Wednesday 2nd April

Well here we are at sea again, the natural place for a (an ex) sailor. Weather is warming up nicely as we sail back into equatorial waters, following the coast of Vietnam on a Southerly course, once more back in the South China Sea. The coastline was visible for most of the day and through into the night with the shore then visible as a thin necklace of twinkling lights like tiny bright diamonds. By the way, the more observant amongst you will have noticed the date on yesterday’s blog entry and not taken it at face value. [Or possibly you would have had it arrived in my inbox before the 2nd April – Paul] We were delayed but it was for minor technical reasons, preventing us sailing at a speed we would have liked. Apologies to Captain Clark for maligning his navigational and chart reading skills. We were up slightly later than normal today due to the hectic nature of the last few days, but then when the sun’s as hot as it is and the beer is as cool as it is, where is the need for rushing things. Today’s talk was on Singapore given by Sir Alan Collins who was British High Commissionaire there for four years. It was a fascinating overview of the phenomenal success of the City State and how they have achieved it.

We saw a natural phenomenon today that is rarely seen, I have never seen it before. At round about midday when the sun was immediately overhead (with us being so close to the equator) we looked up into a clear blue sky and encircling the sun was a circular rainbow! Then about a half of the distance between the sun and the horizon was a second circular rainbow. No idea what the conditions were to produce this, ice crystals in the upper atmosphere perhaps? (Maybe Paul can research it for you.) I will try to send a (poor) photo. As I could not point the camera straight up at the sun, I could only get a segment of it. [He seems to be describing a 22° and 46° Halo effect. Photo tip, place your thumb over the sun to cut out the worst of the glare – Paul]

Now on a more serious point (and it’s not like me to get serious) I am beginning to worry about Carol (not a word to her mind as I am not sure yet). But I think she may be suffering from cabin fever or something similar. She was looking at me oddly the other day and last night she said “your hair is looking a little straggly, why don’t you let me just tidy it up a bit”? Now normally I would resist something like this, but I don’t know. Whether it was the heat or the relaxed atmosphere or the unexpected kindness in the tone of her voice, I merely said “if you wish my dear”. Now at this point something should have alerted me to her strange behaviour, because as soon as I assented she leapt to her feet and got the clippers. Maybe it was the whisky or the intense sun but I was a lamb to the slaughter. Totally unexpectedly she got me in a headlock and shaved a strip right up the back of my head, she said oops and then giggled and said oops again! Too late, now alerted to her true intent I leapt to my feet. There was no escape, even if I had leapt over the balcony and survived the fall to the sea, there was nowhere to swim. Only back to Vietnam where the touts on the beach would now be saying “you want nice haircut, very cheap?” To make matters worse it was a formal night! There was no way I was going near Carol again no matter how much she pleaded. The fact that she couldn’t stop laughing was evidence enough that she had some sort of Delilah’s revenge in mind and I was not about to become a Bash Street Kid for anyone. The only way out was to blag it, so I showered, put my evening suit on, combed my hair as best I could and arm in arm we went down to dinner. I had to reprimand her several times on the way down, for looking round the back of my head and giggling. I sat down with as much dignity as I could muster, but I could not help but see out of the corner of my eye Anna do a double take so severely her head nearly fell off. When she came round with the menus, I mentioned nonchalantly that I had joined a sect that required of its new members a strip of hair from the back of their head. Her head jumped back like an inquisitive chicken’s and she moved round to Carol where I just caught her asking “has Mike joined a sect?” I didn’t catch what the reply was but there was a lot of giggling going on and Anna thereafter seemed to spend a lot of time behind my chair. If for any reason I fail to return from this trip be sure to make the relevant authorities aware of this peculiar behaviour.