All’s well on board.

 

It has been a quiet couple of days on JJ Moon.  Jim has been fishing but still without luck, so far.  This is hard because we read in accounts of boats just ahead of us stories of fine fish being reeled in.  Not only that but smaller denizens of the deep have been hurling themselves at the boat by the bucket load.  The usual flying fish of course – a half-dozen every morning on the decks -  but last night Mags was suddenly assailed by a shower of squid.  Probably fleeing some leviathan below several cleared the boat completely in a great leap but 12 unlucky ones smacked into the spray-hood or rigging and lay on our decks pulsating and disgustingly inky.  They were thrown back overboard while we bewailed the mess.  On reflection we should probably have kept them for breakfast.

 

I have been reading T.E. Lawrence’s “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom”.  A great read and a fascinating story – I am ashamed not to have read it before.  Mags has been re-reading George MacDonald Fraser’s “The Complete McAuslan”.  Encouraged by the example of Jim’s strong Edinburgh accent she has been laughing fit to bust and experimenting with some broad Glaswegian.  Not a success; it sounds fine in her head but not in the open air.

 

The water-maker is chuntering away in the background, apparently without fault. We shall see.

 

The wind has been gentle and the swell slight.  Progress has been correspondingly slow but not miserably so.  The forecasters promise a whole lot more wind on Friday and Saturday so we might be in over the weekend.