I was quite worried about Sam yesterday. He seemed very out of things - having difficulty understanding simple commands or following conversations, unable to say anything clearly, not able to help much around the boat, and finding even simple routine things quite a struggle. It's difficult to tell what causes this. On the one hand there's a nautical sensory overload, with lots and lots for him to take in, remember, re-process and generally deal with, all of which is exhausting. On the other hand when Sam is on board the boat, although he has some interesting challenges getting about, his freedom is quite constrained and he can't walk more than two or three steps. So he has a mixture of tiredness and inability to exercise.
Anyway given that it was a busy Sunday and if we'd gone out into the fjord we'd have been motoring in the absence of any wind, and also to give Sam a bit more of a rest, we decided to stay a third night. We got out the folding bike and I found a drive-in (cycle in?) bakery, where I was able to stock up on artisan bread and organic milk at vast expense...not helped by the fact that I thought I was buying two buns when I was actually buying a huge Danish-pastry-loaf. Ben and I had already had a swim from the little beach.
This evening we gave Sam a solar shower*, which he really enjoyed, and then made the effort to get him off the boat, which is a bit of a spectator sport with people rushing to help. Ben hates that, as they tend to state the obvious (someone told us a couple of days ago "He isn't using one of his hands"!!) and then pull the wrong rope. But they all mean well and sometimes an extra pair of hands is useful. Anyway we took the Cobb up to the very pretty barbecue area and enjoyed the late sun - it sets about 10pm at the moment and you do get used to having long, long evenings. It was hard work but good for all of us - Sam walked up and down the pontoon, Ben rushed around organising things, and I focused on sorting out food and the barbecue instead of all the other things I worry about.
It's now Sunday evening and suddenly much quieter. There are still some holiday-makers around but most of the families have trotted off home. Both Danish and northern German schools are on holiday, but presumably mummies and daddies have to go to work tomorrow.
* A solar shower is a large sealed plastic bag with a tap, black on one side and clear on the other. You fill it full of water and leave it in the sun for a few hours, black side up, then hang it from the boom, and you get a free hot shower. The alternative here is to pay 4DKK (about 46p) a minute for a proper shower in the shower block, which Ben reports is almost as feeble as the solar shower. The logic of this escapes me, as showers on Sonderbørg town quay, where the mooring rate per night was less anyway, were better, hotter, and free.
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