasant. We crossed through the opened bridge at Khalidi (tidal currents of up to 7 knots) at midnight amongst all the other boats milling around waiting for the radio call from the coastguard. You can imagine the chaos. Stopped off at quite a few cute little places on route but nothing spectacular. Although we do get very excited about big supermarkets and lightweight bread (rather than the doorstop variety) Andy has started making flat bread on board for times when we have run out - very tasty. The Bobster Rap We decided to write and perform a rap song for Oliver’s 4th birthday. We had great fun writing the words and whilst we were in a remote anchorage, we made a video of us ... read more

In our third and fourth weeks we went from Kythnos to Siros, Mykonos, Rinia, Delos and Paros. There were some fabulous sailing days with good winds, calm seas and clear skies. We saw dolphins a couple of times (Common Dolphin we think) moving along with young ones - we took time out to drift and watch. In Mykonos we moored in the “marina”. This is much like most marinas in Greece - built with 13 million euros of European money ten years ago and still incomplete and unmanaged (and in this case built on the richest island in Greece - just where the investment wasn’t needed). Rant over. We got the bikes out and cycled the 2 miles into Mykonos town each day. A complete contrast to other islands, Mykonos is highly touristed plus takes 3 ... read more