12th March - seasickness - leaving Langkawi

Wednesday 12^th March

2XS will be safe here, in company

Monday morning while I was looking at a drongo in the jungle, Pete was up, busily preparing an enormous pot of chili con carne.  We invited three, then five, then an exponential number to come and eat it.  (Robyn, Craig, Jake, Jacqui, John, Marina, Bill.)  They were all wildly enthusiastic about Pete’s cooking it was indeed one of his very best chilies; I was a bit sad there were no leftovers.

A lot of discussion and amusement re the different sizes of knees...

When the last of our guests had left, I asked Pete if he knew what the time was.  Oh, around 10pm?  No, Pete…It was 3am…And yes we enjoyed it all very much.

The owners of the knees - John, Marina, Bill, Pete

Lots of chat, lots of travel stories, sailing stories, discussion of books, movies.  And…amongst the women…the perennial theme of…seasickness!  Jake and Jacqui have been living on their beautiful yacht, Hokule’a, for five years, and I think they lived on their previous boat for seven years before that.  They have sailed from the USA, across oceans, amongst islands. And…Jacqui is always seasick.  What a courageous person she is!  She loves the cruising life, and puts up with constant nausea while they are doing ocean passages, with a few drugs to take the edge of the horror of it all.  Jake said he always thought seasickness was all in your head.  He would say to Jacqui, Get over it; toughen up; it’s all in your mind.  Kindly but not helpfully.  And then – oh yes there is a god – on an overnight trip a few years ago he got seasick, for whatever reason, and, as we all do, thought he was going to die, and then started hoping for death.  So Jacqui no longer hears the dreaded words, It’s all in your mind.

Jacqui and Jake (Christmas at Rebak)

Remember lovely Sam, our trusty Sail Indonesia organiser and troubleshooter?  This photo has appeared on his facebook page, with the caption below:

Now, i am in a big trouble. This two months old baby boy claims that I 
am his father.

This baby could not have a better father; Sam is a wonderful man.  (And…very brave; he is the same age as I am…)

At 12.25 we are flying away from our safe haven in Langkawi, up and away to mainland Malaysia – non-watery adventures for the next three or four weeks.  So…sailng2XS will be…2XSersonland…