(Sea)legless

2 July 2006

The weirdest thing happened today. We had our annual summer party, which was once more a great success, with lots of people attending from near and far, great food made by me and Mum and beautiful summer weather … and I didn’t take a single photo. There was simply too much eating of food, admiring of new camper vans, entertaining of young neighbours, talking to friends, showing of Galapagos photos and being hostess to do. However, next Sunday Helen, Lauren, Suzy and I have a picnic planned in Knole Park – so fingers crossed for another beautiful day and maybe I’ll get some good shots.

Talking of taking photos, when I have 154 photos from just one day in the Galapagos Islands and I whittle those down hard and still end up with a set of 53 photos, you begin to see just how much there was to see on this holiday. On 5th June, our second day on the boat, we visited North Seymour in the morning and Plaza Island in the afternoon.

We sailed to Plaza Island after lunch and the sea was rather choppy. Suzy suffered rather with the bouncing around and the stuffiness in the dining room and excused herself to go upstairs. I found that the choppiness was much reduced for me if I simply shut my eyes, so I stayed put and, I think, had a little kip on and off.

Eventually I made my way upstairs to the deck and just about managed to stagger to our cabin; the swaying of the boat being a million times worse at this higher level. In our cabin the bathroom door was shut, but within a minute or so, Suzy emerged looking paler than I’ve ever seen her. I suddenly felt very bad for not realising how ill she’d been feeling.

She collapsed in a heap on the floor and I sat with her wondering how I could help. She started to tell me what had happened in the bathroom and was suddenly laughing hysterically as she recounted how she’d painted the wall with sick, covering her washbag with her lunch and had then promptly headbutted it as she stumbled with the lurching of the ship.

A few days later I suggested to Suzy that she might want to try a little tipple before bed to help her sleep. Being on the top bunk and sensitive to the movement of the boat, she hadn’t been sleeping very well. So that evening José provided Suzy with a rum and coke that made her giggle. Great, I thought, this should knock her out well and she’ll have a better night.

The trouble is, either the drink wasn’t strong enough, or it was too strong, or the caffeine of the coke counteracted the sedative effect of the alcohol. Rather than having a peaceful kip, Suzy found herself not just rolling around in her bed as before, but rolling around drunk. Which is apparently not as fun as it sounds. Meanwhile, I slept soundly and soberly in the bunk below.