Sam is seasick. Everyone is seasick, except Maester Aemon who gets hypothermia. Ryanair would be better than this.
Sam is dreading seeing his father, but wants to see his mother. He's also not that keen on becoming a maester, but I reckon he'll probably warm to that.
We learn that Night's Watch brother Dareon has been sent off to go recruiting. He will replace Yoren, who mysteriously went missing (killed by GREGOR's men who later captured Arya, if I remember rightly). We also learn that Gilly has had to leave her real baby behind at Castle Black in order to stop Melisandre from getting the other baby who might have royal blood. That's a pretty sucky thing for Jon to do by any measure, no matter how much Aemon defends it as the best of multiple difficult choices. Sam is especially pissed off since he went to considerable effort to get Gilly and her baby to Castle Black in the first place.
