Bud Sparhawk - Primrose and Thorn

Louella spun the wheel to bring the boat directly into the wind. The wind caught the edge of the new sail and pulled it the rest of the way out.

Louella adjusted the traveler. The wind filled the sail, throwing Thorn at a sharp angle. The boat heeled precariously and then leaped forward with a force that snapped Louella’s head back against the headrest. She managed the trim of the sail, a matter more of feel than science, until the boat was riding steadily downwind, making steady progress. Thorn rode safely and secure in the teeth of the storm.

“That’s the right thing to do,” she said softly to the exhausted Pascal. “Good going, partner.”

The relative calm following the storm was a blessing. Rams had managed to be blown only a couple hundred kilometers south of his planned track through a combination of his skill and considerable luck. All he had to do now was intercept the CS-42 track and pray that the storm hadn’t forced her too far from the projected track in his computer.

Rams checked the sail one more time and then prepared to come about. It was time to head on a northerly leg. He buckled himself to the deck and released the hold-downs on the wheel. He felt a throb reverberate though the deck as the rudder cut into the dense soup, far below. He imagined it to be Primrose’s heartbeat.

The hull began to sound a deep resonant note that echoed throughout the ship. “Damn harmonics,” Rams swore. He retracted the keel until the sound disappeared. Left alone, the wind blowing across the keel would set up a destructive harmonic that could destroy the ship.

“Ready, girl,” he whispered, turning the wheel ever so slightly to starboard. He put one hand on the port-side jib release and waited. Primrose rolled to the perpendicular and then shook as her prow came through the eye of the wind.

Rams hit the port-side release and switched on the starboard-side jib winch. In his mind’s eye he could see the mainsail whipping across the deck, slamming the traveler to rest on the opposite side as it turned its port side to weather.

There was a clatter of chain against the pressure hull that stopped when the loose jib finally stretched taut. Primrose heeled and started to pick up speed on the downwind leg. Rams held the wheel loosely, searching for balance until he was confident that the ship had once more found her line. Only then did he lock the wheel into place and relax.

He unbuckled the restraints and started to pour the last cup of tea from his thermos when he stopped. Something was out of the ordinary, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Rams examined the instrument panel. Everything seemed to be in order; no red warning lights that would scream that the hull had been breached, no flashing indication that the rigging was damaged, no alarm telling him that some life-threatening life support system was malfunctioning. What could it have been?

Then the infrared display flashed again. Rams started in surprise. There, on the screen, was a white blob—a heat indication where there should be nothing but empty sky. A glance at the camera indicator told him that the blob was off his starboard bow, just at the edge of the imager’s range.

Quickly he released the wheel and spun Primrose about, pulling the jib tight and letting it backwind, just as Jake had taught him. The winds buffeted the ship for a few seconds, rocking it from side to side until, finally, the motion subsided. The ship was close-hauled into the wind, the pressure on the reversed jib equal to the pressure on the loose main, and both constrained by the kilometers of keel beneath him.

He carefully turned the aft camera around, trying to find another indication of that heat signature. Several times he thought that he had it, but was mistaken. Stare at a screen of random noise long enough and you are likely to see anything you want. He continued to search.

Then he had it. A definite heat source, and quite close too. The object was moving at about the same speed and direction as the wind.

They were so far off their planned track by watch change that neither of them could see how they could make up the lost time. “I don’t see how the other competitors could have avoided the storm,” Pascal remarked as he examined the charts and the trace on the inertial. “Surely they’re in as bad shape as we are.”

“Don’t count on it,” Louella snarled. “Most of them are tough sons of a bitch. Somebody probably figured out how to use this storm’s winds to their advantage. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that at least two of them have a good day’s advantage on us.”

“Oh, when did you become such an optimist?” Pascal asked bitterly.

“When I got you as a partner,” she snapped back.

Pascal checked the trim while Louella snored in her bunk. Thorn felt sluggish—probably Louella had taken on more ballast, he thought. He switched on the heater to vent some of it and lighten the boat.

A sudden gust blew Thorn to the side. She tilted nearly forty degrees as the wheel whipped from side to side.

“What the hell?” Louella yelled from her bunk.

“I think the sail’s gone again,” Pascal yelled down at her. “Take the wheel while I get another one ready. ”

Louella squirmed into the seat as Pascal dragged himself into the sail locker. Thorn was rocking steadily from side to side. She turned on the winch to let out more keel and steady the boat, letting out another hundred meters of mesh.

“Let’s try the foresail this time,” she yelled at Pascal’s disappearing feet.

Pascal wiggled into the cramped space beside the sails and braced himself. He ached all over. No matter how he positioned himself, some bruised part of his body pressed painfully against something. He rigged the lines and gear until the red-tagged foresail was ready to be ratcheted into the loading compartment.

He carefully attached the pulley to the head end of the sail and began to crank it into place. With every turn of the winch his muscles ached. He banged his elbow on the bulkhead with each long stroke of the winch handle.

With a twenty-to-one ratio, it took a long time to finally get the sail into place—long enough for the forgotten heater to turn the entire ballast load into steam.

Back in the cabin Louella noticed the sideways motion of the boat. She immediately checked the pressure gauges, thinking the wind had switched unexpectedly. But that wasn’t the problem; their heading was still good and the wind had settled down. Why then were they slipping sideways? She tried to clear her head and reason it out. She wished that she weren’t so damn tired.

Then she noticed the blinking warning light above the heater switch. “Damn,” she swore, “how did I miss that?” and turned it off.

Pascal stuck his head out of the end of the tube. “Sail’s all ready to go.”

“Right, brace yourself,” she responded and hit the winches to raise the sail.

Before she could react the ship moved violently to one side, throwing her from the seat and smashing her against the bulkhead. She didn’t even have time to scream.

Pascal came painfully to full consciousness. His head throbbed and his side was a mass of agony, as if his ribs had been crushed. The first thing that he saw was Louella slumped against the bulkhead of the cockpit, her arm at an awkward angle. “She must have forgotten to buckle herself in,” he mumbled and crawled to her. The pain in his side stabbed each time he moved.

Louella’s pulse was all right, but her breathing was labored. He turned her to one side to relieve the front-to-back pressure from the two-g gravity. She moaned as he shifted her.

He ran his hand down her arm, feeling for a break, a dislocated joint. The arm was all right, but there was a swelling at her wrist indicating a possible sprain or fracture. Since there was nothing more serious apparent, he climbed into the seat and buckled himself in. He could take care of Louella’s medical problems later, after he found out what Thorn’s situation was. The boat always came first!