Quote:
Originally Posted by billyboy
Ok Dartskipper see if you can get some straight fishing hooks too!
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Found some straight and blunt fish hooks, so we'll be ok if the food runs out. (Especially if it runs out before the cook kills it....
)
Well I found a little shop selling all sorts of old government surplus stuff. The owner came from one of those eastern places, and I think he had been apprenticed to an old carpet seller in a souk in Marrakesh. He wasn't a tough negotiator, but I don't think he quite understood what I was looking for. I asked him if had a sextant, but he kept trying to sell me six tents. He assured me they were in excellent condition, only ever having been used once. I very slowly and clearly pronounced the word S-E-X-T-A-N-T, and he suddenly smiled.
"Ahh, I understand," he said, giving me a conspiratorial wink. " One of these tents will be perfect for you. A sheik used it for his harem and entertained the concubines every night in it.!"
"No, not s-e-x t-e-n-t, SEXTANT! It's a funny looking thing with twiddly bits and a little telescope."
So he sold me a powerful telescope instead, which he assured me would help me find out my position easily. All I have to do is look back over the stern to see where we have come from, and then look directly ahead to see where we are going. Then I will know we are exactly somewhere on the right course.
I paid for it all with my out of date American Express card, and after he read my signature on the receipt, he kept calling me "Mr. Upyours."
I just need a hand to unload the tents off the roof of the taxi. They may come in handy to set in the rigging as auxiliary power.