WRITTEN BY PALLAVI
ON THE SOUTH PACIFIC EXPEDITION FROM TONGATAPU TO VAVA’U
We were all feeling pretty sorry for ourselves.
It started out well.
We left Nuku’alofa in very good spirits, excited for our first overnight sail.
The ocean was looking vast and beautiful and the weather report was good.
It was going to be a good night on the water.
And technically it was in sea and weather terms.
But less so for most of us in the crew.
The guest crew that is, not the professional crew. (They’re called professional for a reason.)
One by one we started dropping like flies.
One person emerged from the cabin.
“Don’t go down there,” they said “it’s really hot, you’ll feel sick.”
But what is one to do when one needs to use the facilities?
One must go down into the cabin.
And it’s amazing how quickly it hits you.
The heat.
The sudden sheen of sweat all over your body.
The queasy motion sickness.
And then it doesn’t go away. Even when you’re back on deck in the fresh air.
I was feeling even more sorry for our poor skipper who had to help me in my seasickened vomiting state (sorry again and thank you again <3 )
Her top tip was to lie down and get horizontal as soon as possible.
It worked. The queasiness subsided quickly and remained that way as long as I remained horizontal.
Technically this was nothing.
We were sailing on a relatively pleasant night in Tonga, not on the stormy crossing from New Zealand endured by the South Pacific II team on the leg before us.
I don’t think any of us would have made it.
When we dropped anchor on the beautiful uninhabited island of Kelefesia, we were jubilant.
Land ahoy.
