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rosemaryreaper · 4 months ago

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Batten down the hatches!

This snippet has been sitting in my drafts for a while, and since I don’t know when I’ll ever finish it, here it is. The basic premise: a strange mystery lures our ragtag crew, including Danse, Haylen, and Ros, on an unconventional adventure outside the Commonwealth, with some help from Longfellow along the way.

Or, in other words, I really just wanted to use my sailing background in a fic for once.

* * * *

This wasn’t how Haylen had ever imagined she would die.

A fiery vertibird crash had been at the top of the list at one point. Execution by firing squad, briefly, at another. Throat torn out by a feral? Wouldn’t have been surprised. Replaced by a synth? Always a possibility. Shot by a raider? Hell, who hadn’t been. But to die lost at sea? The thought had never crossed her mind. Until now.

It was a toss-up how they would be lost. She had her caps on “lightning strike,” but “washed overboard” was a close second. She had never trusted those rusted old lifelines. The longer they took to get the sails in, though, the faster “capsizing” crept towards the lead.

The world roiled in shades of gray one ink drop away from pure sightlessness. The ocean was a shapeless mass of tar, heard more as an angry whisper on the hulls than seen. The rain just cold pinpricks on the exposed slivers of her skin, its faint pattering drowned out by the wind howling through the stays.

Then the world was bright, bright, bright. There was white light bursting in the clouds and silver gleaming on the backs of short, choppy waves. The deck flooded into view in front of her, beyond her hands and their tight-knuckled grip on the helm. Shadows stretched from frantic bodies. Rain dotted her vision like static on a terminal, blasted across her goggles by the wind. A reflector glinted on the elbow of someone’s foul weather jacket. Then it went dark again—darker than dark—while the white clung behind her eyes. Longfellow’s resulting curse lost itself in a crash of thunder.

Haylen fought the urge to rub her eyes to clear them. It wouldn’t have done any good, between the night and her rain-blasted goggles. She blinked until she could make out the three figures by the mast, barely visible in the dim beam of Longfellow’s headlamp. Danse’s broad shoulders strained as he shoved his weight against the winch handle, to no avail. Caleb held tight to the boom, tugging at the tangled lines. Neither were making progress. The mainsail strained dangerously at three-quarters of its full height.

Haylen imagined she could hear the anemometer whirring at the top of the mast. Numbers blinked on the tiny screens behind the helm: wind holding steady at 30 knots, gusting higher. There was a gust at 40 knots…48 knots…52 knots…climbing. Something groaned deep within the Kingfisher. They should have reefed the main minutes ago.

In the cockpit, somewhat sheltered from the rain, Ros and Chloe swiftly cranked in the jib. Haylen waved a hand when there was a handkerchief of the forward sail left. Trusting her, they stopped. Ros secured the significantly more cooperative line around the winch while Chloe locked the sheet. Haylen shoved down an instant wave of anxiety. She had made the call on instinct and five days’ worth of knowledge. She had no idea if she was right.

The starboard jackline furiously slapped the deck with each gust, tossing extra noise into the wind-driven cacophony. Longfellow’s headlamp shone in her direction. His rough voice rushed by her ears. She gave a frustrated flick of her wrist. She couldn’t hear a word he was saying.

A wave hit the hull beam-on, jolting the ship to port. Caleb’s ass hit the deck with a thud they could all feel. Haylen braced herself against the traveler before hers could do the same. Danse snagged the back of Caleb’s harness before he could tumble away. The jackline pulled taut as Longfellow stumbled, but otherwise the old harborman remained standing.

The headlamp relocated her. Longfellow pointed into the wind, arm straight and fingers together. She replied by turning the helm in the same direction. Bouncing on the choppy waves, the Kingfisher swung into irons, where Haylen held her best she could. She had just thrown the ship’s steering capability into the wind—almost literally.

Without any forward momentum, the Kingfisher jerked uncomfortably from hull to hull, rolling and dipping in a new direction each second. She swung the helm from port to starboard and back again, struggling to keep the bow to the wind. “Luffing” was too gentle a word to describe the aggressive beating of the sails. The boom creaked bitterly as it bucked against the mainsheet, rattling the blocks all the way aft on the traveler. Suddenly fearful one would break off and hit her, Haylen pulled herself closer to the helm.

The men were shouting at each other, the words even less sensical than before. Ros and Chloe clung to the cockpit tables, their feet slipping on the floor’s worn grip. Haylen couldn’t tell if the damp feeling beneath her foul weather gear was sweat or rain. The sky burst into cold silver. Thunder crashed back down with the dark. It was 3 A.M. and she had never felt more awake.

#rosemary reaper #fallout 4 fanfic #fallout 4 #scribe haylen #paladin danse #ros markey #chloe rinne #old longfellow

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necromatador · 6 years ago

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Catch-up: 3/3

And now: last night’s session.

A cursed tempest surrounding the Sea Hawk. No land in sight. Chaos. The crew rushed around in a semi-organized panic to try and raise the sails and batten down everything to ride out the storm. Aeron rushed up to Kelvayla and uses his Thaumaturgy and telepathy abilities to relay her orders over the storm. Nimh ran to the ropes and started hauling alongside Walker. Keyleth climbed into the rigging to help with the sails alongside Jib and Jab (twin hadozee riggers). Candle (little orange tabby tabaxi) and Maisy (tiny halfling that Aeron views as a younger sibling), the smallest and quickest, darted around tying everyone off to a lifeline winch. There was a lightning bolt that blasted the side of the ship open and Sunny (tortle cannonmaster), Doc (hobgoblin...doctor), and Kaicis ran below decks to patch it up and put out the fires.

Then the lightning struck the main mast.

Keyleth saw it about to happen, a swirl of clouds directly above and a crackling along the mast. Maisy and Candle were finishing tying off the lifeline ropes to the winch at the base of the main mast and Keyleth lept forward and shoved Maisy out of the way, but was unable to shove Candle out of the way before the lightning struck and threw everyone back. Keyleth used Absorb Elements and managed to survive at 4 HP. Everyone got to their feet and saw the main mast almost completely gone, splintered to toothpicks. Now critically crippled in the midst of this storm, everyone began panicking again. Nimh, leaking frosty magic in their panic, reached for their neck to where their carved wolf totem usually hangs, but it wasn’t there because in our frenzied escape at dawn it had been stuffed into Aeron’s pocket for safe-keeping when we couldn’t find Nimh. Aeron felt a tugging in his pocket and pulled out the totem which was turning itself into an icicle and pulling towards Nimh. Getting up and rushing forward, he tossed it to them and when they caught it they raised the now glowing totem to the sky and cried out a prayer. Then there was a flash of light and a beam of light swooped down towards the ship, then a figure peels off to fly ahead of the ship, revealing a huge glowing owl guiding the ship out of the tempest.

Following its lead, we managed to make it out of the supernatural tempest and into calm waters, though we were without a main mast entirely, the fore and aft sails were both torn with the fore sail torn due to a broken winch that had prevented it being properly raised in the first place. And we realized that Candle? Was gone. Entirely. The lifeline winch had been shattered. The entire crew went silent. And then we were given orders to rest and heal. The party went below decks and collapsed for a legitimate Long Rest.

When we finally woke up, Aeron went up to the deck with an empty bottle and a small candle to perform a small rite to the Raven Queen aspect that handles deaths at sea, Mannin. Nimh and Kaicis join him, and as we go up on deck we saw a circle of the crew with Walker who’s drunk off his ass out of grief. Nimh took the last bottle from him and we listened to the circle recount their stories of Candle. Afterwards, Nimh brought Walker along to the small memorial rite, where Aeron sets the lit candle off floating in the bottle with a prayer to Mannin. Returning to the bunks, Nimh had a small talk with Keyleth who was taking the loss of Candle very hard.

After that, the crew sort of slowly fell back into an odd sort of routine. Food and water had to be rationed, sails that were there had to be repaired, and the broken winch for the fore sail. Aeron was set back to lookout duty, but without a crow’s nest anymore he just kind of patrolled the deck to look out at the surroundings. During one of his rounds, he was messing with the ocean dagger, an enchanted dagger all rusted and pitted and covered in barnacles that we were told ‘only damages the nonliving, and twice as much as a normal dagger’ and had seen several times just ghosts through living beings without leaving a scratch. A thought occurred and he carefully placed the blade to his finger. It drew blood.

Meanwhile, Kaicis finally approached Nimh about the dragon scales he’d discovered they were growing. He managed to clarify the previously misinterpreted note he’d left, and came to an agreement with Nimh about allowing him to help figure out what was going on with them. Nimh was still very annoyed by all this though. They want answers yesterday. Keyleth emerges from the bunks and approaches Maisy, offering a sad apology that he couldn’t also save Candle, which she semi-accepts?

That night, Aeron (headed down to the bunks) heard some conspiring from other members of the crew, commenting on how this whole treasure hunt has been killing too many crewmembers (referred to as “Kelvayla’s Killing Streak”). The crewmembers mention how they don’t stand a chance with Walker still on Kelvayla’s side, so they would try to convince him with this newest death. Aeron, sneaking away, ran off and told Nimh, who was annoyed about being woken up. Aeron at this point is more worried about getting caught up on the wrong side of a mutiny than of a mutiny actually happening. Also the owl that had led us out of the tempest, named Styrmir, was now hanging around Nimh too, which Aeron is not happy about lol.

Later later that night, Keyleth went up to wander the deck because he’s having trouble sleeping because of everything that happened. He met a ghost on deck, who was surprised Keyleth could see him. A gnoll shaman and former member of the crew named Agnar, who was also killed by hazards encountered on this treasure hunt Kelvayla’s on. He used to be friends with Candle as well, who apparently could see ghosts but nobody believed him.

The next day, on his lookout rounds, Aeron gets hailed by some merfolk from the water, who claim they can help us fix our ship if we do them a favor. Aeron mentions he should talk to the captain, the merfolk say “with that flashy get-up we thought you were the captain!”, to which Aeron responds “oh no, if I was captain, I’d have the fanciest hat you ever-” and then Kelvayla came up behind him “if you were captain you’d what?” and he damn near jumped out of his feathers. We agreed to help the merfolk because we really had no other choice but to help so we could fix the Sea Hawk and not be stuck floating about. They explained they would take up to a guy who sails about on a barge covered in trees who would be able to help. In return, we would just have to go get a relic of theirs away from the clutches of some kuo-toa. They began to help the ship forward, and that’s where we ended the session.

#nm plays D&D #dungeons and dragons #couriers campaign #D&D

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yachtingboat · 6 years ago

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Yacht of the Week: S/Y Athena

S/Y Athena, a 2004 Royal Huisman sailing yacht, is our yacht of the week for her beautifully classic design from Pieter Beeldsnijder and Dykstra Naval Architects. To this day, Athena is ranked as one of the all-time great superyachts thanks to her timeless aesthetics and impressive physical dimensions. She has received several awards thus far, including Best Sailing Yacht and Best Interior at the International Superyacht Society Awards in 2005 and Best Refitted Yacht at the World Superyacht Awards in 2012.

This summer, the elegant sailing yacht is at the Royal Huisman refit shipyard for a range of service works which will keep her in first-class operational condition. Her rigs have been removed and she is in the covered hall, ready to begin her Huisfit refit. Her main engines and gensets will be overhauled, while updates to various board systems and piping will also take place alongside a full service of her rigging and a full repaint.

At 90 metres in length, Athena is the world’s sixth largest sailing yacht. She has an impressive logbook of globe-circling cruises, including adventures to Papua for the exquisite diving areas, the South Pacific and the Caribbean.

Athena was built in 2004 for Internet entrepreneur James H. Clark, taking inspiration from the 1920s motoryacht Talitha. Athena has undergone two refits, in 2008 and 2014, for minor upgrades and maintenance projects, again from the specialist Huisfit team.

Beeldsnijder and Dykstra combined their talents to create one of the world’s largest and most luxurious three-masted schooners. With classical inspirations from Talitha and historic schooners, Dykstra created a very traditional deck layout and sail plan for the three masts.

Athena’s naval architecture is incredibly powerful, with over 1,888sq nautical miles of sail power and up to 55 Rondal captive and drum winches allow for lightning fast tacks under full sail. Using Alustar plate mast construction, even the tallest of Athena’s three masts can fit snugly through a bridge height of 62m. The hydraulically operated crows nest is ideal for viewing the varnished teak decks of this yacht from above, which embodies the golden age of sailing.

Internally, Beeldsnijder worked closely with Californian designer Rebecca Bradley to create cleverly divided areas that exude classical comfort. Warm woods, traditional furnishings and fabrics, and unique artwork alongside the closed-plan layout ensure guests feel as though they have stepped back in time.

The interior design duo created five magnificent cabins that can accommodate up to 10 guests across a master suite bedecked in marble, three double cabins, one twin cabin and two pullman beds. She can also carry up to 20 crew.

Athena is a wonderful blend of the art and beauty of traditional yachting and a modern luxury lifestyle. Briefly the largest sailing yacht in the world, Athena remains one of the all-time greats of the sailing industry and her refit looks set to make sure she remains at the forefront for many more years.

Yacht of the Week: S/Y Athena

#Superyachts.com

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rnrmarineservices-blog · 7 years ago

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Blitzen the 1938 Olin Stephens design that was the grand prix boat of the day

How one owner resurrected an 80-year-old classic racing yacht.

Olin Stephens was just 30 years old when Blitzen was launched in 1938, following in the wake of the prodigiously talented designer's yachts such as Dorade (1929) and Stormy Weather (1934).

Like Stormy Weather, Blitzen was constructed at the Henry Nevins yard in New York. Unlike those famous predecessors, however, design no 221, Blitzen, was sloop-rigged and designed as a pure racer from the outset.

She was built for RJ Reynolds, heir to a tobacco fortune of the same name. 'Dick' Reynolds Jnr had a colourful life that included four marriages one to a Hollywood starlet. He also owned a series of yachts.

Legend has it, Reynolds named Blitzen after his first wife, Elizabeth 'Blitz' McCaw Dillard to persuade her to take up sailing.

'Blitzen' also means lightning in German, and lightning fast she proved, winning her class in the Newport-Bermuda Race in her first season. It was the Grand Prix boat of the day, explains Peter Morton, whose company Shemara Refit restored Blitzen for new owner, Sir Charles Dunstone.

It is a little bit different to the other boats because they were built as cruiser-racers, this thing is the stripped-out boat of its time. And it was very successful.

Naval architect Paul Spooner, who designed plans for the refit, comments that she is finer than many of Stephens's designs of the same era (with the exception of Dorade): Her length-to-beam ratio is a little bit narrower than the yawls. She's a powerful boat for sure.

Blitzen and Reynolds powered to victory in the 2,000-mile San Francisco-Honolulu Race in 1939, also winning offshore between Florida and Havana, then heading to Europe where she finished 3rd in the Fastnet. She continued winning for subsequent owners for the next three decades.

Photo: Ingrid Abery

Photo Ingrid Abery

Pedigree heritage

A regular on the classic yacht racing circuit throughout the 1980s, Blitzen had fallen into disrepair by the time Morton found her. After Dunstone's 1938 65m motoryacht Shemara was launched in 2014 following a three-year refit, the hunt had begun for a new project.

Charles had sold his Wally yacht, and was looking to do less grand prix racing and a bit more fun racing, Morton explains. We talked about finding a boat of the same sort of vintage as Shemara and doing a bit of classic racing. It's a growing fleet, so we looked for a boat that had some heritage.

As a companion to Shemara, the pedigree of the 1938 Sparkman & Stephens design was impeccable, but Blitzen was discovered declining in a scrapyard in New England. It was a massive restoration job, recalls Morton.

She was in a plastic tent in Massachusetts so she was in a pretty poor state, but the basic boat was there the keel was good, a lot of the frames were good. But the planking and the decks were rotten.

A lot of the structural woodwork inside is original the carlings, the beam shelf, the main hog, the main keel of the boat so the skeleton of the boat is pretty original. But the planking had gone because it was double diagonal planking and I think moisture had got between the two skins. We actually found woodworm.

Oliver Ophaus of Shemara Refit, who managed the restoration, says her construction was typical S&S, in the form of double fore and aft planking, with Alaskan yellow cedar on the inner face and an outer skin of African mahogany.

She had 50 pairs of steamed oak frames which were in a state of bad repair, so we replaced 80 per cent [of them] with laminated oak, he adds.

Photo Ingrid Abery

Back to the original

Blitzen's complete overhaul saw her restored to original wherever possible. The CIM rule in the Med basically rewards authenticity and punishes changes, so we got a set of plans from Sparkman & Stephens office, explains Morton.

She had been modified during her life, but we restored back to exactly how she was in 1938. We put a wooden rig in she'd had an aluminium rig and went back to the original layout. So we've got a very good authenticity number in the rating.

A few minor tweaks have adjusted Blitzen to her new life as a Mediterranean inshore racer, including a marginally increased mast section, and lower boom height. She was designed to be tiller steered, but had been changed to wheel early in her lifetime, and still has a large racing wheel. Orphaus describes her balance as 'perfect'.

The original sailplan gave Blitzen a famously large overlapping genoa. By then Olin Stephens had realised that sloop rigs were probably better for racing so therefore she has got a tall rig, she hasn't got a mizzen, and she's got a big genoa and a big spinnaker, but we rate higher, says Morton.

To control her giant headsails, Blitzen was one of the earliest yachts to be fitted with a pedestal winch, placed abaft the wheel. The original is still on deck, with some new working parts from Lewmar.

The long-keeled Blitzen also had a bronze centreplate that can, in theory, be wound up and down, although the crew tend to leave it lowered.

The newly restored Blitzen took part in her first competitive regatta at Les Voiles de St Tropez last September, where she finished 2nd in class, taking two race wins ahead of a star-studded fleet of classic yachts that included German Frers's Fjord III and Stormy Weather.

vimeo

Stephens's 221st design looks set to score more wins in the 21st century.

The post Blitzen the 1938 Olin Stephens design that was the grand prix boat of the day appeared first on Yachting World.

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