I wasn´t planning to include this post, however Niklaus insisted that I should, as I almost destroyed his laptop... ooooppps!!! It wasn´t intentional!
What happened was we were heading to Han´s, since Niklaus had promised to buy Olivier dinner for helping him fixed his boat. Since the only internet connection that is available is at Han´s, we thought we will bring the laptop to shore and take the opportunity to check our emails as we had not checked it for some time.
So I packed the laptop into my backpack, as well as the torchlight (so that we will have some light to avoid any hazards when taking the dinghy back out to our boat in the night), hopped onto the dinghy and made our way to land.
As we approached the jetty (made out of numerous floatational devices linked together, so that it will bob along with the waves and changes in tides), Niklaus decided to stop at the front end of the jetty as the sides of the jetty were full (we have always stopped and tied our boat on the side). As I stepped one leg on the jetty, a wave must have hit the front of the jetty, and I was not able to get my balance.
All I recall happening next was, I must have tried getting my footing back on to the dinghy, and from the corner of my eye, I could see the dinghy drifting further away, exposing more sea water between me and the jetty. Before I know it, I was fully drenched! I had fallen into the water with the backpack on my back. Within seconds, I remembered that the laptop was in the bag and clamoured to get it off and put it on the jetty to avoid further water getting into the bag.
It was then I also realised that Niklaus was also in the water, and found out later that when I had lost my balanced, he tried to push me from the back to give me support from my sore back (earlier in the afternoon when we were getting back to the sailboat, Niklaus had bumped the dinghy harder than usual against the sailboat, and the impact shocked a nerve on my back. I had been in pain since then), and somehow got pulled into the water.
We quickly got on to land and first thing we did was to check the laptop. It must have been by some miracle that the laptop was absolutely dry - it had been wrapped in a plastic bag before placing into the bag, and only the plastic bag got wet. Another miracle was that my Spanish phrasebook was also absolutely dry (no plastic bag on this one!), as everything else in my bag was wet and had to be dried out.
Unfortunately the torchlight seemed to have gotten water, flickering for a few moments before dying out, and the mobile phone in Niklaus pocket seemed to be suffering the same fate when he had fallen into the water.
I felt cold and miserably in pain for the next few hours, as the soreness on my back seemed to have gotten worse with the cold sea breeze blowing on my wet clothes. I also suffered a few cuts on my toes, which probably may have been cut on some reefs when I had fallen into the water.
As much as I had hoped to head back to the boat to change into something dry, we could not leave any earlier as we waited to finish our dinner and Niklaus had to discuss some things with Olivier and Thomas.
So when we finally got back, the first thing I did was to change out of my clothes and boil some water to fill a hot bottle to place on my back, hoping to ease the soreness and hopefully pain-free sleep.
Also took out the battery packs on the flash light and the mobile phone and hope that it will dry out by tomorrow and be fully functional again.
What happened was we were heading to Han´s, since Niklaus had promised to buy Olivier dinner for helping him fixed his boat. Since the only internet connection that is available is at Han´s, we thought we will bring the laptop to shore and take the opportunity to check our emails as we had not checked it for some time.
So I packed the laptop into my backpack, as well as the torchlight (so that we will have some light to avoid any hazards when taking the dinghy back out to our boat in the night), hopped onto the dinghy and made our way to land.
As we approached the jetty (made out of numerous floatational devices linked together, so that it will bob along with the waves and changes in tides), Niklaus decided to stop at the front end of the jetty as the sides of the jetty were full (we have always stopped and tied our boat on the side). As I stepped one leg on the jetty, a wave must have hit the front of the jetty, and I was not able to get my balance.
All I recall happening next was, I must have tried getting my footing back on to the dinghy, and from the corner of my eye, I could see the dinghy drifting further away, exposing more sea water between me and the jetty. Before I know it, I was fully drenched! I had fallen into the water with the backpack on my back. Within seconds, I remembered that the laptop was in the bag and clamoured to get it off and put it on the jetty to avoid further water getting into the bag.
It was then I also realised that Niklaus was also in the water, and found out later that when I had lost my balanced, he tried to push me from the back to give me support from my sore back (earlier in the afternoon when we were getting back to the sailboat, Niklaus had bumped the dinghy harder than usual against the sailboat, and the impact shocked a nerve on my back. I had been in pain since then), and somehow got pulled into the water.
We quickly got on to land and first thing we did was to check the laptop. It must have been by some miracle that the laptop was absolutely dry - it had been wrapped in a plastic bag before placing into the bag, and only the plastic bag got wet. Another miracle was that my Spanish phrasebook was also absolutely dry (no plastic bag on this one!), as everything else in my bag was wet and had to be dried out.
Unfortunately the torchlight seemed to have gotten water, flickering for a few moments before dying out, and the mobile phone in Niklaus pocket seemed to be suffering the same fate when he had fallen into the water.
I felt cold and miserably in pain for the next few hours, as the soreness on my back seemed to have gotten worse with the cold sea breeze blowing on my wet clothes. I also suffered a few cuts on my toes, which probably may have been cut on some reefs when I had fallen into the water.
As much as I had hoped to head back to the boat to change into something dry, we could not leave any earlier as we waited to finish our dinner and Niklaus had to discuss some things with Olivier and Thomas.
So when we finally got back, the first thing I did was to change out of my clothes and boil some water to fill a hot bottle to place on my back, hoping to ease the soreness and hopefully pain-free sleep.
Also took out the battery packs on the flash light and the mobile phone and hope that it will dry out by tomorrow and be fully functional again.
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