The rain has been unrelenting. I cannot remember a year like it. My dreams of sailing around subtropical islands with steady wind and glorious weather have not yet been realized. At least I have succeeded in rigging a pretty good cockpit cover to keep out the worst of the rain.
When I do get to sail I will have to anchor from time to time. Around here the sea floor is nearly always coral and chucking a standard anchor into it rips up the coral badly. Not good. Okinawan boats have special coral anchors which are designed to hold well without damaging the coral, er too much.
I go to see my friend Nagahama san in the most catastrophic metal workshop in the world and he agrees to make me anchor. The result is a masterpiece.
I buy 2 fathoms of chain and we are ready to anchor when it stops raining.
I then head to the dentist. Mori sensei looks at the Xray and comes out with truly Japanese Kabuki Theater groans. I am scared.
I say, “What?”
He says, “Extract!”
I say “When?”
He says, “Now!”
He gives me a couple of pints of Novocaine using a syringe that plays electronic classical music. I get The March of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Mori sensei has extracted 2 of my 60 year old teeth and both events have been less disturbing than a visit to the hairdresser, er always disturbing for me as I have no hair.
Ai san gives me my tooth back in a very pretty little tooth shaped box.
When I came to Okinawa to work at OIST, our ambition was to make the university one of the best in the world, so this is very gratifying.
Strangely enough, David Swinbanks and I were at St Andrews together in 1970!
The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond 
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