Another bad night’s sleep with only one day to go: At least I could immediately cross laundry off my mega list of things still to do though and Simon’s early morning check out at with the ARC office was very quick. At 10.30am we stopped our chores and loading laptops into bike bags cycled to the club to use the wifi. I was unable to change my mobile contract and Skype my family so leaving Simon swearing at his laptop with the sporadic connection I resorted to chatting to my boys on the mobile while looking out across the marina. I longed to see and hold my babies. At 11.45 we had to swiftly depart for the skipper’s briefing at the hotel.

   The atmosphere was excited as we took our seats for our last briefing. Communications information and weather reports were given followed by a very uplifting speech from the head of yachting for St. Lucia who told us the whole island was looking forward to our arrival. We called into the ARC shop on the way back and bought the essential ‘been there- done that’ T-shirts then went our separate ways, Si returning to the club to use the internet and me zipping off for fresh bread. I stopped to contemplate along the harbour wall cycling back and looking out to sea wondered what things would look like tomorrow. My calls to Ami and Julie must have sounded very excited.

   The afternoon felt strange: Months / years of planning and listing then here I was following my ‘anti rattle stowage plan’ and going through my last ‘to do’ list. We agreed to be finished by 7pm for a G&T then headed off for our pre-departure crew supper. We wished we’d booked as numerous other boats had the same plan. A table was found for us at Pier 19 though and sitting close to our table two weeks ago I thought how much we have crammed into our time here. There hadn’t even been time to see the old town or cycle across to the main beach the other side of the north-east peninsular. Dinner was lovely again then after some final sorting it was a late night with mixed emotions in my head.