The three hour boat trip to Rovinj in Croatia from Venice was a bumpy one. Stormy conditions mean that the sea was “not good”, to use the exact words of one of the female crew members and so our little covered catamaran was jolting up and down like an amusement park ride. The crew was handing out blue paper sick bags left right and centre and one lady to our right was not well at all, based on the number of blue bags being passed her way. I instructed Jason not to look in that direction and I also averted my eyes, being prone to both seasickness and gagging at the sight of other people being sick.

The boat was full of Dutch people, part of a tour and one of the men came crawling back from the toilet along the floor, calling ‘Help, help!’ This was his little joke – he couldn’t stand properly due to the rocking of the boat – however I don’t know how amusing this was to the crew.

There were many interesting characters on board actually – despite the stormy conditions, there was one guy who was in his speedo bathers (basically, his underwear) and a linen shirt, which Ryker and I found particularly funny. He was swigging wine from a bottle the whole way there (don’t blame him, in a way) and occasionally offering it to his ten year old son (who was also in his underwear, ahem, bathers). Another Dutch guy was taking obvious delight in filming his family as they bounced up and down in their seats. A good contender for the Dutch equivalent of Funniest Home Videos, no doubt.

As is often the case, we forgot all about our tumultuous ride once we arrived in Rovinj.

Note: the boat in the image above is not the one in the story.