Chapter 237

Late at night, 26 kilometers east of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay

In the rudder position of the jackdaw, bell carefully rechecked the weathercock, righted the compass on the side of the handwheel, and then stood directly in front of the handwheel and took the helm to ensure that the weathercock, compass and sail could stay in his sight.

Everything is ready.

Lorraine glanced at the windvane, which was turning happily, and said casually, "I still prefer to watch the wind with a headscarf, because once the boat gets up, the cock with its head rushing back and swinging left and right will always give me an unrealistic feeling, which makes me want to smash it."

"That's why the Jazz said you wasted your talent."

Bell squatted down to check the knot, not only the fixed rope that would be used to save his life, but also the back mast that would run up and down the top of his forehead.

"The assault distance of more than 20 kilometers is wider than the bay mouth that is about to break through. The coastline is out of sight for a long time, and it is still night navigation. Even if I am at the helm myself, this is the first experience in my life..."

"You can tidy it up and show it off to miss ofey."

"Come on, she doesn't understand."

Lorraine shrugged. "So I'll never fall in love with a land duck."

"You?" bell smiled contemptuously. "Only you think you have the right to choose."

"Huh?"

"It's all right." bell saw the dancing gale chicken. "The wind is disordered."

The Jackdaw sailed.

First, the high main longitudinal sail in the middle, and then the wide rear longitudinal sail. The sail operators controlled the sail surface and went the opposite way, trying not to let the Jackdaw suffer too much wind.

But even so, the Jackdaw drifted faster and gradually exceeded the current, and the bow raised waves.

Lorraine stood behind bell on the top deck of the poop, holding the railing tightly with her hands.

"The main mast looks at Haina, the foremast looks at Pierce, the main longitudinal sail Karen, and the rear longitudinal sail Wang Ye. The bow gun door opens and acharin is in position. The front deck commander Katrina, the rear deck commander bell, are in position. The two side gun doors are on standby, the foremast, sail!"

"Let the foremast sail!" Katrina ordered loudly, and the clear female voice was particularly evident in the night sky, straight into the sky.

The only cross sail of the Jackdaw rose, with a 26 meter mast and four independent cross sails, from bottom to top, from large to small.

Hanging in mid air, the catch sail between the foremast and the main mast is untied by the sailor hanging on the cable, and then the bow sail cable connecting the foremast and the bowsprit also opens the bow sail.

The snow-white sails swelled in the wind, and the sail operators of the main mast and back mast worked together to drag the yard and pull the longitudinal sail.

Full sail!

Lorraine suddenly felt a strong push back. The Jackdaw rushed forward. As soon as PU started, the speed quickly climbed from less than 0.5 to nearly 6 knots, and continued to improve, improve!

"Heading due west, wind speed level 4, and wind. Jackdaw, Chesapeake Bay mouth... Burst in!"

Bell's eyes were fixed on the compass, his hands clenched the handwheel, locked the weathercock with the afterlight, caught the slight vibration of the wind chicken right on the hula wind cup, and rhythmically adjusted the direction of the ship at a very small angle.

The Jackdaw is almost always at the best wind cutting angle. The whole navigation track is an uneven broken line, not a beautiful straight line or arc.

Seemingly a longer voyage, it is actually more efficient. Lorraine has gone to the bow and entrusted the command of the whole rear deck to bell.

Bell also lived up to his expectations. With the cooperation of Karen and Wang Ye, the two longitudinal sails and rudders were combined into a whole with a degree of relaxation. With the guidance of the two lookouts and the front wheel of the rudder, it took less than 10 minutes to push the Jackdaw to the highest speed under the existing sail and wind conditions, 9 knots!

The front deck temporarily entered a relatively surplus stable period. Katrina felt the wind and looked back at the rear deck in shock.

"Captain, where did you pick up the monster... Is our helmsman the child of the wind?"

"The sea breeze is the God domain of nyolde's office, and nyolde is my faith..." Lorraine smashed his mouth silently. "Katrina, don't you think what you just said is a little impolite?"

"No, because your God obviously prefers Mr. helmsman to you."

Lorraine decided not to see a woman, even if she was a female knight.

He raised his arm and pointed to the dark sea.

"Bell was originally the flagship helmsman of shack Drake. Although he failed to set foot on Bermuda's Long Beach due to various accidents, with his understanding of shack, he still thought we would encounter a blockade formation at the bay mouth."

"Just as it happens, count galvis's intelligence also mentioned the blockade formation. The lion, conqueror and exciter took turns as the flagship and were equipped with two wing ships, one is an ordinary class V ship, the other is Baltimore brig, that is, a warship frigate with winged sails and a maximum speed of 12 knots."

"We can't know in advance where they will set the blockade, but fortunately the bay is wide enough, even if it's only two kilometers, we can try to avoid the terrible class III ships and destroyers with better firepower than ours."

"The only trouble is the military high-speed ship. Once she entangles us, we will die miserably."

Katrina couldn't see joy or anger on her face. She whispered, "running away is the specialty of pirates. Although the maximum speed is only 0.5 knots, I will let her know the difference between high-speed military ships and high-speed looters."

"I'll leave it to you."

……

Break in! Break in!

An hour and a half later, the galloping jackdaw finally crossed 26 kilometers from the starting point to the bay mouth and approached the wide Chesapeake Bay near the central line.

In order to hide their whereabouts, there were no lights on the ship, and all the sailors ran in the moonlight.

But today's moonlight is bright, and the visibility on the panoramic sea can barely reach three kilometers.

Good lighting conditions give the Jackdaw more room to avoid. On the other hand, it also improves the possibility of her being found and raises the risk.

All the people on the ship dare not take it lightly before officially breaking through the blockade formation.

Routine briefing.

"Northwest, 12 kilometers from Cape Charles!"

"Southwest, 11 kilometers from Cape Henry!"

Pierce and Haina's voice came from overhead successively. Lorraine pulled out two arcs on the chart with a compass, and the intersection of the arcs was close to the bay mouth.

Holding his cheeks, he guessed the location of the blockade fleet, as well as the flagship of the formation and the possibility of meeting the lion.

This may sound a little ridiculous.

Once the size of the fleet is large to some extent, the administrative affairs that need to be decided by the commander will increase sharply. The commander of the large fleet often cuts or even gives up the daily navigation tasks to make time to deal with miscellaneous affairs.

Like Sir Parker, running around in major stations, the working state of flagship multi independent operation is the normal rhythm of British supervisors.

But Lorraine knew that Shaq was never good at dealing with affairs.

Whether it's clerical or social, his control will always mess everything up. Only being on the boat can make him feel comfortable for a moment.

Even many years ago, when he was transferred to the logistics department in the process of promotion, he often ran to other people's ships to occupy the magpie's nest on the grounds of checking material consumption.

The captains delivered the letter of complaint home. Elia had to transfer him back to the field to barely calm the public anger and meet Shaq's wishes.

So people like Shaq will never give up the patrol task. Even if the chores are busy and the schedule is tight, he will stay on the ship when the lion sails, command the small formation visible to the naked eye, and look forward to the moment of joy of his opponent.

"I'm looking forward to it too, Shaq... If you can cut off your head, you won't have to worry about those boring things..." Lorraine laughed at herself.

This wish is impossible to achieve.

Not to mention that the Jackdaw did not have the ability to connect with the lion at all. Even if he did his best to make a plan, from the perspective of the chamber of Commerce, Lorraine must avoid the frontal confrontation with the Royal Navy as much as possible.

Fighting is a hotbed of hatred. Once hatred is solidified, Edward kenvey will become a time bomb in the arms of Drake's chamber of Commerce, which will one day blow Lorraine and his chamber of Commerce to pieces.

"What a silly delusion..."

Lorraine shook her head and tried to throw away those unrealistic thoughts. Suddenly she heard Haina's cry.

"The ship lights up 7 kilometers northwest, ten o'clock direction, relative speed 3.5!"

Seven kilometers? At ten o'clock?

Lorraine woke up suddenly and marked the chart as fast as he could.

A semicircle takes the intersection of the two arcs just now as the center, covering the whole bay mouth and some bays. There is a dazzling intersection in the direction of ten o'clock of the center, which is not from the blockade formation that has no way to predict, but from the pure black circle track

"Oh! Is patrol formation No. 6? Good luck!"

Lorraine pushed aside the chart and rose up.

In the current situation, if we continue to keep the center line, we will swagger through the front of formation 6 at a very close distance.

This behavior is tantamount to provocation and is bound to cause the rebound of formation 6.

The Jackdaw is not unable to get rid of them, but when the position of the blockade formation is unknown, it will greatly increase the risk of being caught.

Avoidance is certain, and you can't go to Cape Charles in the north. The only choice is Cape Henry in the south.

Only

Lorraine became agitated at once.

"Bell, avoid to the left and avoid the trouble in front of you first. Haina continues to track the light and Pierce is looking ahead. All! First level alert!"