It’s evening. I’m lying on the sofa, nervous about tomorrow morning’s Uni interview.

When they organised the teacher-training interview, I did the classic time-screw up. Aberystwyth Uni wrote to me to arrange the interview via Skype. Would 10:30am be ok? Sure, I thought. School would be finishing off by then. I could speak to them on the boat, or even arrange a lift to shore and have the interview at Luciano’s, the smart cafe down the road.

No, of course they meant 10:30am their time. Duh. I’ve made that screw-up so many times since we’ve been away, you’d think I wouldn’t make it again. Now I have the interview at 6:30am my time. Which means it’ll be before school. Just. It’ll be getting light outside.

I’ve been planning it today. I may be able to do the interview outside. Especially if it isn’t raining. It rained all night a couple of nights ago though, so who knows. If not, I’ll have to face having it downstairs – where either the Ormerods will be sleeping or they’ll be listening to my first interview in twenty years. I think I might brave the rain.

My friend, Silke wrote to me that her partner, Geoff reckons too many people are intimidated by interviews. He says that we should treat interviews as simple conversations. I treated this info like a welcome guest. Until I realised you still need to know what you’re talking about. We’re not having a conversation about Bonaire’s dive sites. Or Atlantic sailing routes. Those are easy chats. Why do you want to be a teacher though? Huge bumbling mess.

I decided I needed to swot up. Enter YouTube. Five most common PGCE interview questions broken down. A couple of hours – and then a long snorkel to go over it in my head. Plus, if you go down to the Something Special dive site at the end of the mooring field, you can see some interesting things. Two eagle rays today, fish and turtles eating the scraps by the fishermen’s dock. A bunch of garden eels poking their heads out of the shallow sand.

But wait. Concentrate. How would you deal with bad behaviour in the classroom? Apparently the Scottish YouTube instructor said a lot of people plain don’t know how to answer this interview question. They often say they have no idea. I’m ready to talk about setting high expectations. Being consistent. Not letting bad behaviour slide. Luckily I know that anyway from living on Quest! And my insertion: respect from both sides. You can’t ask for respect unless you give it. Definitely been watching a lot of Cobra Kai.

I came back to Quest. Had a shower on the back transom. Another question: what makes a good teacher? I hung up the wet cozzies lying on the cockpit floor. Stick to two main things: passion for the subject, and behaviour management. Add reflectivity and maintaining the long view.

Meanwhile, the sun set – and it was a glowing corker. Dinner, girls’ homework. Lie on the sofa.