"Ahoy there me hearties" and from the ocean waves - well, would you believe river ripples? - where I slept aboard the LADY ANNE! (YES!!!, I bought the Savage Nautilus!) With the hatchcover open, listening to the fish jumping and gazing up at the stars, I quickly fell asleep. I slept like a sailor and dreamt of tropical islands and coral seas as the River Clyde flowed quietly on. I was awakened by the insistent ringing of the cordless phone which reminded me that it was 6 o'clock on Easter Sunday and I was still moored only 20 metres offshore from "Riverbend" where a cooked breakfast and a hot shower were waiting for me. There was time enough though to still make myself a cup of tea on the boat's little metho stove (if I ever run out of tea, I can always drink the metho!) and to make everything ship-shape again. As the Water Rat said to the Mole, "There is nothing -- absolute NOTHING -- half so much worth doing as simply messing-about in boats or with boats, in or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do" (from Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows") I need to think about giving the boat a new name. I'm no gentleman and LADY ANNE just doesn't sound right! I have thought of calling her DULCIBELLA after the 30-something-feet yacht in the classic yachting yarn "The Riddle of the Sands" by Erskine Childers. A great book which was also made into a great movie of which I have seen both the English and the German version several times over. Changing the name of one of Her Britannic Majesty's vessels is serious business and I intend to despatch an urgent message to Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Australia and Her Other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, and Defender of the Faith, inviting her to break a bottle of champagne on the bow, and to invoke the magic words: "I name this ship DULCIBELLA and may she bring fair winds and good fortune to all who sail on her." Of course, the boat's homeport needs to be changed to Nelligen as well. Perhaps not just Nelligen but "Nelligen Yacht Club" which, if it ever came into existence, would be a very exclusive yacht club indeed with a membership of just one - moi ! A hearty "Ahoy!" to all you landlubbers and from Peter the Ancient Mariner Master SY DULCIBELLA Commodore NELLIGEN YACHT CLUB 8 April 2007 PREVIOUS LETTER   NEXT LETTER