The making of a sailor 2/10

One group began clearing the moored boats from the quayside and towing them further inland. Another was hanging large fenders the whole length of the quay as soon as the moored boats had been moved. Two of the large whalers with four goblins in each, were rowing out to take up positions in the creek, one fairly near the entrance and the other about fifty yards from the quay.

By this time the schooner was nearing the creek entrance and Fern could see the topsails being clewed up and the goblins climbing the rigging to furl the sails. Everything looked very peaceful and normal. She'd seen lots of the Davy Jones fleet of coasters, brigs and schooners and even one or two sailing barges come into the yard without any of this fuss.

"Whatever is going on?" she asked Norman in complete bewilderment.

"The Black Cat is coming in. She's skippered by Jonah Jones and is always having accidents and causing damage for no apparent reason. Jonah is a very good sailor, but somehow a lot of what he does seems to go wrong."

The schooner had arrived at the entrance to the creek and even without her topsails was still sailing quite fast, when she suddenly went aground. The fore topmast bent forwards like a whip and one of the sailors out on the yardarm went flying through the air and landed in the water not too far from one of the boatyard whalers.

"Never learns," said Norman, "Jonah always tries to cut that corner unless the tide is low enough for him to see the channel. That's why we have a boat handy to pick up anyone who goes overboard."

As he spoke the sailor from the Black Cat had been picked up by the whaler and was being wrapped in blankets to keep him warm. The rising tide had already freed the Black Cat from the mud bank at the creek entrance and she surged forward again towards the boatyard. The mainsail and foresail both came down with a rush, as somehow the boat weaved it's way down the twisting channel, but even so, she still had too much way on as she made her final turn to the quayside.

The helmsman spun the wheel to avoid hitting the quay head on and missed completely, shooting out across the creek and turning almost a full circle until the Black Cat was head to wind and had run aground on the opposite bank of the creek to the boatyard.

The second whaler went alongside and took a line from the schooner and then rowed back to the quay. The boatyard goblins ran the line to a capstan and started to pull the schooner off the mud and bring her properly to a mooring at the quayside. This time all went well and the boatyard went back to its normal work with a sigh of relief.

Fern went with Norman to meet Jonah as he came ashore.