At night we need thicker fleeces, sailing jacket, long trousers and now a fleece hat to keep out the cold. During the day the sun is warm and shorts are still possible. I forgot to mention that on Day 1 we had paella for supper - I made enough on the day before we left for us not to have to cook on our first night at sea. Last night we had veggie burgers with lentils. No ordinary lentils of course but cooked in the pressure cooker with carrot, aubergine, onion, garlic, red peppers marinaded in oil and herbs and chicken stock made by Annie from the chicken bones left over from preparing the paella. All sautéed with olive oil before pressure cooking. We made enough for Day 3 as well.

In my post for Day 1 I referred to the Lithuanian lady we met who is making a film based on stories told by yachties. Annie has taken me to task over the use of the word “lady” that she thinks inappropriate. As it happens I initially used the description “young woman” but thought this sounded slightly patronising coming from an older man so I changed it woman. And then I thought that even this sounded slightly macho, even passive aggressive, so I changed it to lady. Annie thinks “lady” inappropriate for a female under 40 years of age but “girl” is a definite no no. It seems that any descriptive term for a female other than  “she” is laden with difficulty. Even then I know that some would object to the term “she”, preferring the gender neutral “they”. Actually I can understand this, not as a denial of biological sex, but as a counter to societal stereotypes and prejudices based upon one’s sex. I just wish there was a better term than “they” which is grammatically incorrect! I would be genuinely interested to hear by email from others on how they approach this topic.

In a similar vein, whilst acknowledging that I will be 70 years of age next birthday, I don’t acknowledge that I am “old” with all the societal connotations of that term. I am just a man who happens to be 70 but is (almost) completely age indifferent in outlook. Of course there will be physical and mental consequences of being 70 but most people have limitations of some form or another any age. It is a frustration of mine that as soon as you reach retirement age your contribution to society is considered to be over. We should be celebrating Jo Biden being US president, not fearing he is going to keel over at any moment. My good friend John is an emeritus professor which means that, post retirement, he still has the opportunity to contribute in his field of expertise. It seems to me that we should all become emeritus professors of life and contribute to a database of experience, accessible to all. Maybe this is where AI might have a role to play providing it can be impartial enough to distinguish between experience and prejudice.