The Triangle and The Mountain: A Bermuda Triangle Adventure (29 page)

“You just have to make your luck yourself now,” said
Madeleine, “Like the rest of us. It’s not so bad. We manage. Besides, you’ve
learnt a lot and that will help you.”

When they were directly north of their target they gybed
smartly, following a set of premeditated moves and aimed for the southeast.  During
the night they saw the loom of Bermuda and in the morning it appeared that
Madeleine had trouble of her own. There was a call from the St George Harbour
Authority on the VHF radio channel sixteen mentioning her specifically.

“They got your name from the Coast Guard,” said Grant. “You
probably gave them your contact details.”

“I had no choice,” she said.

Grant responded to the call, identified himself as the
skipper and gave their position as well as their estimated time of arrival
later in the day. He also confirmed that the crew member they enquired about
was on board and safe.

On approaching St George they turned west, catching a stiff,
rain-filled wind from the north over the starboard beam. The sea was choppy but
the big yacht cut through it with ease. Grant watched the lee rail touch the
tops of the waves but decided to keep a bit more sail up for a final charge. He
was below at the navigation station, pouring over charts showing the
treacherous reefs of Bermuda when he heard Madeleine shout.

“What is it?” he called from the saloon.

“I see my parents.”

“Not again!”

“Come and see for yourself.”

As he came through the companionway he heard the guttural
sound of a marine motor. Sending the spray flying on their port side and keeping
easy pace with the nine knots that they were doing was a red and white motor
launch. The lettering on the pilot house identified it as the property of Bermuda
Yacht Services. Several people were standing upright in it, disregarding the cold
rain in their faces and waving as if their lives depended on it. It was easy to
determine who Madeleine’s parents were. They were the couple in close embrace,
the middle-aged man supporting a woman with dark blonde hair who was clearly
sea-sick.

The reception with the motor launch was only the beginning. Once
they had furled all sails and switched to the ‘iron maiden’ the launch led them
to the customs pier where enough people were assembled to populate a small
town. They moored with the help of many hands and Grant watched with amazement
as Madeleine got hugged by each one of them.

Half an hour after arrival Grant was standing in the cockpit
of his yacht, discussing storm tactics with several blazer-wearing senior
members of the Dinghy & Sports Club when his crew surfaced again.

“Grant,” she said sweetly, “Our driver is here for my
suitcases. They are all packed. Could you hand them up?”

Grant remembered Marigot. “You only have to ask,” he said
with a grin.

***

Two days into the New Year Madeleine and Grant donned
jackets for the chill and dropped in at the Yacht Club for a sundowner. The
place was abuzz with yachts people, it being the busy season for Atlantic
crossings. Some were using Bermuda as a stopover on their way to the Caribbean,
some to Florida and some to New York. Everywhere people were excitedly
comparing experiences, discussing the pros and cons of various pieces of
equipment, routes, weather windows and the like.

“Ah, there is somebody I know,” said Grant. A minute later
he was noticed and a deeply tanned sailor came over.

“Madeleine, meet John Douglas, my former skipper. You
remember I told you about him?”

“I hope only good things,” said John.

“So how are you, old man? I thought you were in the
Mediterranean?”

“I was, but only to get a boat to take across the Atlantic.”

“When did you arrive?”

“Three days ago. On the first day I heard that you were here
so I went looking for you but I could not find the boat, so I thought you had
gone off again.”

“You would not have found her in a slip,” said Grant. “She’s
on the hard, getting careened, new anodes and so on.” He could have elaborated
by adding new stanchions, new deck fastenings, the removal of through-hull
ports, a new coach roof, new seals around several hatch covers and much more, but
he did not want to sound tedious.  

Madeleine was more complete. “If you were looking for her by
name, you would not have found her anyway. She’s got a new name.”

“Oh really, what do you call her now?”

“Well, we had quite a few options. Seeing that there is a now
a co-owner,” Grant said, inclining his head toward Madeleine, “we thought of
‘Blonde Ambition’ at first. A ship must have lady’s name, am I right?”

“That’s an old sailors’ superstition,” said John, “same as
not leaving port on a Friday.”

“Do
you
leave port on Fridays?” asked Madeleine.

“Never, but calling a ship by a female name is not adhered
to so strongly anymore. I wouldn’t strictly keep to that.”

“That’s good, because there were a few other options that we’ve
considered,” said Madeleine. “We’ve tried combinations of our names.”

“Like ‘Mad Grant’,” guessed John.

“He’s so clever,” purred Madeleine in Grant’s direction.

“And correct,” said Grant. “‘Mad Broker’ also came up. Then
we figured that ‘mad’ anything was not going to work.”

“I wonder why,” said John.

“Anyway,” said Madeleine, “that was the reason why we
decided on ‘Privateer’s Business’. My forefathers were privateers and Grant is
the business side of things.”

“Ah, by privateers you mean pirates?”

“It is kind of a sensitive topic,” said Grant. “You see, I
recently discovered that there might be a link to Black Beard himself.”

“Only to Morgan,” corrected Madeleine.

“Sorry, I get the names mixed up. I’ll get it right sometime.”

“You’d better, or that partnership might be gone.”

“What is this about partnership?” asked John.

“Grant is becoming shareholder and full partner of one of
the oldest banks on Bermuda,” said Madeleine, “running the trading arm.”

“It helps when the other shareholders believe that you’ve
saved one of their own,” said Grant.

“Very nice about the partnership, Grant, as well as the fact
that you are getting civilised at last,” said John, nodding to Madeleine. What
interests me as much as anything else, however, is the story that you’ve had a
rough time of it crossing from St Martin.”

“Oh yes,” said Grant. “In the end we pulled through, but it
is a tale so deep and so dark that there are many parts that we cannot repeat.”

SAILING TERMINOLOGY

Aft
: behind, in the stern half of the boat

Beam
: width of the boat at its widest part

Bear away
: to modify the boat’s course by turning its
bow away from the direction of the wind

Beating
: same as close-hauled

Block
: pulley

Boom
: metal spar to which the main or mizzen sail is
attached along its lower edge.

Broach
: when the boat goes over on its side as a
result of wind or wave action

Close-hauled:
sailing close-hauled is a point of
sailing where the wind comes at a very small angle over the boat’s bow

Doghouse:
  completely enclosed part of the deck on
some yachts from which the boat can be steered in heavy weather

Fore, forward
: in front, in the bow of the boat

Foredeck
: area in front of the mast

Foresail
: same as jib

Genoa:
largest jib, the foot of which extends more
than the distance between the main mast and the bow

Gybe
: a manoeuvre by which a boat is made to turn
through the wind.

Halyard
: a rope whose function it is to hoist or hold
up a sail

Heave to
: the boat is ‘parked’ on the sea, with the
bow at a small angle to the wind

Heel
: the boat’s angle of inclination to the surface
of the water

Hull
: the body of the boat

Jib
: triangular sail set in front of the mast

Keel:
the weight attached to the underside of the
boat and which constitutes a counter-weight to the masts, so the boat stays
upright even in a strong wind

Ketch:
a yacht with a large main mast and a smaller
mizzen mast aft of it. Grant’s yacht was a ketch

Lee
: away from the wind

Leech
: the outer edge of the sail

Luff
: the forward edge of the sail

Mast:
wood or metal spar set up vertically on a boat,
whose function it is to hold up the sail and the rigging

Mizzen mast
: second and smaller mast aft of the main
mast

Pennant
: a triangular flag

Pitch-pole
: when the boat summersaults as a result of
a big wave coming up from the back

Poop deck
: partial deck above the main afterdeck,
roof of aft cabin

Pooped
: a wave coming from behind dumps itself in the
cockpit

Port
: left side of the boat, facing forward

Port tack
: a boat is an a port tack when the wind is
blowing on to it from its port side

Reaching:
a boat is on a reach when the wind is
blowing over her side. Reaching can be subdivided into a close reach, a beam
reach and a broad reach. On a close reach the wind is blowing over a boat’s bow
quarter, on a beam reach the wind is coming from the side and on a broad reach
the wind is coming over the stern quarter

Reef:
to reduce area of sail exposed to wind in heavy
weather by rolling up or tying down canvas around the boom

Rigging
: all the ropes and wires on a boat

Rudder
: the means by which a boat is steered

Run
: point of sailing with wind from behind

Sheet
: the rope whose function it is to regulate the
sail according to the wind

Shrouds
: stainless steel wire supports for masts,
fastened on the sides of the boat

Sloop
: A yacht with a single tall mast

Sole
: floor

Spreaders:
spars with holes in them that direct the
shrouds to the mast

Spar
: stout pole supporting the sails or parts of it.
The mast and the boom are both spars.

Starboard
: the right side of the boat, facing forward

Starboard tack
: sailing with the wind coming over the
right side of the boat

Stays
: stainless steel wire supports for the masts

Staysail
: a sail attached to a stay rather than a
mast

Spinnaker:
the largest sail on the boat that billows
out like a balloon, normally used on a run or a broad reach

Tack
: the manoeuvre by which the boat is made to turn
through the eye of the wind

Tiller
: a pole with which to steer the rudder

Transom
: the outward cover of the boat’s stern

Acknowledgement for glossary to:

Start Sailing, L. Messora, Concorde Sailing Books

BACKGROUND READING

Bermuda Triangle Database, Bermuda-Triangle.org

Birthplace of Hurricanes - NASA Science

Subtropical Ridge - Wikipidia

Beth A. Leonard and Evans Starzinger on the technical
aspects of sailing (articles)

Top 10 tips for an Atlantic Crossing, Yachting World

Voodoo Caribbean, www.Sheppardsoftware.com

VOC control of the Cape,
www.capetown.at

The KhoiKhoi, Future Perfect Corporation