Spring preparations on the Narwhal

Hoist the sails and go? Hoist them on what, we don't have masts yet!

Rose was quite anxious when the plane started the decent to the island. She'd stayed on the Narwhal after the pirates had 'rescued' them from the Antelope. She'd stayed on, for the adventure, the excitement, the sailing and the crew, and for Peter. Don't lie to yourself Rose.
When the Hunting Season was over the whole crew scattered to do other things over winter, she'd gone back to the Netherlands, to arrange things, talk to friends. Think about what to do next with her life. Well to be honest, that didn't require that much thinking, she wanted more of what she just had experienced. So Rose ended the lease on her apartment, sold off the furniture, put some memorable items in long term storage, and come spring she was back on an æroplane to the Narwhal. With, due to the help from a "cousin" of Armani, a sailing license for Second Mate.
The first time sailing had been exciting, she'd rolled accidently into the pirate life. But now she was making a deliberate choice; to walk on the edge of society, far beyond the border of the law.

Getting the boat back in the water

The Narwhal was stored in the shipyard, "on the dry" as they say. Among the yachts they'd normally hunt. The masts were off, and she was covered by a tarpaulin, like a wolf wearing a sheep's clothes.

Rose arrived before any of the crew it turned out, but that might be due to the fact that she did fly in a week earlier than the Boatswain had told her too. Bobby was already there, with Captain Jacobson, of course. Bobby was busy doing something inside the boat, and Peter was pressure washing the outside of the hull. Although when Rose had come up to say hi, that turned to her task very fast. Before she could unpack or change clothes, she was crawling around under the boat, getting completely soaked. This was the last time she was wearing a summer dress Rose promised herself.

When she cleaned the midships part, she found out that Bobby actually had a quite extensive vocabulary of swear words, in multiple languages even. Apparently he was changing some overboard valves, and she had blasted a lot of water inside the engine room with the high pressure gun. Oops.

The washing turned out not to be that bad of a job, compared to what followed. Sanding the whole underwater part of the hull. Rose was so relieved that Michael and Aleksey showed up two days later to help her out. Muscles sore to the bone, she was really questioning herself why she decided to come early, although the evenings with Peter made those thoughts go away.

But the sanding came to an end, and then came painting. The four of them, Bobby was now busy replacing the grease in the bearings of the rudder and the oil in the shaft tube. Had the hull painted in two days, with a special very slippery paint that prevented sea live from growing to the bottom of the ship and slowing her down. The specialist driving cradle crane from the shipyard had the Narwhal back in the water that Friday evening.

The crew, now counting six, had a small party to relax and celebrate.

Stepping the mainmast

But there was no time to nurse the hangover, that Saturday morning Peter had hired a crane to step the mainmast. In between sanding and painting, Michael had found time to prepare some temporary stays and shrouds to hold the mast in place, after the crane had lowered it on the mast step. With all other spars laying on deck, and the mainmast up by jury rig, they left the harbour and dropped the anchor in the bay. The Narwhal was very low on funds and could no longer afford the docking fee.

The reason Michael had jury rigged the mast, was that last season the steel standing rigging had started to rust and it was time to replace those wires. And one of the scores of last season was four spools of Dynema rope. So instead of making new steel wire rigging, they went with a fancy new material, with an old-fashioned twist.

The Dynema, although made out of synthetic fibres was made like real rope. So there could be no pressed on terminals and turnbuckles. This rigging would require work with the marlinespike to make splices, dead eyes, whippings, and lashings. A whole new world opened up for Rose as she was set to work with Aleksey by the bosun. From lower to top shrouds, and fore stay to topmast stay, they secured the mainmast. Working around the mizzenmast that just lay quite annoyingly across the deck from fore to aft. Rose was wondering when they’d get back to the crane to put that one up, when Michael announced that they’d do that themselves while at anchor.

What?

Putting up the mizzenmast

First they moved the mizzenmast aft by hand, letting it stick out far beyond the transom, so that the foot of the mast was just over the hole where it had to go through the deck. With the main- and mizzen-boom, they had rigged an A-frame over the transom, that was holding up the mizzenmast, preventing it from falling overboard. Michael and Peter then secured the main- and mizzen -gaffs in a similar A-frame over the hole in the deck, with block and tackle securing to the mizzenmast.

“We made a mistake” Peter said.
“What?” Michael started, followed by a; “Shit” when he looked at where Peter was looking at. The end of the mizzen sticking out far beyond the transom of the Narwhal, didn’t have any lines attached to it, the lines that were standby at the foot of the mainmast, to hoist the mizzen up, and to hold it stable from port to starboard.
“I’ll jump in the dingy.” Michael said.[/br] “No need” Rose interrupted. “I think I’m light enough.”
“You want to climb?” Michael asked with a raised eyebrow.
“There’s no need to climb.” Rose smiled. As she grabbed the three lines, and stepped on the horizontal laying mast. The weather was perfect. The Narwhal was not moving at all. “Did I ever tell you my favourite exercise was the beam when I did gymnastics?”
“You never even mentioned that you did gymnastics, Rosalind” Bobby answered dryly. “Just Rose, please.”

She’d never admit, but that walk was much harder than any balance beam exercise she’d ever done. But she managed to pull it off, secure all three lines to the head of the mizzenmast and make it back on deck without falling overboard.

First, they used the A-Frame on the stern to support the mizzenmast part of the way. And then they used the line from the head of the mizzenmast to the head of the mainmast, to pull the mizzenmast upright, all the time balancing the mast with lines to the sides. And when they were almost vertical, they also put a line to the stern to prevent the mast from falling forward.

When they had the mast vertical, the full weight was hanging in the small A-frame they had put on deck, and now came a peculiar moment when they had to lower it into position. But every centimetre they lowered it, meant that all the lines that held the mast upright came slack, and would tip it to a random side. So it took several hours of alternatively slacking and tightening several lines to lower the mizzen mast into position while keeping it straight.

But by nightfall, the mizzenmast was up. And the next day there was more measuring, cutting, splicing, whipping and lashing to do, to secure the mizzen in position. While they also managed to install the bowsprit that day. But by now the crew had grown to eight, and the work progressed fast. Everyone was doing all kinds of jobs. Bedding was being washed, holds and bilges cleaned out. Freshwater tank scrubbed out.

After the masts had been secured, Michael had moved the attention of the deckhands to the sails, and one by one they were secured to their places and hoisted and lowered to see if it all went well.

It turned out a mouse had made a winter home in the outer jib, so that one needed patching. The mouse had eaten away a tunnel through the rolled up sail. So now there was a diagonal line of bright white square patches in the sail.

Test sail

It was three weeks since Rose had come back, and the whole crew had gathered now. The Narwhal was ready so it was time to test sail. The engine was started, the anchor hoisted, and when the Narwal’s bow peeked out of the harbour, the ocean’s swell greeted her. Slightly pitching, Peter steered her out into open sea. First the mainsail and staysail went up, and when those were set the engine was stopped. By lunchtime all sails were set flying, and the Narwhal made 9 knots in a light wind.

That evening they returned to port, and with the last cash the ship had, Alejandro went ashore to stock up the supplies for the galley, and the next day the hunting season was opened again.

Important Locations