The contents of an old diary dating from 1965 recounts one person’s memories of a fateful sailing holiday. A sailing holiday that will never be forgotten.
We set sail today from Dover to enjoy our planned holiday of sailing to the Carribean. I don’t know why we didn’t think of doing this sooner - and after some years without a decent holiday it really is a welcome break! There are five of us on board – myself, Sam, Ed, Jo and Rob. All of us are looking forward to this trip and we’ve supplies to last us a month in the hold. It should be fun.
The sea breeze is wonderful and bracing, the sun is warm and bright. Rob and Ed are having a heated debate about the latest football scores. Jo is sunbathing and Sam is reading up on Edgar Allen Poe. I myself am enjoying watching the world go by and the fish swimming past as our boat just sidles along. It’s great out here – we should do this more often…
Terrible storm last night. Boat destroyed and sank. Rob, Ed and I managed to scramble to safety on a large piece of driftwood. We’ve ended up stuck on some god-forsaken island in the middle of nowhere. There’s no sign of Jo or Sam. Using our survival skills we’ve set up camp and lit a fire in the hope that someone will see it and rescue us.
Using an improvised fishing rod and net we went fishing today. Ed and I caught a good many fish and Rob used his culinary skills to provide us with a decent cooked meal from our catch. We’ve plenty to drink as there is a fresh water stream nearby and some edible fruits in the trees. I think of Jo and Sam……I wonder if either of them made it to safety.
We went to investigate the signs of smoke coming from the other side of the island today and got quite a surprise. We bumped into Jo – she made it here too! Sadly, Jo told us of how Sam got swept away and has since presumably drowned. We had a good old reunion party and joined Jo in eating a meal she had prepared earlier, made from a dead wild boar which she had found on the shore.
Jo is acting very strangely. Keeps crying to herself and reciting prayers all the time when she thinks no-one is looking. She has undergone a really strange transformation since we found her. She is no longer the happy-go-lucky character we all once knew and has become depressed beyond imagination. She keeps sobbing, praying and muttering “I’m sorry, so sorry” to herself a lot. Still no sign of any rescue in sight.
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