[Farmer John]

All the little sacks of Rutile have been handballed on board and stowed in every orifice and interstice tht it can be fitted into, we have a very neat stow, the trim is right (woe betide anyone who pee'd in the bucket of "fresh water" used to calculate the specific gravity of the stuff what we are in compared with what we have to go and float on.)

Richard's Bay has been good to us, and I hope we have been good to Richard's bay, the reaping of any crop we may have sown (life or health can be passed on). We seem to have had very little in the way of shenanigans reported on here, are you lot just getting more secrective or less active?

Single up all moorings, Tmac, press the start button or whatever you chaps do (I do hope it is not a kick-starter, though if it is the phrase "probably the best kickstarter" comes to mind, not the kind of thing you got where the bonnet was raised and the boot was applied inside the engine bay, was that the Reliant?)

Raise the gangway (ensure no-one is standing on it) let slip the moorings and we will reverse out, do a three point turn, and off we go. Give the pilot a bottle of the rubbing alcohol that is labelled "Botanical flavoured Gin" and send him home with a whistle in his step and a gleam in his trousers, or perhaps the other way round.

I have to go, the Shipping Forecast has just started and I want to sing along. They just said "Plymouth, very poor", they really are on top of things.

We are off to Cincinecticut, I think, I miss Tom to chat to. Hope you are well.

All hands to the paddles, we are slow running until the rest of the crew are exhausted (perhaps they already are).