Never thought Delphine would be difficult to work with. I mean school can be hard, hard and difficult – but it is usually hard for me. Delph’s got her own personal bespoke teaching service. Ha! She’s starting to sleep later and later every day.

So late, Lulu had been working for a whole hour this morning before Delphine considered stirring. Even then, she decided against it and rolled right over.

Lulu watched from the saloon. ‘Right,’ she declared, ‘that’s it.’ She stood up and bounded towards her sister’s cabin.

Delph didn’t exactly take it well. Lu got pinched and whacked before she managed to exit. Then Delph came out, sat down and glared at us.

‘What?’ her sister exclaimed, ‘I was just trying to wake you up.’

Delph kept glaring. ‘Well, if I had wanted to wake up, I would have woken up myself!’

It leads me to wonder: is this a phase? Is she moving from homeschooling to boat schooling with a necessary rebellious period in between? Is Delph unschooling herself from home schooling? Does this even exist? If so, do I just leave her to find her own interests, like that Trinidadian lady who let her kids find theirs? After all, her kids are just entering the University of the West Indies (UWI). That’s not an easy University to get into.

The truth is, Delphine hasn’t really wanted to do much since she got here. Miss Hannah, her dance teacher sent her loads of dance videos to follow. She hasn’t wanted to dance. She used to draw and paint on Quest all the time. Not interested right now.

She does like hanging out in her room and watching tv. Her cabin has become her safe haven. Ok, maybe this is unsurprising as she didn’t have a lot of private space at home. And since Lulu’s been so up and down – like the rest of us, Delph has been an unwitting audience.

Lulu doesn’t exactly want to hang out with her sister either. When I think about it, they haven’t since we were on Quest last time. I’d taken it for granted because they’d spent so much time together. I’m not sure what’s going on now. Perhaps Delph’s hoping her sister will want to hang out with her again?

It’s hard to watch your kids swallow disappointment. With Quest as our sensitive space – I feel I’m watching it up close. One kid has just had her young heart broken. A seemingly perfect boyfriend back at home, ticket paid for him to come and visit us at Christmas. Except he’s told Lulu his feelings have changed and he no longer wants to come – or be with her anymore. Maybe some boyfriends are only perfect when you’re physically there.

My other kid seems to be retreating from the world. I’m not quite sure why. I made her come out and read last night – and she did a good job of it. Read for near on an hour. Then she ran back to her room. I’m hoping tomorrow will drag her out again.