The Lucky Dip Old Jack's Boat

BOAT HORN BLARES

GULLS SCREECH

FLY BUZZES

There. Ha!

And good day to you.

# This is the place to be For Salty Dog and me

# Down by the harbour we'll be there

# Round every corner there's something to share

# Give us a cheer Our friends are here

# Just Salty Dog and me. #

Ha-ha, come on, Salty!

# This is the place to meet

# Down at the end of the street

# Seagulls flying up in the blue

# There's always a cup of tea waiting for you

# Out in the sun, heavens above Just Salty Dog and me

# Haul away, haul away Sing a song of the sea

# Hoist the sail, I'll tell you a tale of Salty Dog and me

# This is the place to go

# And these are the people we know

# The village is busy with things to see

# There's the Rainbow down by the quay

# There's stories to tell, join us as well, just Salty Dog and me. #

MOBILE PHONE RINGS

GULLS SCREECH

KNOCK ON DOOR

SHE SIGHS Come in!

-Ah!

-Oh, hello, Jack. Hello, Salty!

How lovely to see you. I was just on my way out.

Hello, Miss Bowline-Hitch.

We're checking you're all right after last night.

-Yes! Wasn't it windy?

-Wasn't it, eh? That old wind was howling worse

than she does when she wants her dinner.

It whipped away my favourite scarf

and wound it down the road before I could do a thing about it.

-Oh, dear!

-I've been looking for it all night. You haven't seen it?

It's dark blue silk with little golden sequined stars.

No, we haven't.

-We'll keep an eye out for it, won't we, Salty?

-Thank you.

-PHONE RINGS Oh, I'm in demand.

-Oh, yes.

-Better get going. Busy, busy, busy.

-Oh, yes. Busy, busy. Come on, then.

Come on, Salty. Good girl. That's it. Come on, then.

Hello, somebody's started work early.

Hiya, Jack. Salty. Where are you off to?

To The Rainbow to clear some of them cobwebs away,

if the wind hasn't done it already.

-Are you...?

-Feeling all right?

-No.

-Flying a kite?

-No, no. Fishing?

Oh! Oh, yes. For my keys.

I was fixing this life ring back on, it kept blowing off,

but then I dropped my keys!

They've landed down there in a rock pool. Typical!

-Lucky I've go my bamboo contraption with me.

-I like the sound of that.

It's a nifty bit of kit.

Basically, a bamboo pole with a bit of string and a hook in the end.

-I invented it myself. I call it...

-A fishing rod.

-Well, yes.

-I suppose it is, really.

-Listen, can we help at all?

Thanks for offering, but I'll be fine.

Right. I'll see you later. Happy fishing.

-Come on, Salty. Round here.

-See you, Jack.

-Bye-bye.

JACK LAUGHS

There she is! The Rainbow!

What have you got for us today, my dear?

BOAT HORN BLARES

-HE CHUCKLES

-Come on, Salty.

-HE HUMS

-Here we are.

Good girl. Go in your bed. Go on. That's it, you curl up in there

while I get rid of some of these cobwebs. I don't know.

Oh. Look at those keys there.

I hope Sam manages to fish out those keys.

You know, keys aren't the sort of thing you usually go fishing for

and yet I remember once we had to go fishing

for something even more unusual.

Yes. Yes, once upon a twinkly time,

The Rainbow set off from Staithes,

waved goodbye to Whitby and disappeared over the horizon.

When night fell, I gazed around me.

"What a beautiful planet we live on," I said.

I think this calls for a sing-song.

# Just Salty Dog and me

# Upon the briny sea

# There's no other place we'd rather be

# When the stars are bright and twinkly

# We're like two giddy kippers beneath the Big Dipper

# Just Salty Dog and me! #

Good girl.

All that singing made us hungry,

so out came the cheese sandwiches and the jam tarts.

Ooh, our favourites! Not for Salty, though. Dog biscuits for her.

And just then,

I noticed a star that twinkled brighter than all the others.

"Look, Salty! That's the brightest star in the sky," I said.

"And guess what it's called. Sirius, which means the Dog Star."

Ha-ha! But as we were happily gazing, the wind came

and it brought the clouds, which covered up the stars.

"I hope we're not going to have one of those sneaky-uppy storms

"that come out of nowhere," I said.

Salty sniffed the air. A storm was coming all right.

She could feel it in her whiskers.

And before we could say, "Jiggling jellyfish,"

the rain came pattering down.

"Quick, Salty!" I called. "We'd better put away the jam tarts."

The wind, oh! It was wild! It whistled and howled

and whipped up the waves as enormous as elephants,

as tall as tower blocks, as massive as mountains.

"Hold on tight, Salty! It's a storm," I called.

I fought with the wheel, but the Rainbow was blown off course

until I didn't know my beard from my belly button.

And then, suddenly, we felt a great jolt. Ooh!

And the Rainbow's bow, it dipped ever so low.

"Have we hit the rocks?" I cried. "No," said Salty.

And she nodded towards the bow. "We've got a visitor."

That's when I noticed a mass of huge suckered arms

coiled around the boat and two huge eyes staring at me.

"Uh-oh," said Salty. "It's Charlie the Giant Squid."

"We can't have a giant squid suckered onto the boat,

"it'll sink us," I said. "I'm so sorry," said Charlie.

"But I'm scared of the storm and I always get clingy when I'm scared."

"That's all we need. A giant clingy thing with arms like spaghetti,"

whined Salty. And suddenly we felt another huge jolt. Crash!

"Have we hit the rocks?" I cried.

"Yes, this time we have," cried Salty.

"And I think I've grazed my bottom," said Charlie.

"Sorry about that," I said.

"Usually, it's the light from a lighthouse that saves us

"from breaking up on the rocks not a giant squid's bottom!"

Just then, someone came rushing up to us in a little boat.

It was being tossed around on the sea like a teacup.

"Hello," she called. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, just," says I.

"But we could have come a cropper on those rocks."

"Sorry," said the stranger. "I'm the lighthouse keeper

"and I'm having a bit of bother with my lighthouse lamp."

"We didn't even see your lighthouse," I said.

"Oh, I know," said the lighthouse keeper.

"The bulb has broken and none of the ships can see where the rocks are.

"It's a disaster."

A bolt of lightning crackled over the sea and in its brief light,

we could see a large ship sailing too close to the rocks.

"Go away," we yelled. "You'll hit the rocks!"

But our shouts were just lost in the wind.

"Stay away from the rocks," cried Charlie the Squid,

waving his arms wildly.

And then, Salty's whiskers whiffled.

She was having one of her bright ideas.

She grabbed my long-handled fishing net and she handed it to Charlie.

"Here," she woofed. "You've got the longest arms.

"It's time to go fishing for stars."

Charlie unwound himself from the boat and using one of his long

feeding tentacles, he grabbed the net and he stretched up to the sky.

And fished behind the clouds.

It was just like a lucky dip.

"I've caught something," he cried, pulling down the net,

which was fluttering.

"Oh, that's not a star," said the lighthouse keeper.

"It's a seagull."

"Sorry," said Charlie. And the seagull flew off very cross.

Well, he tried again.

And before too long, he'd caught something else -

all shaped like a diamond, with a long tail.

"That isn't a star, that's a kite," I said.

"It's very nice but it isn't very bright."

Meanwhile, the large ship was getting closer to the rocks.

"Quick!" cried the lighthouse keeper.

So Charlie the Squid, he tried again.

This time, he caught a fabulous dazzling thing.

It was Sirius, the Dog Star.

"Golly," I said. "That's a beauty!"

And Charlie held up the star and it lit up all the rocks all around.

And now the large ship could see how close it was to the rocks

and it turned back just in time.

Ho! "You're a hero," we told Charlie.

"It was Salty's idea," he said shyly.

That fabulous giant tentacled beast held up the star for a long

time while the lighthouse keeper fixed the light.

"You make a wonderful lighthouse," said the lighthouse keeper.

So the storm passed and just as the sun was rising,

we thanked the star and we put it back in the sky.

"You were amazing," I told Charlie.

"Let's have a jam tart to celebrate."

And then off he swam back to the deepest darkest depths of the ocean.

Well, Salty, that was a picnic to remember, I said. Wasn't it?

Eh? Ha-ha!

And we sailed off happily home to Staithes,

and some more jam tarts. Ho-ho!

Did you like that story, Salty? All true, of course.

Mind you, my stories always are. Ho-ho!

Oh, look.

Come on.

Ho-ho-ho!

Have you caught any keys yet?

Not yet, Jack. But I've caught plenty of seaweed.

-Just going to give it another go.

-Right.

Oh! Wait! Wait...

-What's that sparkling?

-Oh!

Oh, you might just be in luck.

Not sure it's my keys, but it looks like treasure.

I think I've caught some stars!

Sequin stars. It's Miss Bowline-Hitch's scarf.

It's a bit soggy, but still it'll dry out.

Looks like something's tangled up inside. My keys!

-Brilliant!

-Ha-ha! That's not a bad morning's fishing.

We'd better head off and give this back to Miss Bowline-Hitch.

-She will be tickled...

-With an enormous feather duster.

-No, pink.

-She'll be tickled pink!

-Good. Well, back to work for me.

-See you later, then.

-See you soon, Jack.

-Come on, you.

Well, Salty, that's it today. We'll see all our friends again next time.

Oh. And we'll see you next time as well.

Bye-bye!

Come on, girl.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd