‘This is not as easy as it looks,’ he said, panting with the effort of stopping the boat.

Ninni was delighted that he laughed. Perhaps he wasn’t such a stick-in-the-mud after all. ‘Okay. We have to turn the boat around. Sit still for a moment.’ Ninni put her hands next to his and pulled the oars towards her. The boat slowed down. Jack let her captain the boat and soon they slid in towards the pole.

‘Put one oar in the water and hold it still against the flow. That’s how you brake. It’s also how you turn the boat around, so watch it.’

Jack figured out how to do it quickly. Ninni smiled at him. ‘You’re doing really well.’

‘Thank you. What’s with the pole?’

Ninni reached out and grabbed it as they glided past. ‘You’ll see. Could you slow down, so I don’t lose my arms?’

Jack did his best and the boat remained still enough for Ninni to find the rope that was wrapped around the pole. She pulled it up and into the boat, and it made a crunching noise as it hit the bottom.

‘That’s a lot of mussels,’ Jack said.

The rope was thick with big oval-shaped blue mussels growing on it, reflecting the light in shades of blue and green. Ninni pulled a face. ‘I think this will be enough.’

Jack watched as she plucked the mussels off and dropped them in the bucket one by one, after giving each a quick clean and squeezing them between her fingers.

‘How do you know they’re safe to eat?’

‘You don’t know?’ Ninni was surprised.

Jack shrugged. ‘When I use mussels, they arrive at the kitchen already cleaned and safe. So how do you know?’

‘We test them on unsuspecting visitors.’ Ninni rubbed the “beard” off a large mussel, discovered a crack in the shell and threw it out into the water again. ‘That’s not safe.’

Holding the oars with one hand, he picked up one and looked at it. ‘Very funny. Is that why you don’t eat them yourself? Are you scared of being poisoned?’

‘No, I absolutely hate the texture of the things. Jens checks with the food safety authorities every day on mussels so you can be sure they’re safe. He also keeps tabs on the weather and water quality by the beaches. Anything you need to know about nature, he’ll know about it.’

The bucket filled up quickly and Ninni dropped the rope back into the water.

‘We can go back now.’

Jack had more control now. He rowed more gently. ‘I thought there would be a farm or something like that,’ he said.

‘A mussel farm?’ Ninni shook her head. ‘It’s not commercially viable, I think.’

He cocked his head. ‘I bet you fish crabs as well out here.’

‘Of course we do. The crabs here are fantastic and you can fish for them all year.’

‘What sort of crabs do you get?’

‘Red crabs and the occasional troll crabs. I usually throw those back in the water.’