Ticks on the geological clock, as it were…  For one man, in a lifetime, to claim that he has seen coral atolls rise and sink suggests that he was around when Captain Cook plied the trades and even before that…

So this is our Christmas Present… knowing that Mark and Abbey are safe, and but for a (hopefully) uneventful ride back to one of the big islands, we are done with all this nonsense.  Well that only took months… to live a couple of days. Let’s all assume that Cherry has had a  life changing experience as well with the shirtless conch-blower and will regard Mark’s return with little more than a shrug, even as he recounts yet another harrowing tale of death being cheated…