Boating In The

Territory

  by Bonzai Yak

  112 pages

Chapter 2: Territory Boats (part c)

 

Mind you now most sailboats aren't as small as this one that Beau just drew. A one section sailer will do when it's fair, but it needs some more length to last out a blow. When the water gets choppy they bob like a bottle and the ride gets as bumpy as the wide underside of some dumb whale's bum. On the open sea on a windy day they're about as much fun as a walrus kiss and you get twice as wet. Now a three section sailboat, that really can go and you don't have to worry when the wind starts to blow. You can hoist up a second mast too if you want. If you have the crew and they know what to do you can really go places. Why I remember one time a few years ago, we were on an expedition to the Pirates' Cave. We made us a five section schooner that day, three masts in full sail, we just wailed along and our wake was a wondrous sight.

boat-4

Might as well tell you though, sailing a ship is a whole lot different from paddling a boat. You probably knew that was true more or less, still I better make sure that you know what to do to make it go best. When you sail you don't paddle, it's simpler than that cause you let the wind do all the work. You hold the pole in the middle the same, but instead of a stroke or a kayak motion, you roll the pole in a circular way very much like a two handed crank. A fellow or two say that's just what I am, but I tell them it's more what I do. When you sail a ship you move the pole in a circular way like you're cranking a bucket coming up from a well, just exactly like that only different of course cause the motion is bigger and much more sedate. I'd get Beau Weevil to draw it for you, but it's hard to describe even to your eyes. You gotta do it to really know. It's smooth and slow and it follows the motion of the waves in the ocean, you roll with the whole of the boat. All the boaters should find the same roll. When it gets going right you can see the wave moving all through the ship.

Not everyone has to be sailing of course. There's lots of room for passengers to ride in each of the sections. Gives you some extra hands to carry whatever you need on your journey that day. Food or rum, a cannon or gun cause you never know who you might meet out there on the wide open sea. Always have a weather eye for the Pirates my lad, that's what the Great Pirate Chief used to say. Me, I get on with Pirates okay, share what you got in a friendly way and you won't have to wash up the blood and gore when you get back to shore again. The Great Pirate Chief used to say that too and he wasn't far wrong cause he helped me practice whenever he said it by taking a twelfth of my purse. More of a tithe than a curse with him, always a gentleman wherever he was. Cause he always paid for the rum we were drinking from his share of my purse so that's how I know.

Now you might want to add a few things to your boat, lots of guys do and it goes a long way. A flag is nice at the top of the mast and it helps you know who you are. Ribbons and bells can look good as well if you put them on right and you don't use too many. Helps you feel the wind coming in and the wind likes to talk if you give it a chance. Boating at night you might stick some lanterns onto the poles at the end where the eye bolts are. Keeps the sea bats away that way and it gives you the power of starlight too. Anything you want to add to a boat will work out okay if you need it some way. Whatever you need you can have. Just don't go too far into decoration, that's all I'm trying to say. Everything on a boat has some use or at least a story or two. The queerest boat I ever did see on the open sea was sailed by the Hags. They had a body slung up between the fore and aft mast and the sound of their keening was enough to kill a gull.

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