A sting in the tail

Sam and Steve were playing in the sea when Sam suddenly cried out he'd been stung. In typical Sam fashion he started panicking so Steve helped him out of the sea and up onto the beach where his crying drew a crowd. Someone pointed out that the lifeguards had just put up a sign warning that Portugese Man of War had been spotted offshore. Not very useful when you are in the sea already! Luckily a woman had some kind of sting spray and used that on his arms. We went to see the lifeguard and we weren't the only ones there, another guy and kid had been stung. He told Sam to go in the shower and it should subside after a few minutes. The shower helped with the pain, but he had nasty lines of welts on his back and arms. We never actually saw a Man of War, the lifeguard said it could have been a detached tenticle.

Luckily Sam didn't react too badly and within half an hour the swelling and redness had gone and he just had a faint line of marks. We drove back and later went out for a steak to cheer him up. He was soon better and talking about the incident like he'd taken on a crocodile single handed!