Chapter 3. Setting Off.

Captain Boxer Shorts looked at the Good Ship Mithril in disgust. 
"This ship is covered in Seagull Poop!" he shouted. The Admiral looked at the decks. It was true. There was seagull poop everywhere.
"It needs a good clean," she said.
Captain B.S. connected up the hose-pipe and scrubbed the decks, washed the windows and cleaned the ropes. Once that was done it was seven o'clock in the evening and time to let go the mooring lines and sail out of the marina.




The Admiral took the wheel and steered whilst Captain B.S. untied the ropes. Soon the Good Ship Mithril was nosing her way out of the marina towards the open sea.

The sea was not flat!

The sea was not flat. In fact it was quite bumpy. Captain B.S. and the Admiral began to feel a bit unwell. 
"We'll soon get used to it," said the Admiral.
"Of course we will," replied Captain B.S, turning an interesting shade of green.




After a while our brave sailors got used to the rolling movement of the boat and began to feel much better. It was a lovely evening and there was lots to see. There were fish jumping out of the water, and fishing boats trying to catch them.


In the distance they could see a warship on patrol. There were three smaller patrol boats motoring around it.
"I hope they don't come too near us," said the Admiral. Captain B.S. decided to hoist the British flag to show them they were friendly. 
"That should do the trick!" he laughed. The flag hung down at the back of the boat. There was no wind. 
"I hope they can see that!" said the Admiral, looking at the limp flag.

The Good Ship Mithril sailed past a lighthouse on the top of a cliff. It was just starting to flash the light to warn ships to keep away from the rocks.






Next they sailed past a huge cave in the cliffs.
"I expect there could be trolls in there," said the Admiral. 
It was starting to get dark and the cave looked very black. 






The sun began to go down behind the headland. 
"I hope we can see where we are going" worried the Admiral.
Captain Boxer Shorts put the sailing lights on. 


There was a red and green one at the front of the boat and a white one at the back.
It wasn't too long before they saw a flashing red light on the shore.
"Head for that light!" shouted Captain B.S.
"Aye aye, Cap'n" replied the Admiral. They steered the Good Ship Mithril towards the flashing red harbour light. 
There were several other boats at anchor in the bay. They put down their own anchor, turned off the engine and made themselves some supper. It had been a long day.