A Ravel of Waters

'All yards on every mast can be moved in unison or individually,' he went on. 'Personally I like 'em best trimmed in a slight spiral on the weather side. My view is that it gives better results. Mr Grohman disagrees.' 'Go on telling me what you think,' I said.

He glanced at me keenly. 'You can set the yard trim either manually to the angle you decide, or you can hand over to the computer, which will do the job for you. Or you can – ' he indicated another switch ' – work on manual override while the computer is in use, just the same way as you drive a car on automatic. You really can't go wrong.'

The enclosed, air-conditioned bridge felt like a glasshouse to me. 'I have to feel the wind,' I told Tideman. 'All this remote control and mollycoddling…' I gestured at the big windows, several of which were strip-heated to remain clear in freezing weather.

'I had the same feeling at first,' agreed Tideman. 'It isn't what we Cape Homers are accustomed to. It is surprising, though, how soon one adapts to it.' He indicated another bank of push-buttons.

'These are to set or to shorten sail. The operation can be carried out on each mast separately, from mainsail to royal, or synchronized, as with the other controls.'

I remembered a remark of Thomsen's. 'It took twenty seconds to furl everything, I was told. It doesn't seem possible.'

'Say thirty seconds at the outside, not much more,' he replied. 'It's faster than the fastest crack yachting crew can achieve. The operation is so quick that it's almost impossible to catch the ship aback.'

Tideman moved on to a closer, smaller console. He was slightly disdainful. 'These are bridge commands to the diesels which operate the hydraulics, the screw and supply power to the ship-she consumes a lot’

The escape plan was uppermost in my mind. 'So no preliminary warming of the diesels is necessary then?' 'No.

'Driving the auxiliary engine to power the ship in times of calm is really their secondary purpose,’ he went on. 'The propeller nacelle complete can be raised into the hull when she's wind-driven. This is the switch. It's stowed that way now. Otherwise, it's mainly a question of pitch control over the screw.' 'Has power been used much?'

'Captain Mortensen disliked the auxiliary as much as I do,' he answered. 'If you're sailing a sailer, sail it, he said. However, these two powered gadgets here are pretty useful – there's a six-ton White-Gill thruster in the bows and a Pleuger four point seven-ton thruster at the stern. Using them, you can make Jetwind spin on a sixpence.' 'How long does it take to get Jetwind under way?'

'It depends where she's lying, of course. At an open mooring like this one, a few minutes.' 'A few minutes!'

That was better than the best I had hoped for in regard to my break-out plan.

'Yes. Figuratively speaking, the ship's speed of manoeuvre took me aback to start with. One doesn't have to take man-power into consideration. Everything is machine-driven. The officer on duty alone operates the sail plan from this central situation.' He added, with deliberate intention behind his words, 'I'd like the opportunity to show you.' 'Not yet. Anyway, you couldn't with the wind as it is.'

Tideman, however, seemed to want to press the point Jetwind is lying ideally at this moment. There's a slight rim of water coming in through The Narrows – maybe half a knot. Her head is pointing right for the exit. We could be up and away in minutes, as I said.'

How long, I asked myself, would Jetwind take to cover approximately one and a half kilometres to The Narrows? What speed would she have worked up to in that distance? Would it be sufficient – have enough power, in other words – to carry out my design against the Almirante Storni If the wind failed me when the time came, I could make a criminal fool of myself and the ship. 'Depending on the wind, as I said,' I replied.

'Aye – depending on the wind,’ he echoed. 'But you know yourself, sir, that We're close enough to the gale pattern of the Horn for the weather to break from one of three directions only – the northwest, the west or the southwest.'

In other words, from the quarter which suited Jetwind's sailing qualities best. 'What do you make of the prospects at present?' I asked.

Tideman hid his real opinion behind a smoke-screen of technicalities.

'Jetwind was being Weather Routed from Bracknell via Portishead radio when we left Montevideo for the Cape,' he answered. 'Once we became harbour-bound in Stanley, the service was discontinued.' He indicated a Japan Radio Co. facsimile weather chart recorder mounted forward on the bridge. 'Metbrack was supplying us with interpretation of satellite pictures of the weather ahead and astern of the ship. That's also come to an end. Consequently, I don't know what's now working up from the direction of the Horn.'

'Where did you learn all your expertise?' I asked, a trifle ironically.

'The Royal Navy has several highly specialized technical and communication courses.'