Mireille Day

again the next day and to repeat that task as well.

Yeah.

Well, it did start off, we were having a party and because it being Christmas, we had celebrated Christmas, we celebrated New Year, we celebrated Jean's birthday.

So it was, you know, very much a party time.

But, and I think overall that from other accounts I've read of people, strangers getting on the boat and sailing somewhere,

It could have been a lot worse.

We argued about food, about, you know, you're having too much muesli and I didn't get my share of muesli.

We argued about dirty dishes being left in the sink, all the kinds of things that, you know, students might argue about in a shared house.

But nothing ever came to blows, and I've read accounts where that has happened and crew will ostracise one member.

I mean, it can be devastating.

It never, ever got that bad, and in the end we realised we...

We were literally on the same boat together and we had to try and get on.

That was the worst day, probably.

And I think we were on rations by that time and quite lethargic.

And there'd been a big storm and we woke up this morning and I saw water running down the galley steps.

So it was coming from somewhere, even more water than we had.

It had got into the food.

We had wet spaghetti, you know, wet everything.

So Jean had said...

you better grab your passports, we might have to get into the lifeboat.