Chapter 44

"If you were setting up the course, what would you recommend?" David was curious, now that he was over stunned.

Junior gave the chats a quick glance, "Lake Erie is shallow and this end has a lot of wannabe islands ... rises and humps that make life interesting for sailors. I'd steer 123 degrees off north and pay close attention to Rattlesnake Island. We'll miss Sister to starboard but 123 would rack us up on this ... bump ... can't call it a reef ... a reef is coral."

David looked at the chart and the compass, He stepped out and hollered at Twin on the helm, "Steer 123 degrees, Twin." He stepped back to the chart table. "What else?"

"We've been sailing heading into the wind so 123 degrees will be just past close hauled. The Sails will work better ... transmit more power ... if we flatten the sails. Is there something on the end of the boom that we can tighten to take the belly out of the sail?"

"You've studied."

"Not exactly ... we do live on an island and we do own a couple of sailboats ... sometimes I need to be by myself so I can think. I can use my watch ... I can move sideways in time, the watch won't let me get hurt ... but I like my time ... within reason. Some times I take out the little boat.

"I'm not fast or skilled at it, but I just need to get away," she looked at the Twin in the chart room and said, in an atrocious British accent, "Lest I do thee harm in my melancholy."

He flinched.

David and Andrea laughed.

"It's not funny," said Twin. "She's always been smarter ... sometimes it grinds my ass ... oops, sorry ... but it does."

Junior confessed, "This little vacation ... get away ... lets me leave my rush behind. My head has always run faster than my body. I get impetuous ... In our time ... you know I was born during the Millennium ... in our time we're always under the gun. The United States wants the Princessapality ... Royalty that close bothers them, and Mom IS a Princess..." She laughed, "I guess I am too. The best I can say for the mess is that no matter how long I am in the past, just a few seconds have passed when I get back to time of origin"

Twin said, "Canada wants the island, too."

"This is true," she said. "Ownership is complicated. Everybody and their mother's brother has owned or claimed that piece of dirt over the last five or six thousand years. Mom bought it auction for 2 dollars Canadian. That's when the fun started. She bought it ten years in the past."

"The United Nations deeded it to us after so many countries claimed prior right of possession, most of them operating under the guise of 'To the victor go the spoils.' Well, they screwed themselves when the major powers made Israel give back the land they conquered. 'Right of conquest' is invalid."

David said, "Well ... whatever ... we need to square away and see what kind of speed we can count on."

The vang was tightened to take the bow out of the boom. The outhaul at the end of the boom was tightened to make the sail lose it's belly. The downhaul tightened the boom to the mast. Speed picked up appreciably. The Knight went from seven knots to 13 knots with very little noticeable increase in lean.

David said, "The more upright the boat the less the sail spills wind." He pointed at little tufts of yarn at the leach of the main sail. "If we were spilling wind those tufts would be flapping all over. Notice they are straight out from the leach." (The leach of the sail is the part farthest from the mast.)