Rumours From Brisbane

Wednesday. Rumours from up the coast: the Nautilus is wanted in Brisbane.

The management has said the first half of the year. Not a date. A half. I have sailed by worse charts, but not many. I have no address, no day and no idea which way the hatch will face. I have a half.

I asked which submarine. The Nautilus, they said, the first chapter, with the groaning hull. The hunt stays in Sydney, where the Beast lives. I was relieved. I would hate the Beast to have a holiday in Queensland. It would only come back sunburnt and smug.

Barnacle and I have been speculating. He thinks she will be somewhere central, near the river. I think he just likes rivers. I think it will be warm, the parties will come in shorts, and I shall have to say something about shoes again.

A captain must not loiter about waiting for rumours; there are Perth, Sydney and Melbourne to keep afloat. I confess, though, that I have started reading the Brisbane weather.