DRAMA ON THE HIGH SEAS!

September 5

The weather packs up and Willem holds a conference: should we risk the rescue or should we head for home? Seas forecast to be storm force 4 which is apparently not good. Unanimous decision (yep, me too – sorry Mum) we keep going and effect rescue.

No chance now of setting my clomping feet on the soil of another land but we all line up along the rails and watch Willem, Malia and Fergus zap off in the buzz-boat to this weird dome thing. It’s huge-a-rama.

We wait, but not for long, then this stream of people starts climbing down the side of the dome. Handy footholds set into it, so quite easy. Gotta tell you, folks – they don’t look promising. They all wear the same dreary kind of dress thing and their hair is all the same length, and if they’ve got a hairdresser on that island I vote we leave the fecker behind.

We think we’ve got them all off except for the last few when all of a sudden about six of them (turns out they’re girls and for those of you interested they might be okay with a haircut and some decent clothes) chuck a net over the side and next thing we know the crew is hauling them out of the waves. Damn lucky they didn’t drown or get bashed to atoms by waves. I’m telling you – it’s rough out there right now.

But wait, there’s more! Willem was just giving the signal to leave when more of them turn up at the top of the dome. They’ve got a stretcher (although calling it a stretcher is a bit of a stretch, ha ha) and there’s a girl on it and she’s in the middle of giving birth would you believe? So that’s what all the hooha was about – they didn’t want to go without her. Gotta say I admire their spirit, but I totally would not like to be in their shoes once Willem gets hold of them.

This ship is thumping around in the ocean. Me, I rather like it. I think this is what being on a roller-coaster must have been like. AND I’m not sea sick. But looking at the Taris lot, I’m picking there won’t be much call for my kitchen skills for a day or two.