When we woke up this morning, strangely very early, we noticed how calm it was. There were no waves and we cold easily see the starfishes on the bottom. We spend the morning getting in and out of the water, enjoying our last hours in heaven. Cecilia asked me if we couldn't stay a bit longer. But if we were to take the shortcut through the reef we had to leave when the sun was high so that we could eyeball navigate our way out safely. Yesterday I got the girls to hoist me up in the mast so that I could get a good view over the passage which the pilot book describes as a very narrow channel that requires real local knowledge. Since the trip to the anchorage was tricky I thought this short very distinct passage would be much better and it would also save us hours. Of course the girls were up for an adventure. The conditions were perfect, sun behind us from a clear sky and small waves that made it easy to see the colour of the water. Without any problem we made our way through the reef, big braking waves on our sides. On our way to Port Louis, a small fishing village, we talked about how wonderful the day was and how we wished we could stay another day. Since Ariana arrives tomorrow that's not possible, we intend to sail or motorize during the night to be on Antigua in the morning. We took Volare into Port Louis to check out the village and maybe have a nice dinner ashore. When we had tied up the dinghy we strolled on the small empty streets wondering why there weren't much people around. The village had an atmosphere of long gone splendour and we couldn't find an open restaurant. We bought beer and cheese in an open shop and started to walk back to Volare. The whole time we got small sand corns in our faces and on our way back they became more and more annoying. After a while we could see grey dust of ashes on our bodies. A local we met had told us something about a volcano and that causing the big dark cloud that had blocked out the sun in the afternoon, now that suddenly made sense. Volare was covered in ashes and it was hard to keep the eyes open on our way out to Cantare. Cantare is surrounded and covered by greyness and we can't see very far from the boat, it's like being in thick mist. We all took a quick swim to get rid of the worst dust and now we are hiding inside, waiting for it to get better. After reading a bit in the pilot book we now have a theory. Montserrat a small volcanic island, situated NE of Guadeloupe, resumed activity 1995 and is still active, that must be the cause of the ashes. Our problem, we need to go to Antigua tonight, maybe we will have to do it in goggles. / The Captain