Killing of British sailor in St Lucia was 'shattering end' to dream voyage A St Lucia Police spokesman said: "Officers received information that three armed men had boarded the vessel, attacked and injured the occupants before they fled... Within minutes of the robbers fleeing, Margaret went in search of her husband and found him floating in the nearby waters. Roger was retrieved and transported to St. Jude Hospital via ambulance along with his wife. He was pronounced dead on arrival while Margaret was treated and discharged. Three persons are currently in police custody assisting with investigations. Police said an earlier report that one of the suspects was shot dead by officers was incorrect, and stressed that they would not know the cause of Mr Pratt's death until a post-mortem examination is carried out on Monday. Mr and Mrs Pratt had both retired recently after running a successful management consultancy business from their home in the prosperous hamlet of Moreton Paddox, near Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. After years of detailed preparations for their dream trip sailing across the Atlantic and around the Caribbean, they rented out their house and set off from Lowestoft, Suffolk, last July. The couple sailed to Portugal and the Canary Islands before welcoming aboard Mrs Pratt's brother-in-law, retired plastics factory manager Bryan Riley, 63, and his daughter-in-law, paediatric nurse Lucy Riley, 26, for the 23-day voyage to Martinique in the Caribbean. They sailed on by themselves to St Lucia in time to celebrate New Year's Eve and Mrs Pratt's 60th birthday on January 8. Mrs Pratt's sister, Jenny Riley, 58, a teacher from Beccles, Suffolk, said her family was "totally shocked and shattered" by the tragic news. She continued: "Roger had been preparing for this voyage for several years. As an experienced engineer, his attention to detail was second to none. The boat was prepared immaculately for worldwide cruising and he was very safety-conscious. They had been planning this trip for years and had gained deep-sea sailing experience by cruising extensively on the South Coast and around Europe. To sail across the Atlantic and explore the Caribbean was Roger's dream. Mrs Riley added: "It is a tragic, shattering end to their dream." The globe-travelling couple, who had no children, kept an online diary of the travels, in which they recounted that a friend had insisted that they leave a crowded beach on St Lucia on New Year's Eve out of fears that "it could turn ugly." Mrs Pratt also wrote in an entry hours before the robbery that local officialdom had prevented them from continuing their voyage last Thursday. She said: "Bureaucracy intervened. HM Customs and Excise in Soufriere told us that exit had to happen within 24 hours of clearing out, and that anyway, we couldn't clear out of Soufriere that day because the Immigration Officer hadn't come to work. Prayers were said for them on Sunday at church services in the Mid Fosse parishes in Warwickshire, which include Moreton Paddox. The Rev John Parker said: "They set off on the experience of a lifetime only for them to have been set upon, it seems, by robbers in a crime that appears to have gone horribly wrong. Our hopes and prayers are with the family and particularly Margaret, and we wish her a speedy recovery. The Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club, where the couple were members, said it was "stunned and saddened" to hear of Mr Pratt's death.