So, as soon as Lu decided not to make a fuss of her birthday, she began to enjoy it. People are funny.

We started out by taking her on a no-birthday, birthday dive. SV Dorothy Rose came with us too, and their friend, Las Vegas Rob. We went down at the back end of the Invisibles dive site. It’s off to the side, but has a good, sandy entry and exit. And this is part of the Invisibles which runs deep.

The Ormerods went deep. I watched them fin off while I hung at 30m with the rest of our dive crew. Jack, Lu and Delph touched the bottom, then bounced back up towards us. We caught their bubbles signalling their return. They rose in the navy light like underwater smoke signals.

So the birthday girl went deep – 60m at sweet sixteen. We went to Wannadive to wash our dive gear afterwards and ourselves. Bring me the hot shower! Coffee from Wannadive’s machine and diving camaraderie too. Aww, I’m going to miss this place soon.

We went back to Questie then, and our friend Hugo from DeepSea Freediving school came to visit Lu. Bonnie also came in the morning to wish Lu a happy birthday. Neither had been briefed on the no-fuss making rule Lu had requested. They both brought her gifts. Somehow, I don’t think Lu minded. She didn’t look like she minded.

SV Dorothy Rose joined us for dinner again in the evening – in Paninos. We went to this cafe for Christmas. We do tend to find things – and islands and people we like – and stick to them. And we were with Californians, so when they confirmed it was good sushi we’d ordered, we smiled with success.

Dorothy Rose hadn’t been briefed on the no-fuss birthday rule either. Or perhaps they just flouted it. It worked. Hand-drawn sailing boat wrapping paper, a Wannadive t-shirt and sparkly nail polish – and a proper sweet sixteen birthday card for Lu! Finally, they had a little pressie for Delph so she didn’t feel left out.

Oh crap, I thought. In Lu’s no-birthday birthday, I’d put the card we’d bought her away in the drawer. Hadn’t even signed it. And I’d bought her a musical party card with disco lights – to give her a ‘party’. Urghh.

When we got home later, I did get it out of the drawer. Perhaps it was the right time. We passed it around and all wrote a section; me, Jack and Lu. Then Delph packaged it up, drew hearts on it and gave it to Lu. Even though it was a no-birthday birthday, Lu didn’t seem to mind that either. We turned the cabin lights off. The lights from the card filled the boat.