Caught in the eye of the storm

Freaky Friday (Eliza)

We went to have breakfast and then we played for a little while then our boat came and we got in it in and we went to Norisqui Island and we first played for a little while and then we went to have lunch very hungrily and we had rice and chicken and a bit of bread. It was very delicious.

And then the whole family went snorkelling and we saw lots and lots of blue red big fish. And then Monty got a little cold and so Mummy and Monty went to rest on the island. Jemima hurt her foot on the corals and there was blood. Then me Jemima and Daddy went snorkelling out in the deep bit and we saw two turtles and a humungous fish. And then we went back to tell Mummy and Monty and Mummy and Monty wanted a go and then Monty changed his mind so Mummy and Daddy went to see the turtles and the big fish.

Well then we went to the boat and the man said he would go round the storm which was coming and we went round the storm but suddenly there was loads of thunder and lightning and rain and it was very very very very scary. “Golly goujons!”. And we hadn’t gone round the storm after all. Then we went to an island before our hotel island and there was a man that Daddy talked to while me and Mima and Monty and Mummy saw a very wet parrot. And then we went back onto our boat and we got to our hotel and when we got there another storm started. And then we got changed and we had a shower and then we wrote this blob.

In the eye of the storm (Hugh)

A great morning’s snorkelling (turtles, parrot fish, wrasse), but a rather spicy journey home. Having been driven around by a couple of youngsters the day before yesterday, I think we were fortunate today to have our trusty usual man, of indeterminate age, but with so few teeth we must have seen this kind of stuff a few times. It would have been nice to have the youngters’ boat though – our man drives a bath tub with an engine on the back, which needs a few things doing to it frankly. The front seat had collapsed on the way out as we hit a big wave so this time we were relegated to the back seat.

The boatman welcomed us with the news that we would have to do a big detour to get back to Gran Roque because there was a nasty storm brewing. And so there was. We had only gone a mile or so before we were hit by a downpour of biblical proportions. The rain was seriously painful on the skin, the team huddled under towels, and before you could say “Davy Crockett” you couldn’t see more than 20 yards from the boat. Very eerie to be in the eye of the storm – no wind at all, and lightning striking only 50 yards from the boat. Not ideal, and really quite loud. We took shelter in the lee of an island and stumbled ashore to wait out the storm for 20 minutes or so. Standing around with some other refugees of the storm, we mulled over the situation. None of those present were really sure what happens when lightning strikes a boat. We asked the boatman, who shrugged and laughed, conveying in that rather typical South American way of looking at things, that if your time is up, then that is the way of things and there is no point trying to avoid the inevitable. His only other comment that I could understand was that there were enough bad guys in the world to make it unlikely that this misfortune should happen to him. Fair enough, and he is entitled to his view, but I am more into taking evasive action. On this occasion, there is probably nothing that we could have done other than got out of the boat, which would have been far more dangerous I imagine. A famous Venezuelan baseball star died last year (apparently) when the water near him was struck by lightning and he was mega-zapped.

After the storm had gone, the boatman merrily jumped back in the boat and we followed suit. The journey back was very rough, a few more things seemed to fall off the boat, and we made it back just before the next storm hit. More luck than judgement I would say. Apparently it hasn’t rained here in Los Roques since January so maybe the boatman hasn’t had that much practice after all.