It was a bit of an irritation to Alfred that everyone always asked that, though in Lily's case it might have been coming from a different place and with a different intention behind the question than his average conversation partner. Given what he'd learned so far in their conversation, she might be speaking from concern, whereas most were asking skeptically. Not that he could really fault anyone for being skeptical, given that he was setting out to find an island that hadn't been visited since the middle ages, if it had ever been visited at all. There was some doubt as to whether it really existed at all, and even more doubt as to whether anyone could really just set sail and stumble upon it, if it had been hidden for so long. Besides, given the fact that the Sycorax had crashed before discovering anything new whatsoever, the cynicism was perhaps well-merited. Still, he couldn't help but feel as though these sorts of questions reflected on him, and on his perceived abilities as a sailor and first-time Captain, and so these lines of inquiry never failed to make him feel rather defensive.

"If — if we're not finished yet," he said, avoiding the phrase if we don't find anything because he refused to believe that they could go off on an expedition and find nothing. "Then we might go out again. But we'll need to pull back into London for repairs and resupplying, at any rate," he continued, offering this last as a conciliatory gesture; he would, at least, not be gone indefinitely, unless, of course, they wrecked somewhere.

After a quick pause, he added rather brightly, "Oh! And we're taking plenty of owls along, this time."