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day. The mountains of Eryri with their glistening peaks, off to starboard, a gorgeous, luscious green coast unfolding up ahead, thronged with gulls, herons and cormorants, soaring, swooping and dancing around the rocky promontories. A beautiful, calm blue sea stretches out to port, meeting the sky at a distant horizon before the naked eye can pick out Mannin. This is as good as it gets when working in the maritime navy.
Looking to the port aft, the view of Puffin Island should complete a picture perfect scene. Except there’s a giant, ugly black, brig in the way! DynamoDave instantly knows what this means. Instinctively he reaches for the ship’s bell, sounds the alarm, and calls to the crew. Everybody aboard both ships hears the commotion and they all know exactly what’s coming next.
SilverCloud leaves her cabin and is up on the poop deck within seconds, the regular crew members are instantly above deck, and MaxChaos emerges from the galley to hear shouts of, “pikes, knives, swords, now,” and, “prepare to repel invaders!”
The purser opens up the armoury, and the crew select their favourite weapons. MaxChaos looks around, he’s never experienced this before! The pirates are about 200 metres astern, and they’ll be level in less than sixty seconds. He’s the last one to approach the armoury, and he picks out a long bow and a quiver of arrows.
Dashing back to the galley, MaxChaos is going the opposite way to everybody else! SilverCloud notices, but she’s too busy to do anything about it. She and DynamoDave are shouting instructions. They cannot afford to allow any one of the pirates to set foot on the deck.
The strategy is to fend them off before they gain a foothold. That means avoiding the flying grappling hooks and severing the ropes and the nets which trail behind them. Disabling all means of allowing the pirates to climb aboard.
From here the perspiration on BlackDog’s forehead becomes clear. On the back of JumpingJack’s neck the hairs are standing up. Tense with fear, the crew aboard The Frabjous
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