Well, today I am 65 years old. This is usually considered an important milestone as I now gets cheap travel, reductions on coco and carpet slippers.

Indeed the great Shinto gods, who understand, did not want this day to pass unnoticed. First they strike me down with Bronchitis and I have spent the last 2 days choking up chicken on my rancid sleeping mat. Then they sent the heaviest rain of the year.

The orange is caused by earth washed into the sea killing coral and seaweed. The boat is hiding behind the tree.

This is now 135 millimeters of rain.

They then send me the great test. The sea is very rough. The rain has filled the boat with water thus making her very heavy and more likely to drag her anchors. If she does she will end up on the shore, her rudder will disappear and I will be back to square one. I feel terrible and posses a plentiful fever. The wind is very high and it is lashing down with rain.  But there is nothing for it really. I put on a Vermont hunting jacket and a sou’wester, neither of which I have previously worn in Okinawa, and wade out in the howling storm.

I bale the boat. She is already full to the seats. I check the mooring, which appears to be holding well. I then wade back and return to my foetid sleeping mat to swallow more antibiotics.

Thanks for the Sou’wester, Ian. I knew it would come in handy one day.

Not much of  a  65th birthday party really but I do have a great sense of wellbeing from having done the right thing.