Chapter 45 - 16: Setting Sail (Part 3)
A nearly finished front frame of the wooden raft had a hidden flaw inside it, and when carving out the mortise, it cracked with a huge split, nearly splitting the entire frame.
After failing to repair it with fish swim bladder glue, Chen Zhou had to make a new front frame, which delayed him by almost a whole day.
However, after many twists and turns, by the night of October 8th, all components of the wooden raft, except for the sail and anchor, were completed, and the work finally progressed smoothly to its conclusion.
The production of the sail and anchor was very simple.
The sail is a "T"-shaped pole fixed on the surface of the wooden raft with a tripod structure, capable of rotating 360°.
A pin is installed at the bottom of the pole, with several holes dug around it. By using the pin and holes, Chen Zhou can fix the rotation angle of the sail to adjust it according to the wind direction.
The canvas is rectangular, with a rope connected at the end. When raising the sail, the rope is wound at the bottom of the pole, and when lowering the sail, the rope is untied.
The anchor is made from a large wooden barrel tied with a rope.
To prevent the barrel from floating up, Chen Zhou removed the lid and filled it with several thin lead plates, increasing the barrel’s weight to more than 50 pounds.
The raft does not have a winch for retrieving the anchor; instead, the anchor is connected to a wooden stake at the rear of the raft, making it very easy to install and deploy. To drop the anchor, simply throw the barrel into the water.
Of course, dropping the anchor is easy, but pulling it up is quite a task.
Therefore, this anchor is just a necessary safety device; if it can be avoided, Chen Zhou would rather not use it to prevent unnecessary trouble.
October 9th.
The long and arduous boat-building work was nearing its end. Chen Zhou was so excited that he didn’t sleep well all night, got up early, and started the final tasks.
In the morning, he completed the sail and anchor, sawed open the cabin, expanded the opening, built a platform, and laid rollers.
At noon, he had a piece of white bread and drank two cups of cold boiled water to slightly fill his stomach.
Chen Zhou carried all the heavy wooden raft components onto the platform and began assembling them.
Lai Fu seemed to realize that its new master was also going to leave the ship, feeling a bit worried. It followed closely behind Chen Zhou, watching with wide eyes as he applied fish swim bladder glue on the tongues and hammered them into the mortises, its expression filled with fear and reluctance.
However, at this moment, Chen Zhou was full of excitement about the imminent landing and didn’t notice Lai Fu’s reaction.
Like assembling building blocks, he used glue, long nails, and a hammer to slowly piece together the results of his eight days of hard work.
Bottom layer, top layer, frame, planks, anchor, sail...
This raft, which was not exquisite and even somewhat rudimentary, finally grew its own skeleton, muscles, and skin.
It had no carvings or colorful paint, but rather many flaws, making it look quite ugly.
Yet, regardless of its appearance, it still fulfilled Chen Zhou’s fervent expectations. Accompanied by the prying of crowbars and the rotation of rollers, it roared impatiently and plunged into the sea.
The tide was at its peak, so the front end did not splash up much water, and the tail settled steadily on the sea surface.
The seawater undulated, and the raft gently swayed.
Everything went smoothly in such an incredible yet inevitable way.
All the setbacks; all the efforts; all the expectations; all the trials and hardships finally were not in vain and led to a worthy result.
Looking at the small raft drifting in the vast sea, Chen Zhou could no longer suppress his inner emotions and looked up to the sky, laughing heartily.
He laughed so hard, laughed so exhaustedly, laughed till he bent over, laughed hysterically, laughed till two hot tears rolled down the corners of his eyes...