Yesterday we sailed from the south of St. Vincent to a bay on the west coast that's named Wallilabou. It is a very scenic bay with an arched cliff in the north corner, ashore you find buildings that look old but if you look behind the front you'll discover scaffolding. That's because the village was built up for the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack Sparrow stepped ashore on the same jetty as we did. Led by a local boy we took a short walk to the waterfall, the waterfall wasn't that exciting but the road that led to it was. Our guide showed us nutmeg trees and cranberries. We also got to meet the donkey that played a part in the Pirates movie, he was very sweet. Sadly we never met Jack Sparrow, but our guide persisted to tell us that his name was Johnny Depp. But he was a bit too young for us so there never was any romance with the pirate, if you don't count our fantasies while walking around in the small village.

We had decided to sail to St. Lucia during the night, usually the wind eases a bit during night so we thought that would be better for our new crew members. We armed them with a steady dinner and seasickness tablets before we left around 9 pm. It didn't take long before the calmness gave way for a strong gale blowing from the direction we wanted to go forcing us to sail close hauled. The ride was very bumpy, I could see how clouds with strong gusts and rain were closing in on us. I reefed the main and started to furl the headsail, but something was wrong with it. The problem was hard to fix while the boat was heaving and surging into the sea, rushing big waves of water along the foredeck making it impossible to go there without inflating the lifejacket. Instead we took the second reef in the main and then we were alright. Although the wind decreased to a normal gale after a while the waves continued to push us around. Something that our new crewmember Jane wasn't too satisfied with, she decided to make a sacrifice, her last dinner. Later she told me that it wasn't her best night, but she'd had worse hangovers. Cecilia on the other hand coped very well with the waves and could sleep down in the saloon when she was off watch. But she had taken a stronger seasickness tablet maybe that did the difference. Next time Jane is going to try one of those as well. When we got close to St. Lucia in the morning the waves became smaller and I could go on foredeck and take the furler apart. We furled the headsail and motorized to the anchorage outside Soufriere.

Here we have had a lovely lazy day ashore, a snorkelling trip around the boat and a well deserved hair wash in saltwater. A sun downer made of vanilla rum and fresh lime topped with nutmeg completed the vacation feeling and made us all very tired and ready to go to bed early. / The Captain

Tonight we planned on giving you some updates of the last couple of day's happenings. But as usual when sailing, you can't plan. We met some French people on the beach here in Mayreau and they insisted on inviting us for dinner, and when you have a broken fridge and was thinking of making a vegetable soup, you simply cannot say no to aperitif, fish to the main course and a cheese dessert. Thank you guys for a wonderful night. But to all our dear readers, stay tight, more updates will come. Love from Cantare /First Mate.

Position 2100 UTC: N 011° 25' W 060° 43'

Yes, we are finally open water divers! Yesterday we did the two final 18m dives, which went good, now we can continue diving on our own, it feels great! The dives took place at a famous dive spot called Little Tobago where we experienced amazing water clarity and stunning corals. Shoals of tropical fish swam around us and we also saw a turtle, a green moray and a barracuda. The huge ugly moray with its scary mouth came rather close and suddenly it tried to snap at my fins. Luckily it quickly disappeared after having realized my fins wouldn't be tasty enough for supper. Not only the fact that we had passed the padi dive course was a reason for partying yesterday, we had another reason. The other reason was to welcome Cecilia, our next visitor who has arrived and is going to sail with us for almost a month! We picked up Cecilia, or Cissi as we call her, the day before yesterday in Scarborough, a tired Cissi who had travelled for 42 hours on five different flights. That is what we are calling a true sacrifice for joining Cantare, we are so glad to have her here!

Yesterday we celebrated the open water cert and Cissi's arrival big time together with our new dive and sailor friends. We had dinner at the dive centre and then continued limin' pretty much all night long. After having spend as much time as nine days on Tobago (yeah, we liked Tobago very much!!!), we are now out sailing again. We are on our way to Grenada and the capital St Georg where we have been before. Not only the outstanding showers in Port Louis Marina are tempting, also the reunion with our old friends from Johanna and Time Out. We are sailing butterfly with our two fore sails and are doing good speed. However, it seems like it is going to be a rolling night without much sleep, Cantare is fighting the waves and we are all having a little strange stomach feeling. All right, the party last night may also have something to do with the strange feeling in our stomachs, we will see whether or not it is going to be some fish feeding to night. Nighty night! /First Mate

To lime, that is to spend time with friends doing nothing, something that the Tobagonian people do a lot, and also something that we sailors are familiar with.

Life here in Charlotteville is very peaceful and pleasant. We start the day with a simple breakfast (the fridge is broken again) in the cockpit, watching the beautiful Man of War Bay come alive. Fishermen swimming out to their boats, sailors going ashore in dinghies, cars and animals moving around on the main road just above the beach. We change to bikini and a dress, pack our bags with dry underwear, get into Volare and try to get ashore without getting wet, sometimes a bit hard when landing on the beach with braking waves coming in from behind. We lock our dinghy to a street light just above the beach, although no one else does, it has become a habit from the Grenadines but here it's actually not necessary. Then we say good morning to the people we meet on our way to the t-junction where our dive teacher picks us up. We drive over the hill on a very winding road and we practise our equalising while going down into Speyside. Speyside is not as charming as Charlotteville but it's where most of the serious diving is done. Today, for the first time, we went out on the dive boat to Little Tobago and did our first ocean dive. Though, we only went three meters down. We did some of the skills that we have done before in the pool and practised more on the hovering. It's fantastic how you can adjust your level in the water just by breathing, but we are still struggling a bit with the buoyancy, and sometimes we did involuntary crashes into the sand bottom. When we got back to the dive centre our teacher opened the bar and told us to write in our new log books, dive one is completed! Tomorrow it's time for a 12 meters drift dive, exciting. Diving is also about relaxing, under the water, perfect for lazy sailors. But after a day with many new impressions we are tired and hungry. Arriving back in Charlotteville in the afternoon we go for lunch on one of the local places. You choose between chicken or fish and then you get rise, macaroni pudding, lenses, potatoes, green bananas and salad. It's the same at all the places, now we have come to like it. If the fruit and vegetable truck is in the village we go over to it and check what's left. Last time there was no lettuce or tomatoes, but the man promised us that if we come back on Tuesday he will have it for us. We will be there. Here are more fresh fruits than in the Grenadines, bananas are back on our menu. After lunch we are usually more tired and ready to go back to the boat for a siesta. We unlock Volare and push her out into the water, jump in quick and try to get out before the next wave crash over us. On our way to Cantare we always meet some other sailor, today we were invited to a German solo sailor. Although we had planned to take a nap and then clean the boat, which is much needed, we ended up staying there until sunset. Tomorrow Cecilia, a friend of mine, arrives. We don't know when, but hopefully we will be back from the dive. If not, I'm sure some of the sailors or local boys will entertain her. Limin´, that's something we sailors are good at. / The Captain

Now we have settled here in the little beautiful bay outside Charlotteville, a charming and very friendly little village on Tobago. So far here are no boat-boys driving around in their little boats refusing to leave you no matter how polite and friendly you are, saying no thank to their services. Instead, Tobagonian men tend to accept the fact that we don't always want to date them and are satisfied and smile back to us when we smile and say no thank you. Charlotteville is situated on the fringe of the rainforest and the surroundings here are absolutely stunning, we like it here very much. However, so far we haven't had time for any rain forest expeditions; instead we have gone back to school, this time another type of school, a dive school. Ever since I did two discover scuba diving dives in Egypt last year I have longed to learn how to dive for real. Maria hasn't been that keen on learning but I have got company since she decided to at least try. So now we are both really tired after a full day of dive theory, however we passed the theory test and to quote our dive master: "tomorrow the fun starts". Tomorrow we are going to practice the basic in a pool and then, if we can manage the scuba unit we will later continue out in the real ocean. Tobago is very famous for diving because of its astounding water clarity, enormous shoals of tropical fish and stunning corals, and hopefully, we will experience some of this. On the other hand, there are strong currents in this area which one has to consider and diving itself isn't without risks. We are aware of the risks and have signed up on a dive school where safety seems to be a first priority, and I am also pleased with the fact that we are fully covered by the insurance company Europeiska. It's still early in the Caribbean, but since it's getting dark around six o clock here, one's body tend to think it is bed time any time after that, so we are off to bed now, nighty night! /First Mate.