Chapter 12

11:15 PDT Friday, August 16^th, 1991

Oakland Yacht Club

1101 Pacific Marina, Alameda CA, 94501

"Collins, to splice two ropes, what knot?" BMCM Kostowe asked sharply.

"Reef or sheetbend, Boats." The answer was crisp. Lenore was enjoying the game, and her hands flew over the Belfast strands, tying the sheetbend, a knot she'd actually come to appreciate. She laughed a little, as she considered her answer.

She'd learned from Dillon the various ratings and ranks over the week. Kostowe was, she'd known, a Master Chief Boatswain's Mate, and now she knew the abbreviated rank was 'BMCM'. At first, there'd seemed to be an overwhelming number of ratings, but she'd been able to memorize most. Lenore herself was a 'BM2', she'd learned, and both Dillon and Kostowe had told her that the Navy didn't particularly care about her name, but the rating and rank were presumed enough. She suspected it was something along the lines of: just about any sailor with the rank and rate could and would be expected to do the job.

Dillon had shown up Monday to help coach Lenore, and the Chief talked to him privately for a long time after setting Lenore to studying ratings. When the two came back out of the cabin, both she and Dillon had been told they could address Kostowe as 'Boats', as Lenore herself could expect to be addressed.

The Chief was beside himself with giddiness at the whole thing, Lenore saw, and it warmed her heart to the core. Even Dillon reacted to it, sharing grins with Lenore behind the Chief's back. Dillon confided that the Chief was giving him career advice during Dillon's visits to the Joy Redux.

Lenore had spent every spare moment on the boat this week tying knots in a five-strand Belfast lanyard. The Chief told her that her three-foot-long lanyard would have over sixty feet of cord in it when done. He'd shown her some insanely complicated knots, Turks-heads and sinnets, and he'd tied a long strand of the five-strand Turks-heads for her before her sinnets. She tried her best to make the sinnets lay properly, and he told her that years later, when she'd mastered it, she could cut the lanyard at the back of the neck and retie the knots, splicing in some extra cordage. He seemed saddened by the thought, though he cheered up significantly when Lenore impulsively hugged him, decorum be damned.

Lenore asked, and the Chief told her that the lanyard for the Bosun's pipe was part of the Bosun's Mate's uniform when in ceremony or on guard duty. Lenore took it as sufficient motivation to take the cordage home with her at night Wednesday and last night, too. She would finish this one, then she'd have to bleach the cordage white or dye it black, depending on the uniform she'd wear on a given day. She sighed at the thought of having to tie another for the other color uniform, and the Turks-heads that that one would require. Kostowe seemed to think she needed this before going to Pensacola, and Lenore would move heaven and Earth if Kostowe suggested they were in the way.