Bob went back inside the cabin. The door slammed shut and we could hear more cursing, and then Bob emerged again. He came running towards the beach, holding something in his hand. He was shouting for me to hurry up. I asked him why and he just said, 'We have to hurry.' He ran back inside the cabin as I ran to meet him.

I was terrified. What the hell did he find? When I got to him, I saw the gun. It looked like a revolver, and I was afraid he had found a dead body and the gun was the murder weapon. But then he held out a black plastic bag, and inside was a dead fish. What a silly fear! I burst into laughter and he laughed too.

After a while, Bob said that he couldn't swim because he had an ear infection. And there were no life jackets to wear.

"Well, you're not swimming then," I told him. "I'll go down, and I'll swim out, and then you can swim out behind me. That way, you can feel like you're swimming without the risk of drowning." It seemed reasonable to me. But Bob was having none of it. He didn't want to get near the ocean at all.

I gave up trying