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Like a tortoise we woke Erimar from her long winter slumber as we clambered aboard her naked form, stripped bare of her seasons plummage.We had arrived on cue thanks to our regular French chauffeur Taxi Nicolas. He was at Nantes airport when we arrived holding a card with “Wood” emblazoned in black and we gathered around him like adolescence would with their teacher on a scool trip, or an avangelist preaching the word to his believers.Follow me I`m the pied piper.

Our friend Dave had joined us for this trip as he had a longing to sail the English Channel and revisit the Scillies and we were pleased to have him onboard.

With only 36 hours until our launch time was precious so we got on with the anti fouling while Mandy made the boat habitable.The winter must have been harsh like home as the cold seemed to have got into Erimar`s bones.We started the engine and the battery alarm fired into life screaming in pain as though we were forcibly bending her arthritic joints.We also thought the alternator had suffered heart failure over winter but it turned out to be merely a bad connection,like a blocked artery that cleared  and her heart  pumped her blood charging her system once more.It was good to have Dave on board, our own Mr Fixit!

Erimar had suffered a few winter niggles but once she was back on medication and in care her health steadily improved.The launch went smoothly as she was led to the waters edge, back to where she belonged,almost rid of her ailments, to be bathed in her holy water, as if on pilgrimage to Lourdes,finally free of pain.