“Ah, there is somebody I know,” said Grant. A minute later he was noticed and a deeply tanned sailor came over.
“Madeleine, meet John Douglas, my former skipper. You remember I told you about him?”
“I hope only good things,” said John.
“So how are you, old man? I thought you were in the Mediterranean?”
“I was, but only to get a boat to take across the Atlantic.”
“When did you arrive?”
“Three days ago. On the first day I heard that you were here so I went looking for you but I could not find the boat, so I thought you had gone off again.”
“You would not have found her in a slip,” said Grant. “She’s on the hard, getting careened, new anodes and so on.” He could have elaborated by adding new stanchions, new deck fastenings, the removal of through-hull ports, a new coach roof, new seals around several hatch covers and much more, but he did not want to sound tedious.
Madeleine was more complete. “If you were looking for her by name, you would not have found her anyway. She’s got a new name.”
“Oh really, what do you call her now?”
“Well, we had quite a few options. Seeing that there is a now a co-owner,” Grant said, inclining his head toward Madeleine, “we thought of ‘Blonde Ambition’ at first. A ship must have lady’s name, am I right?”
“That’s an old sailors’ superstition,” said John, “same as not leaving port on a Friday.”
“Do you leave port on Fridays?” asked Madeleine.
“Never, but calling a ship by a female name is not adhered to so strongly anymore. I wouldn’t strictly keep to that.”
“That’s good, because there were a few other options that we’ve considered,” said Madeleine. “We’ve tried combinations of our names.”
“Like ‘Mad Grant’,” guessed John.
“He’s so clever,” purred Madeleine in Grant’s direction.
“And correct,” said Grant. “‘Mad Broker’ also came up. Then we figured that ‘mad’ anything was not going to work.”
“I wonder why,” said John.
“Anyway,” said Madeleine, “that was the reason why we decided on ‘Privateer’s Business’. My forefathers were privateers and Grant is the business side of things.”
“Ah, by privateers you mean pirates?”
“It is kind of a sensitive topic,” said Grant. “You see, I recently discovered that there might be a link to Black Beard himself.”
“Only to Morgan,” corrected Madeleine.
“Sorry, I get the names mixed up. I’ll get it right sometime.”
“You’d better, or that partnership might be gone.”
“What is this about partnership?” asked John.
“Grant is becoming shareholder and full partner of one of the oldest banks on Bermuda,” said Madeleine, “running the trading arm.”
“It helps when the other shareholders believe that you’ve saved one of their own,” said Grant.
“Very nice about the partnership, Grant, as well as the fact that you are getting civilised at last,” said John, nodding to Madeleine. What interests me as much as anything else, however, is the story that you’ve had a rough time of it crossing from St Martin.”
“Oh yes,” said Grant. “In the end we pulled through, but it is a tale so deep and so dark that there are many parts that we cannot repeat.”
SAILING TERMINOLOGY
Aft: behind, in the stern half of the boat
Beam: width of the boat at its widest part
Bear away: to modify the boat’s course by turning its bow away from the direction of the wind
Beating: same as close-hauled
Block: pulley
Boom: metal spar to which the main or mizzen sail is attached along its lower edge.
Broach: when the boat goes over on its side as a result of wind or wave action
Close-hauled: sailing close-hauled is a point of sailing where the wind comes at a very small angle over the boat’s bow
Doghouse: completely enclosed part of the deck on some yachts from which the boat can be steered in heavy weather
Fore, forward: in front, in the bow of the boat
Foredeck: area in front of the mast
Foresail: same as jib
Genoa: largest jib, the foot of which extends more than the distance between the main mast and the bow
Gybe: a manoeuvre by which a boat is made to turn through the wind.
Halyard: a rope whose function it is to hoist or hold up a sail
Heave to: the boat is ‘parked’ on the sea, with the bow at a small angle to the wind
Heel: the boat’s angle of inclination to the surface of the water
Hull: the body of the boat
Jib: triangular sail set in front of the mast
Keel: the weight attached to the underside of the boat and which constitutes a counter-weight to the masts, so the boat stays upright even in a strong wind
Ketch: a yacht with a large main mast and a smaller mizzen mast aft of it. Grant’s yacht was a ketch
Lee: away from the wind
Leech: the outer edge of the sail
Luff: the forward edge of the sail
Mast: wood or metal spar set up vertically on a boat, whose function it is to hold up the sail and the rigging
Mizzen mast: second and smaller mast aft of the main mast
Pennant: a triangular flag
Pitch-pole: when the boat summersaults as a result of a big wave coming up from the back
Poop deck: partial deck above the main afterdeck, roof of aft cabin
Pooped: a wave coming from behind dumps itself in the cockpit
Port: left side of the boat, facing forward
Port tack: a boat is an a port tack when the wind is blowing on to it from its port side
Reaching: a boat is on a reach when the wind is blowing over her side. Reaching can be subdivided into a close reach, a beam reach and a broad reach. On a close reach the wind is blowing over a boat’s bow quarter, on a beam reach the wind is coming from the side and on a broad reach the wind is coming over the stern quarter
Reef: to reduce area of sail exposed to wind in heavy weather by rolling up or tying down canvas around the boom
Rigging: all the ropes and wires on a boat
Rudder: the means by which a boat is steered
Run: point of sailing with wind from behind
Sheet: the rope whose function it is to regulate the sail according to the wind
Shrouds: stainless steel wire supports for masts, fastened on the sides of the boat
Sloop: A yacht with a single tall mast
Sole: floor
Spreaders: spars with holes in them that direct the shrouds to the mast
Spar: stout pole supporting the sails or parts of it. The mast and the boom are both spars.
Starboard: the right side of the boat, facing forward
Starboard tack: sailing with the wind coming over the right side of the boat
Stays: stainless steel wire supports for the masts
Staysail: a sail attached to a stay rather than a mast
Spinnaker: the largest sail on the boat that billows out like a balloon, normally used on a run or a broad reach
Tack: the manoeuvre by which the boat is made to turn through the eye of the wind
Tiller: a pole with which to steer the rudder
Transom: the outward cover of the boat’s stern
Acknowledgement for glossary to:
Start Sailing, L. Messora, Concorde Sailing Books
BACKGROUND READING
Bermuda Triangle Database, Bermuda-Triangle.org
Birthplace of Hurricanes - NASA Science
Subtropical Ridge - Wikipidia
Beth A. Leonard and Evans Starzinger on the technical aspects of sailing (articles)
Top 10 tips for an Atlantic Crossing, Yachting World
Voodoo Caribbean, www.Sheppardsoftware.com
VOC control
of the Cape, www.capetown.at
The KhoiKhoi, Future Perfect Corporation
The Triangle and The Mountain: A Bermuda Triangle Adventure Page 28