For insurance purposes due to Hurricane Season we had to be below 10° latitude. Prickly Bay in Grenada was only a 24 hour sail North from that, so we booked it up and made that our home for the 6 month season; May to October.

Just after we arrived we had the most incredible privilege to go to witness the giant Leatherback turtles lay their eggs. They return to the same beaches every year, which during nesting season are closed to the public. To visit them you have to book up and pay a fee which obviously helps to maintain the hatching programme.

Whenever a turtle came out of the sea there were the experts from the university checking their tags, counting the eggs, helping dig deeper holes when needed and even relocating the eggs to safer spaces once the turtles had swum away. It was utterly, utterly incredible. A once in a lifetime experience.

Mornings were spent exercising Franco, ourselves and then running around doing chores and boat jobs. Lee found a gym and I found a vaguely safe running route. And I found yoga. Namaste Mo Fo’s. The afternoons were too hot to do anything much and then late afternoon, once the heat of the day died down we would have a quick shower and head over to the bar.

The Prickly Bay Bar was the central hub for the sailors and most would head over about 1700hrs for Happy Hour rum punches, beers and a game of Mexican Train. People would join in, come over and say hi and generally catch up with everyone. Everyone helped each other out with boat jobs so it was a really friendly place to hang out. They also did half price pizza nights and $1 wings, so it was normally cheaper to eat there than get shopping in.

Fairly regularly I  would collect Mike’s crazy dog Binky after she had jumped ship and swum to shore looking for fish. The super posh hotel guests adored her as did Jane and Julie who owned the dive shop. After a catch up on the beach I would then swing by Mike’s boat to collect her sister Luna. We’d then spend the day with 3 dogs roaming around the boat. Utter heaven!!

In between the bar, walks, beach and dogs there was the issue of shopping. Now this would involve a taxi. Which were AWESOME. They are minibuses that are pimped out to the extreme. Think fully lined with purple vinyl and studded with large diamanté buttons, like a shite Chesterfield sofa, and the music and bass would be enough to make your ears bleed. Every single one was different, the only common denominator being you feared for your life.

If you wanted them you would give them a wave,  they would jump out, stop the traffic and everyone would shove up and make space for you. Just when you thought the taxi was full, another 5 people would be squashed in.

On your return, they would squash you in the taxi and hand all your shopping to everyone in the taxi to hold onto. Absolutely brilliant. This always made up for the hideously expensive food (think £14 for a tiny head of broccoli) and a 2 month dry spell with no salad.

Despite the fun I only managed to last about 3 months. Holy crap. I have never felt heat and humidity like it. It was akin to what I would imagine the heat from Satan’s arse would be like after eating a Vindaloo. Most days were in the high 90’s with almost matching humidity. The sea became the temperature of pretty warm bath water and there was just no respite.

I have a medical condition where I am unable to control my core temperature, but the medication I take for this wasn’t working as my body was just too hot. This combined with the utter delights of the menopause meant eventually all I was able to do was lie on the bed under a wet towel with fans on me. Due to this, Lee promptly booked me a flight home under the guise of kindness, and then commenced 2 months of partying in Grenada.

I flew home to Mum and suddenly I could function again. 2 months was spent catching up with family and friends and going for walks. Utter bliss.

Ecmo came for a holiday and was a fabulous little addition who settled in immediately. Hoover couldn’t really have cared less!

After 2 months I flew back to Grenada where Lee and I did a quick handover and then he also returned back to the UK for a couple of weeks. He came back just in time to fix the watermaker and generator I had kindly broken for him, and then preps were made to shape up and ship out!!

We hauled out and spent an absurdly wet week in the marina apartments whilst Lee and our pal Paul fitted a hydrovane and other repairs and I did the antifouling.

We collected our dear friends Dai and Sue who were joining us for a holiday, and sadly said cheerio for now to our beloved Mike, Luna, Binky, Janey and Julie. Never goodbye. And off we went back up North.