Junk!

On a slightly overcast Saturday morning, twenty people piled into a pristine white junk to sail off to Sai Kung, the garden of Hong Kong, for some fun. The organiser, J. H., told us how the caterer had calculated the amount of food per person in terms of pounds.
"She said, 'You need to order some more food - everyone only has a pound of food each'," J. H. said, "And I was saying, 'There are a lot of girls coming, I'm not sure everyone will want a pound of food!'"
We probably had half a pound of food during the hour and a half trip to Sai Kung. As soon as we sat down we were surrounded by platters of fruit, sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres, crisps, chocolate wafers and apple crisps. When we arrived at Sai Kung the deckhands spread out lunch - barbecued meat, vegetable stir-fry, fried rice, meat lasagna and Caesar salad. The caterer had been right - we demolished everything like a swarm of crickets in an Egyptian wheat field.
"The water is clear today," Chinese Sad Associate said, "I mean, at least there isn't any tissue floating about or anything."
Hong Kong is the Fragrant Harbour afterall. I reasoned with her that at least the water here in Sai Kung was diluted nuclear waste.

Two speed boats picked up the adventurous who wanted to try wakeboarding - you trail behind the boat on something similar to a snowboard - while the rest of us lounged around on the top deck. Inevitably as the day grew hotter and hotter, the boys and some girls dove off the top deck into the cooling water. One girl lost a diamond earring in the process, while another had her bikini top come undone. The more careful ones - myself included - took to the water from the steps along the side of the boat.

The water was cool, but warm currents ran under my knees. An animal zealot had brought her two pet dogs, so a couple of people chucked the smaller one, a wimp of a cocker spaniel, into the water. It swam, but it had swallowed some of the salty seawater.
"It's wheezing like an asthmatic," someone noted. The owner had to rinse out the dog's mouth for the wheezing to stop. The bigger dog, an Alaskan huskie with one brown eye and one ice-blue, didn't bother to go near the water, preferring to stay inside the air-conditioned cabin. I came back onto the side of the boat, dripping sea water everywhere. The sun was fierce and I had already burned my back while swimming. I went up to the top deck with a cold bottle of beer to chat with those already lying comfortably on the white mattresses.

It started to rain on the way back - thunder and lightening rolled and crashed around us. We pulled down the plastic covers of the boat from all corners.
"I'm feeling seasick," Chinese Sad Associate whispered to me as the waves sent the boat rolling up to the skies and back down in a second.
"Let's try to sleep," I suggested. So we spread ourselves on the benches and tried to ignore the churning sea underneath us. The rain spattered onto the plastic in a crazed manner. Everyone else was busy talking about the day's events, but the two of us slept until we reached calmer waters and a rainbow was out.

When we got back on land, I tilted my head to one side and felt the sensation of the boat's rocking movement again.