[m i a o w] the cat

Woke up to the phone this morning to Very Bad News. (The weird thing was, my illness had hit its peak, and I was unable to vocalise my horror - my voice had gone!) M had taken Oomoo on a Grand Adventure - sailing to Fraser Island. He’d awoken at five in the morning and launched just as the sun was coming up; everything was prepared - he had sandwiches, a thermos of tea, the whole bit. The day was perfect for sailing. Just out near Woody Island a little freak gust came along and there was a sound like a pistol shot. The mast had snapped. Poor M got a very big shock - when you’re sailing, it’s particularly peaceful, so to have a bit of the boat break with such a loud noise is a scary thing! It was very lucky that M had our faithful Toey (Tohatsu) outboard motor along for the trip. We had spoken on the phone the night before, and M had said he was thinking about taking the motor on the voyage;
“Oh, I don’t think so,” I said grandly, “People have been sailing for years without needing a motor on their little sailboat. Tristan Jones wouldn’t have taken a motor with him!”
“Maybe,” said M, cautiously, “I’ll see what the weather’s doing.”
…and so we left it. Although this is a stark illustration of how he never listens to a thing I say it served him well on this occasion. He limped to Round Island - which is a little island off Urangan, where he had a soothing cup of tea and bound the mast with some rope. Poor little Oomoo. On closer examination, the mast may be able to be fixed, but it is still not ideal, as one needs to have confidence in ones mast - so we will be keeping an eye out for another wooden one (as I have forbidden the purchase of a metal one - it will lower the tone).

As I wasn’t on the spot for the drama and because I am feeling rather divorced from proceedings up north, I spent time over the weekend doing some updates to the My Small Boat site, with more to follow this week.