When it says "sleeper: You ain't sleeping.

Another "sleeper" experience. This time a boat. "Show up at 11pm and you are at the island of Koh Tao by 6 am. No NO don't take the midnight boat; to rough, no blanket and pillow. This better, comfortable." I wished Cindy had been there we would have been cracking up. Well I bought the ticket and showed up at the pier at eleven but could not see my boat. There was a boat there but this boat had all kinds of things on it's deck. Gravel and bricks, wood and other building materials in haphazard stacks, cars, scrap metal, old engines, vegetables in crates, chickens in cages and people in bunks. Yes people in bunks. On the deck, but with a roof and sides to the "bunk house". That was my boat. I wished Cindy could have seen this sleeper. I took the rusted out teeter totter of a plank from dock to deck and made my way over the building supplies and around the chicken cages to the bunk house. It was dark and I was glad. There were about 40 "spots" in bunk bed fashion and lucky for me there was one top bunk position open. ( You'll know later why I was lucky. ) I get up and on the "bed" and am again glad it was dark. I was against a wall and the corner was ... full of ickies. I put my pack there and settled down happy to have a window directly in line with my head. Fresh air. The engine started, there was loud yelling and the engine stopped. This happened several times. Then revving the engine, yelling and stopping. I began to worry about my safety and located the life jackets. All three of them. But before I could log a complaint with the captain we were off. It was smooth at first and I fell asleep to the sway of the ocean. I thought as I fell asleep this isn't bad. The next thing I know the light fixture above my head is rattling so hard that it wakes me and eventually the light bulb pops out and lands beside me. In addition I am making my way to one end of my body then the other inside my skin. You know how you do that, your skin stays put and you move? Then my butt cheeks are being squished to one side and then the other while my body is sliding around inside my skin. Next I begin to slide across the bed as the ship begins to really pitch and yaw. People are letting out a few gasps and I am contemplating my life. During one pitch half my head slides out the window! Lucky me I get the window. I could have slid out to sea at night and all that would have been left was my gear. Now I'm worried. I survey the window and am relieved to see that I probably will not go out to sea. Just about then someone heaves and I hear it hit the floor with a splat. And again. Thank god for top bunks. I put my hands over my ears and start humming. I think of Cindy. We would have been; cracking up? I wonder if chickens get sea sick. I wonder if I will get sea sick. I contemplate my life, again. I am so exhausted I finally fall asleep and when I wake everyone is gone. The ship is docked and being unloaded. I crawl over the light bulb, out of the bunk, around the chickens, over building supplies and off the ship. In two days, I go back to the mainland. On the same ship.