05 Apr. 12


Yesterday afternoon at five thirty Mike arrived unannounced at our boat with the ships plaque. I was sitting in the cockpit having a cigarette when I heard someone walking towards Yrumoar. He stood at the side of the boat with a small package in his hand waiting for me to speak. I couldn’t bring myself to greet him and just said “you brought our ships plaque”. to which he replied “yes” and handed it over to me. I took the package from his hand and looked at it. It was a small piece of brass coloured plastic, about half the length of a school ruler, with some black printing on one side and double sided tape on the other. Then I heard Mike’s voice say “I have to inspect that you have installed it on the boat”. So I had no choice but to invite him to climb aboard. I called Lola into the saloon and Mike stood “inspecting” as we removed the double sided tape and stuck the ships plaque to the side of the nav station. Wow that was such an important inspection I am sure that ships all over the world are sinking on a daily basis because they forgot to have that inspection done.

Our ship plaque...so the numbers can't be seen...

This morning I got up and found the newly inspected ships plaque lying on the floor. The double sided tape just didn’t hold, what a surprise. Now I wonder if I had better call Mike to come and inspect as I stick it back again or maybe I should just drill a few small holes on the corners and screw it on so that it won’t fall off again. I will of course have to do this secretly and without anyone knowing that I have installed a ships plaque without being “inspected”.

6 April 2012

Dylan arrived here at about eleven or twelve last night more than slightly intoxicated. We tried to sober him up for about an hour by feeding him coffee and peanut butter sandwiches. He refused to sit down and instead kept rocking about and appearing to fall over, then finding some sort of balance then repeating the steps. After watching him helplessly for a while and constantly hoping he doesn’t fall and damage anything his stomach eventually won the battle and he spilled his lunch overboard. Now we were finally on the road to recovery and a couple of glasses of water later Lola had him safely tucked into the spare room bed. This morning he stumbled about the boat a little confused making only occasional eye contact with us. Lola fed him breakfast and he was on his way to beg for mercy from his better half. I still remember having those experiences myself. The implications were always the worst if you misbehaved on a Thursday. The weekend is then spent with a partner that hasn’t quite forgiven you acting and feeling as if you had betrayed her trust. By the time all the open wounds are healed the weekend is gone and Monday has stolen both days from your life forever.