Sunday, July 14, 1929
Now that we are in the Straits of Malacca, the sea is calm. However it can be very rough—in fact not so long ago it was rough enough to founder a coasting vessel and all hands aboard were lost. Contrary to expectations, the wind sprang up and kept things nice and cool as we sailed right down the middle of the channel.
Once the Japs got interested in sports it was hard to stop them. Part of Sunday morning and all afternoon they contrived to keep up all sorts of races and fun, blowing a cone of paper along strings, stepping over objects, obstacle and three-legged races, the ginger beer and biscuit stunt (just try to whistle), a bottle race, and a mess of others—all accompanied by a noisy group of drum beaters.
In the evening after a long conversation with my Jap nurse friend who told me all about this part of the woods, I sat out the evening with Mrs. Gow and Murray Milne. Both are lots of fun and full of wisecracks. By eleven when things close down, we were just off the F.M.S. (Federated Malay States) shore, with occasional ships passing and lighthouses twinkling.