Chapter 5

I promised to tell about the trip to Magnimar, but first I think I should explain a thing about me. You may have noted that Ameiliee spends a lot of time talking to people and I do not seem to be doing much. That is indeed correct, I am am somewhat shy and quiet, mostly just listening to what is being said and turning to look at other things when the discussion turns to totally boring topics. Of course almost anyone else would seem quiet and withdrawn compared to Ameiliee, but I have also always been a bit on the quiet and withdrawn side even compared to normal people.

Anyway, onward with the story.

After a while the ship gets underway. Being a caravel it is a fast small ship, at about 30 yards in length and 100 tons of displacement. The crew consists of the captain, the first mate and twelve sailors. The passengers consist of Ameiliee and me in one small cabin, a westerner in another and 14 people on deck. There is apparently only a fairly small amount of miscellaneous cargo as the ship is on it's way to Magnimar to pick up some cargo that is going all the way west to Dragon isles, after having delivered it's previous cargo to Norek.

Again, as the ship gets on it's way, Ameiliee starts talking with everyone. I learn that the westerner is on his way home to Dragon isles after having conducted some business in the Central Kingdom. Apparently he and Ameiliee have some common acquaintance that they spend a considerable time talking about.

It gets to be a bit cold on the deck with the rain and the water from the waves occasionally spraying over us, so I decide to head down to the cabin. After only a few minutes in the cabin I start to feel a bit nauseous. Luckily I have some suitable herbs that I prepare and ingest so the nausea goes down, but threatens to return as I try to read, so I stop. After a while, being alone in the cabin with nothing to do gets boring, so I go back up on deck.

Ameiliee and the westerner are still talking so I look around to see what everyone else is doing. Some people are playing some card game, some are just bunched up under waterproof clothing and similar.

I watch the crew manage the sails for a while, but then it gets boring too. The heavy rain, high waves and the late afternoon make seeing anything beyond the ship impossible, though we are most likely fairly close to the coast or some coastal islands, I cannot see any such to break the boredom.

Before I die of boredom it is finally dinner time. Apparently as cabin passengers we get to sit at a table in captains cabin and while the deck passengers and the common crew get a bowl of soup and plenty of bread, we get even some fruits.

The captain seems friendly and upon hearing that this is my first sea trip promises to explain to me a lot of what they do in the ship tomorrow.

After that it is time for me to sleep. I have hard time getting to sleep with all the strange noises and the motion of the ship, until finally many hours later, the exhaustion is enough for me to collapse and sleep.

In the morning Ameiliee tries to wake me up for breakfast but finally gives up seeing how tired I am still at that point. I wake up some time later and finally get up. While I have never been an early riser, I never had quite this much trouble in getting up while at home.

When I get up on deck Ameiliee greets me with a smile and a "Good morning, lazy bones, it is already noon and you got up only now. If you keep that up, soon you will be sleeping around the clock." I mumble something about hard to fall asleep, producing a short giggle, ruffling of my hair like I was an eight year old and a "I know. Many people find it hard to adjust to the motion of the ship, luckily I am not one of them. I am surprised that you did not get any nausea either from the motion or from the motion combined with the meal we had" from her. I tell her that I had to use the nausea medicine yesterday and she nods a "yes, it is good to have the herbalism skills"

She then proceeds to go talk with other people and I go to the captain.

The captain explains many things about sailing the ship during the day. He explains about the need to trim the sails to get best possible performance from the wind, about navigating, about different sail types and much more. I listen fascinated and likely absorb only a small part of it.

One thing that strikes me is how he explains that a ship of the same type would likely as little as ten or twenty years ago likely have had at least twenty maybe even thirty sailors and maybe four officers, but the improvements in the rigging and the block and tackle systems have decreased the needed sail handling crew considerably. Apparently some similar ships used for coastal traffic have as little as a captain and eight crew. The reason for the slightly larger crew on this ship is to make long distance travel more feasible. After all Dragon isles, their next destination, is more than 8000 miles away along ship routes.