The making of a sailor 6/10

From that time onwards Fern stood her turn at the wheel and soon became quite confident in handling the Black Cat. She happened to be steering as they approached the straits of Dover and steamer traffic was becoming quite heavy.

"What happens if I meet a human ship on a collision course?" she asked.

"Not to worry," laughed Jonah, "I'm not sure how it works, but no human ship ever seems to see us and at the same time just happens to alter course enough to miss. Must be some sort of magic I suppose."

Sure enough, not one of the human ships ever took any notice as they passed by the beautiful schooner and yet always managed to pass quite safely.

It came as rather a surprise, when whilst passing a ferry just going into Dover harbour, Fern saw a man on the foredeck look over at them and wave. Fern waved back and then looked rather more closely. It was unheard of to be noticed by any one on a human ship in any case, but even more strangely this man was grooming a horse. Fern called Jonah over and told him what she'd seen.

"I think you must have imagined it," said Jonah looking back at the fast disappearing ferry entering the port.

Fern was quite certain of what she'd seen, but put it all out of her mind and relaxed to enjoy the rest of her trick at the wheel.

The next day they turned into the Therdle estuary and Fern was able to see the familiar landmarks slipping by as they sailed slowly towards the magic fog, which would let them pass to the other world. They were well offshore as they passed the entrance to the goblin boatyard, then passing the coastguard cottage on the northern shore, they sailed on towards Attersea Island.

A toot from a foghorn and the sight of a small figure waving, showed that Barnacle Bill was at home. Then at last the Black Cat turned south from the main river up a slowly narrowing creek into the magic fog.

“Timber creek please,” called Jonah and Fern could imagine the scene at the Wish Warehouse as the fairy on duty searched for the correct wish in the stores.

The fog slowly cleared and the Black Cat now under fore and aft sail only, emerged into a very different world from the one they had just left.

The schooner was sailing towards a pier about two hundred yards away. Alongside the pier two sailing barges were loading planks of wood. There was a woodyard on the shore with wooden huts for use as office buildings, while horses and carts loaded with tree trunks were coming along a road from the nearby forest. The road continued along the river from the timber yard, while both road and river disappeared as they rounded a low cliff some distance upstream.

Lowering sail as they passed the pier, Jonah anchored the Black Cat and then paying out on the anchor rope and steering across the current, ran slowly backwards and tied up to the pier end. It was as nice a piece of boat handling as you could wish for.

Jonah grinned at the expression on Fern’s face. “Nothing ever goes wrong when we’re in this world,” he laughed, “it’s only on the other side that I make a mess of things.”