I could kill for a cup of coffee right now, but the safety switch to our gas supply broke last night. Luckily, it was just after dinner. It wouldn’t turn off after cooking, and when Jack disconnected the plug and play wires to the safety switch, it wouldn’t turn on at all. It was as if the switch to the LPG was blown.

But still, it could be worse. The switch could have blown half-way across the Atlantic. Wait. Is this the period of time before a long passage where everything starts to break – just before we go? Shhh. I didn’t say it. I didn’t say that things start to break just before we leave. It has never happened before. Urghh.

Of course, we still have to lift Quest out of the water for about an hour before we go. Until now, we were planning to pop the thirty-five nautical miles over to Curaçao to lift Quest up. Now, Curaçao has just entered a strict period of lockdown. Apparently, just driving around the island in Curaçao is tricky.

Hmm. Well, there is Sint Maarten, higher up the island chain. We have to go that way anyway to get home. This means we have to sail the four or so more days depending on how much north there is in the wind – with a leaky prop shaft. We should be ok. We have had a leaky prop shaft for a year or so already. Just a little drip-drip. Not a little drip-wait, where did the propellor go?

I’m spreading around a little pre-journey anxiety here. Sorry. It must be the lack of coffee. But still, while I’m working on schedules, we have another thing to juggle. Two weeks ago, InterHigh confirmed that instead of sitting normal exams in May and June and the tons of summative assignments which have been duly done, Lu’s year will now also be sitting exams, in-house (at home) and in April.

Knowing that we have to start moving, I wrote to the head of exams at InterHigh and asked whether it was necessary for Lu to sit them. The message being from them that they were ‘in-addition’ to the rest of her assignments, not part of the total average. Did I receive a reply? Nope. I wrote back a week later, after receiving a formal timetable – spanning the last three weeks of April. Did I receive a reply from that? Nope.

I then wrote to Lu’s form tutor, who asked Lu to stay in touch on this matter. Did I receive a reply? Well, that one I’m still hoping for. The exams guy I’ve given up on. He said very generically in Friday’s assembly that if we wanted flexibility in the timetabling we should write to all Lu’s teachers to request it. Because her teachers who are already working hard, and are now being faced with extra marking, are going to love that. Apparently, they have also just been put in charge of juggling the timetabling.

I will write to them though. Unfortunately, I have no other option. Right after I have that coffee…