We have lots to do to prepare TIMSHEL for being laid up in the boat yard while we go home for a few months.  It seems to be de riguer out here to wash the whole of the inside of the boat out with 50% white vinegar, so I am working my way round the lockers.  We are going to move into the small marina opposite he boat yard for a few days before we get hauled out.

Meanwhile we had a very sociable evening with members of the Cruising Association at the excellent Marina restaurant, we’ve been to the main town on Grenada, St Georges and went on a wonderful Turtle watching trip.  The female leatherback turtles come ashore at night on a beach at the north end of the island to lay their eggs.  We got to watch a turtle dig a deep hole in the sand, lay 125 eggs, carefully fill in and camouflage the area then make her way back to the sea.  It is of course dark and you are only allowed to have red lights so as not to distract the turtles.  In all we saw 7 females on the beach then our guide found an earlier egg deposit that was hatching out, and tiny hatchling turtles, perfect miniatures of the adults, struggling out of the sand then down the beach to the sea.  Turtle photos courtesy of Lynne and Steve of Aztec dream as we had not take a camera.