Words of encouragement, accusations of idiocy, and all that mackerel

Just a quick line to say thanks to all of you who've sent messages - i've heard from people who i've lost touch with for ages and that's a really great feeling. In fact this whole kayak trip might just be a made-up fantasy voyage created on my computer and for the express purpose of getting in touch with lots of old friends and having something to say. Here in a wet and windy Dingle it's beginning to feel like that.

Curiously mackerel seem to a theme or trope that comes up in many of the emails. Well, i'm at one with you all there. A fine fish, great eating, easy to catch - the very paragon of piscine virtues. And realising where my 'audiences' real interests lie i shall ensure that there is a lot less about kayaking in future entries and far more about this pelagic princeling, with lots of fishy facts, accounts of meetings with remarkable mackerel and, of course, recipes. I'm currrently dragging them out of the seas with feathered hooks but intend to hold a competition - necessarily with myself - to see what's the strangest thing i can use as a lure and still catch a mackerel on. I have high hopes for the top of a ball point pen. Or a used postage stamp. And, quite possibly, a sliver of pimento from an cocktail olive. We'll see.