USA
Copyright© 2016 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 43
Whoa, boy. You need to back up. What about all them girls?
Oh.
Well, you remember last time ... got stabbed. I wonder ... is it stabbed when the knife is thrown?
Forensic Medicine: Clinical and Pathological Aspects
By Jason Payne-James, Anthony Busuttil, William Smock states with positivity that without continued force of arms that a thrown knife finds impediment from skin; if one is stuck without constant pressure a knife won’t penetrate very far. Hmm. Sounds fishy to me.
The girls.
Evidence proves that the pirate chief had been raiding because there were seven more than last count. Unwilling to just leave then to the mercies of the swamp, the Vellamo III loaded them and their meager belongings in the hold and reversed course. Fifty-seven youngish but pubescent girls of assorted ancestry made for a pretty crowded boat. Not intending to take 57 girls on the remainder of our round the world adventure I was taking them to the nearest civil sized civilization; Noumea. Back the way we had just come. Instead of foul winds and tacking, we were running wing and wing.
Wing and wing is a term for having the mainsails at 90 degrees to the hull ... one right and one left. The jib sails were also at 90 degrees to the hull ... one left, one right. The jib sails are assisted by a whisker pole ... sometimes called a jib pole. A good whisker set should have a supporting line above and a restraining line below. Wing and wing at a run is not something done spur of the moment. The supporting line is called a topping lift and the restraining line is called the foreguy and they need to be already rove through pulleys called blocks. Topping lift and foreguy act against each other to keep the jib sails winged out. There is a hook at either end of the whisker ... one hook fastened to the hook eye on the mast ... the outer hook is fastened to the clew of the jib ... the after guy also is fastened to the ring eye of the clew.
Well ... confused? Good.
We had 57 young women in the hold ... but that’s just where they slept. During the day the were on deck with the crew ... sunning with Inkeri ... wearing Inkeri’s clothing style ... nothing.
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