The taxi was booked to pick us up from the marina at 4am on Sunday, October 5th. But apart from the fact that it was still the middle of the night, all was well. Magic was settled in her berth, all her canvas had again been removed and was stowed below, and she was as secure as she could be. Chris and Barb on 'Moonsail' had been looking after Clarkes Court Bay Marina for about a year and were going to keep an eye on her for us. We packed our bags into the taxi and headed for the airport.

We had a long day in front of us. From Grenada we were flying to San Juan, Puerto Rico where we had a long lay-over before our flight to Miami. From Miami we would catch a flight to Baltimore and were due to finally arrive there at 11pm. We did arrive in Baltimore by 11pm and good friend Kevin was waiting to pick us up and drive us down to Annapolis.

We spent a couple of days in Annapolis running errands before we had to catch our British Airways flight to London on October 8th. We arrived at London Heathrow at 9am on Thursday morning. We had been expecting Lorna to meet us, but Amy had surprised us and was also at the airport. There was just over a week to go before the wedding and we had a long list of friends and family we wanted to catch up with during that time. Dave also had fittings to attend for his morning-suit and although he had written it some months before, we had his 'Father of the Bride' speech to touch-up. The time before the 'big day' passed in a blur but finally October 18th was upon us.

The morning of the wedding dawned sunny and bright. It turned into a beautiful day and although it was breezy the sun shone all day. The service at St. Mary's Church, Boreham was lovely. Amy looked radiant, the bridesmaids were beautiful and Scott, the best man and the ushers were all very handsome. After the service everyone dispersed to Crondon Park Golf Club for the wedding breakfast and reception. Again, all the arrangements were perfect and everyone had a wonderful time. At midnight it was time to say 'good-bye' to Amy and Scott who were leaving that night for their honeymoon in the Maldives. We were staying the night with Sue & Steve, the good friends we had seen less than a month before in Carriacou, so along with another good friend, Martin we jumped in the taxi and went home.

The next day we had a wonderful Sunday lunch with Lorna, Daniel and some very good friends with whom we exchanged stories about the previous day. We had a very quiet Sunday evening, and then on Monday we headed for Heathrow once again to fly back to Baltimore. Tuesday saw us at the airport again, and another long day to get us back to Grenada. By 10pm we were back on board. Magic was in great shape, and although hurricane 'Omar' had done its best to devastate much of the Caribbean while we were away, Clarkes Court Bay had experienced nothing more than heavy rains.

We now had to come to a final decision as to what our next destination would be. Undoubtedly we had to begin to make our way back north to the USA and work. Our allotted time (and cruising kitty) was coming to an end and we had to go back to the real world. We had originally wanted to go west to Bonaire where, we had heard, the diving was fantastic. But that would mean making our way through the Venezuelan Islands. The number of reported boardings, robberies and piracy attacks in Venezuelan waters had been increasing during the summer and as a result we finally made the decision to head back north, the way we had come. There were some islands, including Antigua, that we had not seen on the way down and this would give us the opportunity to visit those. Decision made. Now we just had to get Magic ready for the return trip.