Captain Bill took a couple of very long deep breaths.
'It's not that bad,' he said,'just a couple of loose and twisted planks.'
'You're just picking on me because....' mooed Annie, but Norma stopped her and explained that Captain Bill was talking about the Pickled Heifer.
'We warned you about getting it all covered in snow!' said Bertha,'then it must have sat inside the huge tower of highly dangerous wobbly water. It's no wonder it's got too damp!'
'Hmmm,' replied Captain Bill,'could be worse though, I mean it's not actually sunk.'
'Only because you ran it aground when we arrived!' exclaimed Bertha.
And for a while nobody said anything at all.
'Well,' said Norma eventually,'I suppose we'd better get started on fixing it. We can probably re-use most of the bits.'
'True,' replied Captain Bill,'although I can't help thinking we'll need to get a new one of those tall sticky things.'
'You mean the mast?' asked Norma.
'Probably!' shrugged Captain Bill.
'I must say you're taking this very well,' replied Norma,'I thought you'd be terribly upset. After all it really is your ship.'
'I suppose after a while you get used to it,' said Captain Bill,'I've sort of become resigned to disasters and anyway we weren't planning to go anywhere for a while. So, just as long as nothing else completely unforeseen happens we'll be OK.'
And at that moment Geraldine appeared.
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