The final straight - all hands on deck.

We are now in the last week before the ship sails from Trogir and heads up to Germany.

As the time has got closer, the whole ship's company has become more and more focused on getting ready to sail.

This last week, all of the onshore houses have been getting packed up and families possessions brought on board. On Thursday the school finished for the last time here and everything from the school and the villa brought on board.

We emptied most of our house out on Thursday, with a few things left to bring on board the day before the ship sails.

As we have approached sailing, the work has become more intense as we realised how much still had to be done and how few days there were to do it.

On Friday we went onto longer working hours for everyone, 7am to 6pm, to try and get more done. Some people onboard have already been working very long hours to get the ship ready, particularly cleaning the engine room.

Saturday was also a full work day and everyone who possibly could went down to the engine room to help clean and tidy up ahead of a Port State Inspection before we sail.

We passed our ISM audit this week with surprising ease, no doubt due to all the prayer, and many other surveys have been completed. But before we leave there is one final test - the Port State Inspection. This has to be done at least every 6 months and we haven't had one since the ship came here. The port authorities have to inspect the ship to ensure it is safe to sail.

We have been told that the local inspector is particularly interested in the cleanliness of the engine room, hence the need for extra cleaning. If he is not happy with the condition of it, he can stop us sailing, and many parts of the engine room have not been cleaned for years.

So from 7am yesterday, many of us who are normally seen behind computers, donned overalls and really got our hands dirty.

Heather was keen to come and help but several people that she asked if they would like to babysit said they preferred to work in the engine room.

I ended up working with a team doing some repairs to the main engine exhausts in the funnel. Some of the heat insulation had come away and this had to be replaced before we could sail. It involved working in dark, cramped, dirty spaces in the funnel and was physically very demanding but we got the job done and were very relieved when we got finished, some time after 7pm.

There is still much to do in the next 2 days as we continue to prepare the ship for sea. We have been told that the ship could roll up to 35 degrees. No one really knows because this ship has never sailed as it is now, with new decks and many other changes.

When the ship sails, we will leave the next day, hopefully Thursday and drive up through Italy to Switzerland for a weeks break before heading up to Germany to meet the ship again.