The morning of July 27th--at breakfast-time--I realised what a major miscalculation I had made. I really should have known better, but somehow I'd ignored all the danger-signs. There was no tea.
All right--I'll be the first to admit it; I'm a tea-oholic. I cannot function properly without tea. Preferably Twinings Earl Grey with a lot of sugar. My tea-consumption can easily reach heights of twenty-five bags a week. Now however I was all of a sudden living without. I'm not going to make a big deal out of the way my knee jiggled or how I was having trouble keeping my eyes up, I'll just mention that it was hell.
To take my mind of the tea we decided to go for a little trip in the row-boat. It wasn't too bad of a boat either--old; I'll grant you that--it seemed to be in one piece and we didn't have to bail or anything. The oars were a different matter. I wouldn't really call them oars, they looked more like a pair of well-used giant tooth-picks. The blades had nearly eroded away entirely, and I found it amazing that they at all worked the way they were supposed to.
Now getting out of the estuary was a time-consuming experience. The tide was coming in, we had the wind against us and as mentioned earlier; the oars would do a better job as fire-wood or a cheap flag-pole. It should also be known that we weren't entirely focused on the task of getting out; two electricians were trying to fix something from the top of a mast, and we were rather disappointed by he fact that they weren't watching us; even though we strictly speaking weren't wearing too much clothes. At last we decided that if they were going to ignore us we would ignore them too.
With all the forces of nature against us it took us--well; Sunni, anyway--nearly two hours to row the 500 meters to the little reef we were heading to--two bloody hours. And I must say that the reef was not all that interesting, and we were having major difficulties tying up the boat. Sunni had managed to get a nice set of blisters from the rowing and I had a rather nasty headache from sitting with my forehead against the wind. I don't even think we stayed for more than fifteen minutes; that was the time it took us to finish the soda and grow bored. Then we spent another eternity trying to get the boat loose again, Sunni had to jump out and push while I tried desperately to manoeuvre our way out with one of the oars. The darn wind kept trying to throw us against the reef and rowing seemed impossible. Come on; tell me the weather-gods aren't against me! Tell me the wind-demon doesn't try to make my life difficult! I dare you. Once we'd managed to get back around the reef we were free. We hardly even had to use the oars, we just drifted in the exact direction we wanted to go.
The trip back took fifteen minutes. I timed it. That is a speed increase of 800 percent! Yes--I'm cursed and I know it.
Oh--and we found a dead heron, but that had nothing to do with anything.
Introduction