Two long tables are spread with curry, rice and pasta dishes, as well as over-sugared cakes. Covered in floor-length black polyester, women buzz around the spread, eyeing my colourful baggy trousers and long sleeve tunic with deadpan expressions.
Nature, culture, wildlife: all important elements which make travel enjoyable. But for Jamie and me, it’s the people who make it memorable.
Esper’s bow disappeared under water, shooting the sea into the cockpit. I was astonished at how warm it was. Jamie released the sails, then furled them, to give the wind a smaller target. His hands bled from rope burns, and the din of whipping lines and snapping canvas made me flinch. But we were upright.
“This isn’t as bad as I expected,” I said to Jamie, as we sat on Esper in the slipway, waiting to be hauled out.
He didn’t bother to reply. We were coming to a rolling boil in the midday heat, and any attempt at conversation or movement was painful. Millie lay on the floor in the saloon with ears twitching. She began to pant and stared up at me through the hatch. What hell-hole have you brought me to now? she seemed to be saying.