Donkey Dancing

Isn't it odd how it takes a day or so for muscles that have been put under sudden strain to complain fully. The day after our near-fatal swim, we both felt very tired but neither of us was too sore although my biceps felt like rocks to the touch. But the morning after that was a completely different story. We both felt as though we had been danced upon by donkeys!

My pectoral muscles are still aching, my legs ache and so do my arms, and my abdomen feels as though a donkey had kicked it particularly hard. Robbie has similar aches.

I am still shuddering every time I remember the sight of Robbie suddenly going limp in the water and seeing nothing but the middle of his back for too long to draw any other conclusion than that he was unconscious and must be rescued immediately. Luckily that image is reappearing in my mind less and less often as the hours and days pass. Time is, indeed, a great healer.

Simon flew back to the UK a couple of days ago but has been calling us regularly to check that we are OK. Tonight he told me that he had walked back up the quay three times, thinking he had heard a faint cry from somewhere and then deciding he was mistaken - with all the clanking of halyards in the marina and the wind blowing in the wrong direction it's a miracle he heard anything at all at that distance - but, the third time, he was certain and he figured it had to be me shouting.

He told me that he had run all the way to where the marineros keep their boat and got them mobilized instantly - I hadn't recognised either of them in the dark or their boat but then I wasn't very aware of anything at the time, except how incredibly cold I felt and how cold Robbie was too.

All three declined the invitation to supper - they must have known we'd both be feeling the effects by the following evening and we certainly were! We have stayed aboard except for a quick trip ashore that Robbie made this morning, to get some provisions and we have watched quite a few old movies together. I work on the Internet and listen, mainly, and Robbie watches properly.

The little portable DVD player that Ivan and Svetlana aboard Cristina VII gave Robbie for his 60th birthday (on the 200th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar) is so handy to put wherever you want and the reproduction is excellent. The screen is quite big enough for two people not sitting too far apart to see a film on.

It has been lovely to spend the time cosily in the port cabin letting our battered bodies recover and drinking lots of tea, the British answer to all ills...