#Captain Marina

Today was the start of Marina’s Birthday celebrations… in Ibiza you celebrate your birthday for a whole week, so it was Tuesday and Marina’s birthday was on the Saturday. Marina had hired a 5-man boat for the afternoon to cruise around to beaches and watch the sunset….. All 5 of us turn up with our hang over t-shirts on – Marina, Juliet, Laura, Paul and myself, rough as guts about to get on a boat that we have to drive ourselves…….So what do you do in this situation?…. You have shots!…….. Before we even get on the boat we are a man down, Juliet is too sick and heads home, then there were 4…..

Why are we hung over you ask?…. Well it was Juliet’s first night in Ibiza so we went out for a few quiet drinks…. You know that old chestnut. I ended up running into ‘New York New York’ DJ Uch and having drinks & good convos with him till all hours of the morning (#myibizacrush), Marina met a friend and they went to Es Vedra to watch the sunrise in his Porsche only to lose the Porsche keys off the cliff & was stranded so by the time she got home, I got home *cough cough* 11am…… Juliet was the only sensible one who was in bed whilst it was still dark yet she was the most hung over!… Laura had her last night at work so she had been drinking all night and Paul, well we didn’t know what Paul had been up too…….

Alright back to this day at sea…….We all hop on and it just feels that if a strong wind came along the boat would blow over and if we all stood on the same side of the boat it would definitely tip over, so it’s not the sturdiest of boats to begin with but for 30 euros each for 5 or so hours who is complaining….. Paul is designated driver so he takes in all the information and we set off out of the dock…… We are no less than 5 minutes in the boat and we crash into another boat that was towing people on a rubber donut and it happened in such slow motion that you knew it was going to happen but couldn’t be stopped…. Thank goodness it was just a small bump but it was enough to rattle our hung over souls… The boat driver yelling at us in Spanish did not help either….. Anywho we get out into the harbour and it is busy, there are boats everywhere and it was quite choppy due to this… I am usually pretty good on the water, I don’t get rattled easily but my heart was in my throat….. We decide that since our sea legs are not that great we will put the anchor down at the next beach….. Driving into the beach and Marina trying to be funny pulls out the emergency stop and the boat stops…. Now we are in the way of the ferry and drifting towards the rocks…… You would think ok, just put the emergency stop back in and start the boat….. The boat doesn’t start!…… By now Laura is well and truly freaking out and wants to get off the boat she is done. Paul is on the phone to the boat hire place getting instructions on how to start the boat again, he has no luck so now someone is coming to rescue us. The guy arrives in his rubber dingy and Laura is outta here she climbs onto his boat and says goodbye…… Turns out the boat needed to be in neutral to start again… I hold my tongue at this point because the first thing I said when we couldn’t start the boat was ‘Is the boat in the correct gear?’…… So then there were 3.

We set off again and decide to find a beach to anchor down at….. I sat right up the front of the boat whilst Marina and Paul drove, I started to feel a bit more at ease now….. We pull into a beach called Cala Bassa……. Driving into the cove there are already several boats anchored, Paul floats the boat in between a few other boats at what looked to be a safe distance and then we started to drift closer and closer and closer, Marina put down the anchor but the boat was drifting… There I am sitting at the front of the boat and I can see what is happening…..We are going to hit the boats, not just little run-about boats like ours I’m talking boats worth more than 10 of our little boats – we need to move, we are too close….. I turn around and Paul is on his phone not even paying attention to what is going on…. Marina and I scramble to get the anchor up as she is screaming at Paul to start the boat and get off his phone. He thinks it’s hilarious and we are freaking out, the boat is drifting closer and closer to a massive not cheap yacht whilst everyone on the yacht and surrounding yachts are watching us….. I just cover my eyes and hope for the best….. We came within millimeters of hitting this yacht….. I was beginning to think Juliet and Laura had the right idea when they got off this sinking ship……

We head away from the beach and Paul is driving us mad, he starts heading towards the rocks and is laughing spinning the boat around, really winding us up…. Marina and I are livid, as you can imagine we are so rattled we just want to be still, not be near any boats or rocks and just go for a relaxing swim, it’s now 7pm so we decide our best bet is to cross the sea and head for Café Mambos and anchor down in time for the sunset….. It was around this time that we realized that Paul was not quite sober he was indeed a drunken sailor, he neglected to tell us that he was still drinking at 10am this morning!….. Now everything makes sense! Marina takes charge and drives the boat, Captain Marina to the rescue for smooth sailing here on in…… Marina’s phone starts ringing at it’s Laura, she was just checking to see if we were all still alive…. And it just so happened she was walking along the beach we were near – Let’s Pick up Laura!…… I don’t even know how Marina did this but she managed to get the boat in close enough so Laura could jump back in the boat!…. We have 4 again!

We drive over and anchor down at Café Mambos along the sunset strip, what a way to end the day. We get to be those people in their boats watching the sunset that everybody hates! It has such a great vibe down along the sunset strip, you can hear the music from the boat, lots of boats start pulling up, guys cruising around selling cocktails and drinks in their rubber dingy, people are swimming, everyone is sitting all along the rocks drinking and dancing, it truly is amazing!….. When the sun slowly goes down the whole of the strip starts cheering and clapping, it’s such a great experience that just never gets old…… Time to take the boat back and get back onto dry land….. Not going to lie I was pretty happy to have my feet back on solid ground!