I always say I will not venture out in the scorching hot sun but do I learn? We decided to go to the reef this afternoon and it was quite a drama.

We had booked the entire boat for our family (over 20 people) and the agent decided to pull a fast one and pick every ‘passenger’ he could find.

Basically, matatu vibes.

Anyway, we got to the reef, everyone was snorkelling, swimming, burying each other in sand as one does while at the beach, when we realised MV DOCTOR (the name of our half glass bottom boat) had gone back to the shore to pick other passengers.

Fair enough.

What started agitating everyone was that we were literally stranded at the reef for over an hour and a half. Eventually, we got help from one of the other boat operators who called Juma (Captain Friday) to get us.

We watched him slowly make his way towards us then anchors in the middle of the sea as he allowed the new batch of passengers to snorkel and marvel at the zebra fish.

Dehydrated, sunburnt and irritated, we all heaved a high of relief as Captain Friday’s passengers disembarked to make way for us.

When asked why he took so long, he said in a singsong voice, ‘Ahhhh Mombasa raha!’

We never, ever argue with that logic because if you know, you know.