By Kate Davenport BBC, Grand Bereby, Ivory Coast

There is a huge commotion each time a boat arrives

Hundreds are arriving in Ivory Coast every day, after more than three days and nights on the Atlantic Ocean.

I witnessed chaotic scenes in the coastal village of Grand Bereby, in south-west Ivory Coast, where refugees stop for fuel before continuing to Ghana.

I counted 10 boats, carrying 90-100 passengers each, dropping anchor in the bay.

As soon as the brightly coloured little boats appear bobbing on the horizon, it caused a huge commotion on the beach.

Hundreds of refugees who had arrived a day earlier began gathering up their meagre belongings and rushing towards the water.

The women and the children were vomiting, there was nothing for them to eat Boat captain

They were fighting for places in wooden dugout canoes rowing them out to the fishing boats.

Some of the canoes capsized causing general pandemonium, but everyone was very good humoured and waded to safety.

Day and night

Small boys swam out with big blue plastic barrels full of fuel.

As other weary travellers were being ferried back to dry land, a captain of one of the fishing boats told me about the journey.

"The journey is not very bad. But the women and the children were vomiting, there was nothing for them to eat. It was not easy," he said.

He said that they were travelling during day and night.

He told me they were headed for Ghana.

These people have been in a situation where they have just been running, and they have run so many times it has just become a way of life.

Some of them did say that they had managed to hear through short wave radio news that Kofi Annan had asked for a peacekeeping force to go to Liberia.

They were hopeful that United States President George Bush would do something.

They said that maybe they would be able to get back home again if the long civil war was definitely over.

'Promised Land'

But there was just no way that they could stay there with the current mayhem.

For now most of the refugees are desperate to continue the journey onto Ghana.

The refugees need fuel to continue their trip to Ghana

Which means another three-day journey on the high seas.

These boats, often painted with the yellow, red and green colours of the Ghanaian flag, with names like Messiah, and Promised Land, appear to be the only hope for many who have left everything behind.

They do not want to stay in Ivory Coast, which is now also afflicted by civil war.