Jasper hopes there are no cannibals or pirates on Clew Bay

Hello Boys and Girls,   HOW are you all this week? Isn't it great that we're getting plenty of fine weather and the days are lovely and long. Plenty more time to get out and enjoy ourselves. Let me tell you about my new project. I'm back sailing again. When I was young I sailed the world and had lots of smashing adventures. I always loved the sea and when a few friends asked me to buy a boat with them, I jumped at the chance. She's a lovely boat and I'll be spending as much time as I can onboard over the summer so I'll be writing to you all from wherever we're moored â€â€œ that's parked in boat speak. She needs a bit of work, I'll admit, as you can see from my photo. I call her, boats and ships are always her, Lovely Molly because it was Aunt Molly who paid for most of my share. She said if I promised to use it a lot during the summer she didn't mind. Anyone would think she wanted me out from under her feet. Well, anyway the boat is owned by ten of us and we hope to sail about the islands of Clew Bay when the weather is good. There are supposed to be 365 islands dotted around the bay, one for every day of the year. That's a lot of islands. Molly says this is good because if I sink the boat I won't have far to swim to get to an island. I hope if that happens I don't end up on an island full of cannibals as happened me once when my ship sank in the Pacific. But I don't think there are cannibals in Mayo. At least I hope not. I don't want to end up on the menu on one of the 365 islands. Look it up boys and girls and see if you can count the islands. Some are very small and some so big they have people living on them with farms and everything. Some they say, still have caves with hidden pirate treasure just waiting to be found by treasure hunters like me. Wouldn't it be great to find a pirate treasure chest full of gold and jewels and lots of wonderful things. For my birthday I'm getting a metal detector and I'm going to check out a few of the islands. There was a famous pirate who once ruled Clew Bay and much of the West coast. Her name was Grace O'Malley, or Gráinne Mhaol, but she is better known as the Pirate Queen. She had many pirates ships dotted around the bay and no ship was safe from her. You can still visit a few of her castles. They are all built right by the shore so her pirate ships could make a quick getaway. She was some lady and everybody was afraid of her. She died a long time ago but Postman Mick who also loves sailing, says that on windy nights when it's very dark her ghost can be seen as she sails around the bay looking for boats to attack. I wish he hadn't told me that because now I'm afraid to sleep on the Lovely Molly in case the Pirate Queen turns up and makes me walk the plank. Sailing is so lovely I think I'll risk the cannibals and pirates and just enjoy myself. I'll tell you all about it another time. Bye for now, Uncle Jasper