Undercover - In China - Book 7

Part 51 - Lee Boards

Lu Bu came out of the shed with Denny. 'Whose messing about with my waterwheel? he demanded as Licia interpreted. 'The drill's going up and down like a Chinese Yo-Yo.' 

 Lu Bu looked up at Wang Bang. While we were all howling with laughter as Lu Bu turned to us, hiding a grin with one hand. Licia controlled herself long enough to tell us that Lu Bu suggested we leave while he figured out how to get Wang Bang down.

Meanwhile Chen Ling and her Grandpa brought our carriage over and Miguel tied the reins of Wang Bang's horse to the back. Denny grabbed his tool belt and said goodbye to Lu Bu.

 'Thank you very much Mr Big Bang,' Miguel laughed as we moved off. 'And have a great day.' 

 We looked back as we rounded the hill and the last we saw of Wang Bang, he was still going up and down on the water wheel. Lu Bu was waving us goodbye.

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 In the afternoon, Grandpa Chen fitted the heavy rudder and he, Miguel, Denny and I went for a test sail. Licia and Chen Ling were designated cooks as Denny spoke sufficient Mandarin to converse with Grandpa Chen. Denny and Miguel were experienced sailors but they had to learn how to control the fully battened lug sail.

Grandpa Chen steered while he demonstrated how to adjust the sail by pulling in a number of lines attached to the rear end of the battens that ran across the sail. 'They're called sheets,' said Miguel, 'but I've never seen so many on one sail.'

'Sheets?' I exclaimed. 'First we had a bow and a stern. Now we've got sheets. It's lucky we got some training on HMS Curious.'

'If we turn the boat around the sail will swing over your heads,' Denny warned us as Grandpa Chen steered the boat in a half circle away from the wind until it was going back the way we had come. 

 'It's just like sailing an ice yacht.' Miguel reminded me of our adventures just before Christmas. 'But without helmets, so watch your head.'

'If it gets too windy,' Grandpa Chen continued, 'lower the sail and row.' Then Denny took over the steering, pointed the boat up into the wind and we pulled the sail in as far as it would go. He wanted to find out how close to the wind the boat would sail but, because it had no keel, the wind pushed the boat sideways. 

 We got back just in time for supper and afterwards Denny, Miguel and Grandpa spent the rest of the daylight attaching a short plank vertically to each side of the boat. They were called lee boards, and Grandpa Chen warned us that although the rudder could be raised to permit beaching the boat, the lee boards would make hauling the boat onto a beach difficult. 

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Early the next morning, we boiled rice and water for tea and re-packed some of the food from the carriage as we got ready to leave. Chen Ling insisted on coming with us, saying we would get lost if we went by ourselves and she wanted to make sure Grandpa Chen got his boat back. We elected Denny skipper, as he had the most sailing experience. 

 Grandpa Chen warned us to keep away from the war boats, but he was right about Cho Cho's sailors. A few boats chased us, but we lost them when the river turned toward the wind and they crabbed sideways toward the shore. They tried to row into the wind, but they were unable to catch us because, although we had to zig zag from one side of the river to the other, our lee boards allowed us to keep sailing into the wind at an angle. Eventually, they gave up.