Oh for a proper roof or two. Even if armoured with Hibernian pottery.

(It was said we could not afford the full seven and so we only do the electric Mon, Wed & Fri. Gas provides for the remainder but Sky is more sensitive to gas pressure variations - gas mantles are the very devil to handle and now we are being asked to go green and get them made with LED instead of Thorium).

Must have been a hungry polecat. Perhaps the wiring was chicken flavour.

Pine marten, not pine Martin.
Make sure you don’t get into a s’toatally impenetrable forest, you can s’weasely get lost.

sailed on the "Sand Martin"years ago (bit of a culture shock that was)

Pine Marten, well I'll be buggered. Last time I'll ask Lord Attenborough to proof read my script.
He's been mixing with a rum crowd up in Glasgow.

No shortage of rum lads up there. I gather the air polution is a bit high there due to aircraft and car exhausts.

It's a fine provincial city and we should consider taking GD to Greenock or even further up (not sure we have ever known our design draft, breadth, width, LBP, collar, sock size etc. Perhaps we should wait until the worlds high heidyins have finished their blatherfest - wouldn't do for the chief to messy the quayside with a soot blowing worthy of Guido Fawkes - might trigger asthma in the wee Doom Goblin.

Its a dirty, mean, intolerant kip. Populated by wee hard Jimmies with an upper layer of wee hard Alastairs.
If GD2 is going there ES is abandoning ship and swimming to Paddys Milestone and hitching a lift from a trawler to Portpatrick or Douglas.

I tend to agree that Greta can be annoying but so can Tmax. At least Greta knows what she is talking about and I also believe we have buggered-up the planet.
Varley, you went to a proper school and therefore I invite you to start a thread about cargoes we have carried that damaged the ship/crew/dockers and/or the environment. Without prejudice.

Our fearless Tmac was on TV (again) in Melbourne last night. Something about Cunard's Justicia which was torpedoed in 1918 and the loss of one of the U boats involved.

Not Tmac's fault but irritating (to me anyway) that every passenger vessel mentioned in the show was described as a 'cruise liner'.

Nothing is surer than the appetite of the great unwashed for cold will fade along with the lights should they do that. And then the tumbrils will role, filled to the brim with les aristos ecologique and as busy as they would have them when filled with us less energetic greens.

Nuclear steam is an essential part of the answer, one which will be ever incomplete without it.

It will take E-S a long time to make it from the Cloch without some form of fossil fueled survival craft. I'll keep an eye open for notes in bottles and give the appropriate lifeboat station a shout should we receive his ETA (- if you expect to be here by Christmas no doubt some of your countryfolk here will save you some turkey).

I am not sure we learned anything about ecology although there were one or two bum-fluffed activists who did their bit against apartheid (how throwing a brick through a bank's plate glass helped the piccaninnies escapes me).

with the somewhat rapidly approaching festive season I really think we should plan for our annual dry docking. The old girl likes to have a nice clean bottom.
any preference for a port with an available dry dock over Christmas will be welcome lads.
let me know asap so I can make travel arrangements for those wishing to go home for Christmas. I shall remain aboard as usual.

Of course they were called Cruise Liners when in fact they were cattle trucks. The Statue of Liberty's plaque stated “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”. It did not say "Give me your Toffs, your Filthy Rich Bankers yearning to oppress the poor immigrants.

In Tmac's defence H&W only designed and built ships to owners requirements. The Justica, Yard 436, built for OSNC id described by H&W as a Passenger Ship.

It's been a sad day here in the ER of the GD.
The YM's dog Tigger who has caught, with a couple of notable exceptions, most of the rats aboard the GD for almost 20 years has departed for the Rainbow Bridge to await the arrival of the YM and the YMs.:very_sad:

The loss of a family pet can be a miserable time.

20years.. It’s like losing a member of the family.:very_sad:

Mine are family (as they sleep with me it would be improper to say otherwise). Sorry to hear of it. I have one in the departure lounge and another who skirts septicaemia every few longtail claimed (and brought-in along with the scars) he should have taken lessons from your Tigger while he could. I would miss the occasional prize being crunchily chewed under the bed in the middle of the night.

So it appears I get about a bit, On TV in Melbourne indeed, would be nice if they paid the royalties as I is a poor ragged arsed injuneer wot has fallen on hard times. (stop sniggering at the back ES & Varley)

So sorry to hear about the loss of your shipmate, mine crossed the rainbow bridge a week before Christmas 20 years ago and I still feel the loss and the empty space just as much every day.

We need to have a period in dry dock because the big whirly thing wot is on the end of the pole thingy sticking out the back needs a bit of TLC. We have a spare "borrowed" from Harland and Bluff but I needs to glue it on when I takes the old one off and I can't see what I am doing if I do it underwater:( in any case the bubbles get up my nose and makes me fart :supercool:

It's a bit cold for Jaques at Marseilles, perhaps the far east? I have never done Hong Kong (I was out that way with a recently flooded and mutinied OBO but she was too long for H-K and so it was Singapore (again). Wouldn't mind Singapore - bunking ashore of course (is the Ladyhill still going?) but the boss always said it was a sanitised version of H-K so I would like to try the rarer dish.

Do you have a circular metabolism Chief? (bubble/nose/fart/water/bubble/nose..........). It must only be a minor change in habit, you clear the smokeroom at least three times a night, usually just before it's your round, on curry nights that goes up to five at least although it's a bit hard to attribute any flatulental particularity amongst the ensemble performing forte.

Sad coincidence. Have just heard from a widowed friend that her woofer 'Charlie' died at the vets overnight. Oddly he got on rather well with senior pussycat.

A widowed friend, indeed. Could be a euphemism for something smutty.

sorry to hear that YM. Lost my loyal pooch over 30 years ago. Still missed sadly.

Smutty and Sweep? Has some sort of ring.

I see on Discovery Channel that all the cruise companies employ an Environmental Officer to tell lies; sorry, to ensure that they strictly adhere to the highest standards and protect our fragile seas.
We need one on GD2 and I propose we engage the lovely Ms Thunberg, a Greta decision.

Thanks to you All for your kind words on our dog Tigger's demise the other day. :curtain_call:
She has left a big hole in our hearts and lives after 18 years. :very_sad:

Geoff.

Harbour Master says we have to be away by tomorrow nights tide lads. There is a dry dock available in Falmouth for our Christmas break and bottom scrape.
Tmac, we sail on tomorrow evenings tide, we will head to Falmouth for Christmas lay up. Main engines on for 18:00 hours please. Yes 2 cases of black bush (one for each engine) as usual will be ready and waiting.

Steward! please take these two cases of Black Bush to the engine control room with my compliments.

Cut outs, get the shore supply cable aboard. single up to a slipper and raise the gangway.

Ring down stand by please.