Speedboat to 2015

The planks over the sloshing water on the bottom of this boat bend under my weight when I try to climb back to give the hyperventilating German teenager room to sit. She's been visibly distressed since 25 of us scrambled aboard a different wooden boat 45 minutes ago, the deck pitching violently in the waves. And now, after a splashy 20 min ride to moor against a speed boat where we are swapping out half our passengers, a short float over to this more decrepit boat, and half an hour of bobbing in the waves, she has descended into full on tears and shaking knees. Why did her seemingly very nice family drag their aquaphobic daughter to this paradise of tiny islands in the Andaman Sea. Someone empties out a plastic bag of seashells and give it to her to breath in and out of. I'm pretty sure that works better with a paper bag.

We had booked a speed boat to Koh Lanta, not a couple of hours marooned on a floating jalopy with happy snorkelers paddling nearby, but when on an adventure, this is all part of the fun.

Yesterday we were the ones laying serenely face down and staring at tropical wonders through snorkel masks. Cuttlefish and Nemo-fish. A profusion of live coral - waving and grassy, undulating midnight blue lips that contracted into themselves when I dove down near, tangles of stags horns and shelves like mushrooms on a rotting log. Fish with all manner of stripes and polka dots and electric blue fins and needle noses and tendrils rising from their backs. 

I've now been lifted aboard the 45 passenger speed boat we booked (I think) by two Thai boatmen who I easily outweigh combined. I caught a smile flit across the lips of the poor German girl before we started moving, only to be followed by one last bout of fetal shaking, finally put to rest by a studly yet kind stranger engaging her in conversation. She was not the only one relieved. 

2014 brought more satisfying highs, prolonged lows, and Major Life Events than I have experienced in a long while. On balance, I am more than happy to sacrifice the year's last 15 hours to the international date line and kickoff 2015. No arguing that last year ended on an idyllic note, though. Morning swim through 80 meter sea cave to reach a beachy grotto aptly described as Emerald Cave. A seemingly delightful Thai woman digging her elbows into my spine, feet into my thighs, knees into my buttocks, fingers into my eye sockets. A round of Citadels with people at the loving core of my life. All in a tropical paradise.

And I have a great feeling about 2015. At sunset on the 1st, the sea cradled me under sky and cliff and moon, the last light of this new year iridescent on the ripples.