Bird Island Expedition - A Mel, Tab, Mewla & Cathy story

Chapter Two
Off To The North Sea



  Thurso was a pleasant little place with a picturesque harbour. When we all got off the coach we were all cramped and fairly grouchy and glad to stretch our legs.
  "Mmmmm - smell that sea air." Cathy said in a comical voice. We laughed. Cathy always cheers us up. She very rarely gets stressy or grouchy.
  "Right then, let's get some food for us to snack on while we're on the boat." Mr Mewan said. "We don't really want to stop to eat again so we'll eat on the move."
  We all stocked up on sandwiches, drinks and snacks, then made our way down to the harbour to find the man who was providing us with the boat.
  "Can you drive a boat, Sir?" Cathy asked Mr Mewan as we all wandered round the harbour.
  "Erm, no." Mr Mewan said. "That's why Mr Banmew is driving us."
  "Oh, I didn't know Mr Banmew could drive boats." Tab said.
  "I can't." Mr Banmew looked at us, then grinned. "No, only joking - I can really."
  The fisherman with the boat was standing on the harbour a little way around. He waved as we all walked up. He and Mr Banmew and Mrs Fisher had a discussion for a couple of minutes, then Miss Mewola called us all over. Mr Mewan took all our bags on board, and Miss Mewola called a register as we all crowded on.
  The inside of the boat was fitted with seats that reclined; we were to try and get as comfy as we could for the overnight journey. As Miss Mewola said, she didn't think that many of us would want to sleep, so it didn't matter that much. The next thing the teachers had to do was load all the supplies on. That took about half an hour, and we all sat and chatted during that time. The boys started a paper fight, throwing bits of screwed up paper about at each other, but then Miss Mewola came down to see what all the noise was and made them pick up every scrap and throw it away.
  "Right then!" Mr Mewan came down into the cabin, a register in his hand. "I'm going to do a final register, then we'll be off."
  We all cheered. We answered our names one by one, then, when it had been established that we were all on board, and all our luggage was safely on, Mr Banmew and Mrs Fisher said their final goodbyes to the fisherman, checked a few details and went over a couple of maps with him, then boarded the boat, and we were off!
  Of course, none of us wanted to stay sat down for long, so after about five minutes, we were all going out onto the deck to have a look.
  "Woo hoo!" Tibbicca said, hanging onto the rail round the deck and jumping up and down.
  "Tibbicca, less of that please!" Mr Mewan called from across the deck. Tibbicca grinned and stood still.
  It was about six o'clock by the time we got out into the open sea. The harbour at Thurso gradually got further away on the horizon until we were completely out in the open sea, with no sight of land anywhere.
  We were pretty free to wander around the boat as we pleased, as long as we didn't go and annoy Mr Banmew, who was in contol of the boat. Mrs Fisher spent most of her time sitting with him and they chatted. Miss Mewola was sat on the deck reading through some test papers, and Mr Mewan, in his true style, was sat nearby, with his feet up, sunning himself. There were rough wooden benches here and there on the deck, and those of us who wanted to sit out in the open air perched on these. Most of the boys weren't as interested in sunbathing, so they disappeared back inside to sit and chat. Mewbile had a pack of cards, and very soon there was a full-scale game of poker going on in there. Tibbicca, Purla, Tibbick, Mewbellan and Tibleau sat around reading fashion and celebrity magazines, while Cathy, Mewla, Tab, Purbelle, Mewlarka and I sat and chatted. Mewbellinne was sat nearby with Purlibya, Purbecca and Alimew, and they were all listening to our chatterings and sometimes joining in. On the whole, the atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly. Even Mewbellinne had stopped making her sarcastic comments. Maybe she figured that while we were all away together the rules wouldn't be as strict as school and Cathy certainly wouldn't hesitate at showing her anger at Mewbellinne's attitude.
  "Enjoying yourself there, Sir?" Cathy called to Mr Mewan. He lifted his sunglasses, grinned, and stuck his thumb up. We laughed.
  The weather was amazing. Even though we were so far up North, and it was the evening, there wasn't really a breath of wind, and the sun was still up and shining warmly. We all sat on deck until it was almost dark. We had all enjoyed eating all our snacks and munchies, and soon, most of us began to feel tired.
  We were just about to make a mutual decision to go into the cabin and snuggle in our comfy chairs, when Mrs Fisher came up on deck to speak to us all.
  "I was just telling the boys that we will be nearing the islands we want to go to by dawn." she said. "Mr Banmew and the rest of us are going to take it in turns to drive the boat while the rest of you sleep if you want to. I suggest you do, or you'll all be worn out tomorrow."
  "So you're going to learn how to drive a boat, Miss?" Mewla asked, grinning.
  "Yes, Mr Banmew has been showing me the basics." Mrs Fisher laughed. "But if we're stuck on rocks when you wake up, don't be surprised."
  "We'll blame Mr Mewan." Cathy said, grinning wickedly over at Mr Mewan, who shot a glance at us and pulled a funny face. "He's the one who admitted he can't drive a boat."
  In the end, when it became too dark to see anything up on deck, we all went down into the cabin. Some of the boys were still playing cards, but Francis, Mewliam and Mewlip had gone to sleep. Tom and Mewbile were the most wide awake of the lot of them, and were intent on playing some kind of practical joke on one of the sleeping boys. In the end they gave up playing cards and spread the cards out on the faces of Francis and Mewlip, causing hilarity amongst us girls.
  One by one, after settling down and chatting for a bit, we all fell asleep. It was only quarter to eleven, but we all felt exhasuted after the day's travelling. Somehow travelling on coaches seems more tiring than anything.
  A few hours later, Mewla, Purla and I woke up with a jump as Cathy fell off her chair with a bump. We all snorted with laughter and tried very hard not to giggle and wake up the others, but it didn't really work; somehow trying to keep quiet made it all the funnier and soon we were all in fits of giggles. Tom woke up too and saw what had happened. Cathy was giggling too much to even get up off the floor. Mr Mewan came in to see what all the giggling was about, and started to laugh when he saw Cathy in  heap on the floor.
  "Fall out of bed did we, Cath?" he smirked.
  "Well I'd hardly call it a bed." Cathy said, hauling herself up by hanging on to the arm of the chair. The arm suddenly gave a loud crack and broke off in her hand. She looked shocked and we all screamed with laughter again. Mr Mewan sighed.
  "Can't you do anything without causing havoc?" he smiled.
  "Um, not really." Cathy said, looking very sheepish and trying to balance the arm on the chair so it didn't look broken.
  "What's going on?" Mewbellinne had woken up and was looking over to see what the commotion was.
  "Who rattled your cage?" Cathy looked over at Mewbellinne.
  "Erm I think it was you." Mewbellinne said sarcastically.
  "Girls, no bickering at this time of night." Mr Mewan said. "If you must bicker, save it till the morning." and with that, he grinned at us, and wandered back through to where the teachers were.

***

  We finally fell asleep and slept through till about six o'clock the next morning with no more interruptions. When we woke, we saw sunlight flooding into the cabin. Cathy was the first one up, and as she made her way to the door, she fell over Tom and Mewfal, who woke with a jump. Tom grabbed her ankle and pulled her over and the two of them began to wrestle on the floor. The giggles, shrieks and flailing limbs soon woke up the other boys, and their raucous noise soon woke the rest of the girls.
  "Wow, it's a beautiful day!" Cathy stood at the cabin door, looking outside. "And oh - look! Land ahoy!"
  We all acrambled to join her at the door, and sure enough, looming up on the horizon in the warm dawn sunlight were several tiny little rocky islands.
  "Land, sir! Look - land!" Cathy yelled as Mr Mewan came wandering in, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, with his hair very messy and ruffled.
  "We know, Cath - we've been sailing through a group of islands since about five o'clock." he smiled. "We should find one to land on within the next hour if our calculations and this map is right. Then we can have some breakfast. Can you all make do with some chocolate for now?"
  "Yes!" we all chorused. The next half hour or so was taken up with all the girls getting dressed and sorting out their make-up and hair as best they could, with bottled water and tissues the only way of cleaning their faces. Cathy made us all laugh by trying to usher all the boys out on deck so we could all take our make-up off without them seeing.
  "Believe me, I'm not all this without my make-up!" she grinned, trying to shove Tom out of the door while he hung on to the doorframe for dear life, laughing. "Will you GO AWAY!"
 
***

  Mr Mewan was right. In just over an hour, Miss Mewola came out on deck to tell us that the island we were approaching was the one we were going to land on.
  "We'll try it." she said. "It looks fairly large, and hopefully will have a stream of some kind and a flat area to pitch the tents."
  The island looked great as we got closer. The beach on the south side of the island was soft golden sand with large rocky outcrops, and the gently sloping cliff that rose above the beach looked very easy to climb. We sailed round past the beach and Mr Banmew found a small, natural rocky channel where the water ran deep. He sailed the boat into the channel, and Mr Mewan stood poised on the side of the boat, ready to leap out and secure the rope. He did, however, only succeed in making a fool of himself instead of looking macho; he leapt from the side of the boat to the rocky ledge alongside us, and his sandal caught the side of the boat, so he fell and landed on his bottom on the ledge. We all screamed with laughter, but he just looked up and grinned amiably at us all, joining in with the joke.
  "Oh dear, I'd never make James Bond." he said.
  "I doubt you'd even make Austin Powers, Sir." Cathy said. "Not meaning to be rude or anything."
  Mr Mewan stuck his tongue out at Cathy and there was a disgusted sigh from Mewbellinne. We all stifled giggles.
  "Come on then." he said. "Everyone off the boat, then we'll see about finding somewhere to camp."
  We all clambered off the boat and were very soon standing on the ledge together.
  "I'm just going to take a register..." Mr Mewan started, but stopped as Cathy shrieked with laughter.
  "Sir, just who exactly do you think we've lost since you called a register when we got on the boat?" she laughed. "I didn't see anyone jump overboard, did you?"
  "Cathy, shut up!" Mewbellinne butted in, trying to defend Mr Mewan. "If Sir wants to call a register, then that's the proper thing to do!"
  "On the other hand, someone might get PUSHED overboard..." started Cathy, but Miss Mewola stepped forward and told us to be quiet, seeing that a blazing row would ensue between Cathy and Mewbellinne.
  We all answered our names on the register, then Mr Mewan and Miss Mewola chatted quickly for a moment before telling us to follow them. They set off round the rocky ledge, which led round to the golden beach we had passed as we landed. There was a bit of scrambling over rocks to be done before we could get onto the sand, and this caused much amusement as most of us slipped and fell over as we made our way through the rocks. Cathy, of course, was acting the fool on purpose to annoy Mewbellinne and make the rest of us laugh. And it always worked.


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