Race Tactics

On board the Spirit of Tasmania ( night crossing ):

Clang! Whirr!

Elsewhere, in a row of adjoining Ocean Recliners:

Surfing-With-Whales: Pablo Nerada........

Pablo Neruda: Neruda.

Surfing-With-Whales: Yeah I remember..... A Dog Has Died.

Pablo Neruda: That's one of mine.

Sweezus: Shit man, sympathy, that sucks. I had a dog once.

Arthur: A poet.

Sweezus: Man! I think I know a dog when....

Arthur: Pablo Neruda is a poet.

Sweezus: Two poets in the team. Woah! Next level!

Pablo Neruda: I also have a bird one. The Art Of Birds

Sweezus: Save it. We need to talk race tactics.

Surfing-With-Whales: Yeah, race tactics. When is it?

Sweezus: Sunday, People's Choice Classic. Monday, Rest day. Tuesday, Stage One.

Surfing-With-Whales (admiringly): You got an app or something?

Sweezus: Yeah I got one.

.........

Somewhere else on board the Spirit of Tasmania ( a deluxe suite ):

Gaius: This is nice. I must thank the captain.

Marx: It doesn't feel right.

Terence: Why?

Marx: It smacks of social inequality.

Gaius: Go and sleep on an Ocean Recliner. Just remember, don't let it down unless you mean to stay down.

Marx: No, no, I wouldn't go that far.

.......

Meanwhile, in Adelaide, in the office of Velosophy, the phone rings:

Vello: No! Not another one!

David: You don't have to answer.

Richard Dawkins: What's the problem?

David: Journalists calling up for Vello's opinion.

Vello: I made the mistake once of saying something daft.

Richard Dawkins: Tell me about it.

David: Ha ha. Of course. You've done the same thing.

Richrd Dawkins: No, I meant it literally. What was it?

Vello: Oh, you know, that thing they quote. I don't remember even saying it anyway.

David: About defending someone's right to say something you don't agree with. To the death.

Vello: That's the bit I don't remember.

Richard Dawkins: Yet it's become a meme.

David: Wait. It's not a journalist, it's Gaius.

Vello; Give it here. Gaius! Where the dickens are you? The People's Choice Classic is on Sunday!

Gaius: ( something unintelligible)

Vello: Never mind just get your arse here. Catch a plane.