As the only professional with experience in going to sea, Lightning was obliged to serve as a navigator.
In fact, she is also very interested in this barge with strange shapes and materials. Although it looks extremely rough, as a ship, it has all the parts it should have. As for whether it can move, she is not sure. After all, she was mostly a bystander at sea, and her father always refused her requests to steer or raise the sails herself.
As is customary for new ships to set sail, Lightning smashed a can of ale on the bow and ordered the sails to be hoisted. As the commander, Carter was naturally unwilling to let the little girl take the position, so after she finished shouting, the knight would always add the same order.
The sails of the township are made of animal skins, most of which are cowhide and sheepskin, and some special products of Border Town, such as wolf and bear skins. So it looks like a shade of brown, white and grey, like a patched rag. The sails are trapezoidal in shape, separated by four wooden sticks that act as beams in the middle, and the cables pass through iron rings at the top of the masts and hang down on the deck. Just pull the cable and you can raise the entire sail.
In order to make handling as easy as possible, the town's front and rear sails are single sails, parallel to each other and perpendicular to the centerline. If the general brig is set up like this, it will cause one sail to eat very little wind, which is almost equivalent to no effect. But with Wendy's ability to control the wind, such a design will make the power evenly distributed on both sides of the centerline, making it easier for the helmsman to operate the direction.
Seeing the completion of the sail, the lightning commanded the workers on the land to untie the hemp rope. The weather at this time was not bad, with occasional snowflakes falling from the sky, and driven by the light wind and current, the boat slowly left the shore.
The little girl landed next to Brian and shouted, "Right full rudder!"
Carter also shouted: "Right full rudder!"
"Uh, what does full rudder to the right mean?" Brian scratched his head. "How many turns to the right?"
"No, turn left to the end," Lightning said with his hand on his forehead, "Forget it, let me come."
She forgot that this group of people was piloting a sailboat for the first time, and they didn't even understand the meaning of the basic instructions. If it is a standard brig, I am afraid that even the sails are not rolled out now. Even if there are less than ten people, the stone boat can be smoothly disembarked from the shore. It can only be said that the design of the township is indeed unique.
She holds the handle of the steering wheel higher than herself, lifts her feet off the ground, and rotates to one side—the huge horizontal steering wheel is very heavy for ordinary women, and it is equivalent to overcoming the resistance of water to do work without mechanical assistance. Pull the whole iron rudder surface under the bottom of the boat. But none of this is a problem for flying lightning. She noticed that there was a blocking piece under the tiller to prevent turning her head, and she couldn't help but be a little curious. I heard that this ship was designed by His Royal Highness The Prince, why did he even know such details? It should be known that even sailors who stay at sea all year round do not necessarily know the structure of each part of the ship.
"Sister Wendy, let the wind blow."
Wendy stood on the roof crying and laughing. It turned out that His Highness asked if she had acrophobia because of this. Use yourself to propel a sailboat? Thinking of the work that I usually do, such as air-drying meat, drying clothes, etc., suddenly there is a subtle sense of contrast. She opened her hands and entered the state she practiced on weekdays, letting the wind blow evenly from under her feet and overhead, making the wind on both sides of the sails as equal as possible.
To be honest, Wendy didn't expect this seemingly simple request to be so difficult to operate.
Despite having awakened as a witch fifteen years ago, she has never tried to gain insight and control over her powers. Whether it is summoning a rapid airflow to wrap the stone to attack the enemy, or summoning a gust of wind to sweep the enemy away, a large amount of magic power is released at one time. When dealing with chores in the camp, the wind is also strong and weak, as long as the goal can be achieved. Thinking of Anna's seriousness in practice now, Wendy suddenly felt a little ashamed.
"The first thing you have to do is practice your ability over and over until you master it—just like Anna."
Turns out it wasn't a cliché.
So let's do it now... She took a deep breath and focused all her attention on the sense of the wind.
Although the wind wasn't perfectly balanced, the sails swelled, and the constant thrust made the masts creak and the bow began to swing to the right.
"It really moved," Carter exclaimed.
"His Royal Highness made a boat out of stone, and let it float on the water," Tigu smiled while rubbing his beard, "Is there anything he can't do?"
The township got farther and farther from the river bank, and gradually drove in the middle of the river.
Wendy can only generate wind out of thin air, but cannot make the existing north wind disappear. Under the action of the two winds, the direction of the hull is not a straight line, and it must be adjusted by turning the rudder. There is no way to explain this point of lightning clearly, so Brian can only experience it himself. In order to let him grasp this feeling as soon as possible, the little girl first directed him to perform several large rudder surface changes, and then made further fine adjustments after feeling the relationship between the rotation angle of the steering wheel and the swing of the bow.
After sailing on the Chishui River for more than half an hour, Wendy couldn't hold it anymore.
It's not that the magic power is exhausted, but the body has reached its limit.
Even if the body is wrapped in a zongzi shape, it cannot completely resist the cold wind. A thin layer of snowflakes had accumulated on her cotton hat, her hands and feet were almost unconscious, and she was teetering on the ceiling. If Lightning hadn't noticed something strange while cruising in the air, she might have persisted until she passed out.
Lightning quickly flew to Wendy's side, grabbed her body, and shouted for Brian to dock.
The latter killed the steering wheel to the right, and the bow slowly deflected to the left. Lightning also flew down with Wendy. Although only one sail could be blown on the deck, it could at least temporarily avoid the wind and cold, so as to avoid excessive body temperature loss. Moreover, the work of docking requires fine control, and Lightning does not dare to hand it over to a newcomer who has just learned to steer - even though she is also not very good at it.
After some tossing, the township finally landed, and the moment everyone collided with the river bank, everyone's hearts were raised. The hull made a dull sound when it hit, but fortunately it didn't seem to be in serious trouble. The group quickly gathered up the sails and set up the springboard.
Fortunately, during the trial, everyone did not choose to go in a straight line to the end, but turned around and practiced in the wide river, so the township did not leave too far from the starting point.
Lightning flew directly towards the castle with Wendy on his back. Carter looked at the stone boat and sighed. Without the help of the witch, they would never have thought of driving the boat back to the dock.