Reefing

“ In reefing, the boys lay in towards the slings of the yard, and in furling go out to the yard-arms. They are sent aloft immediately as soon as they get to sea, to accustom them to the motion of the vessel, and to moving about in the rigging and on the yards. Setting top-gallant studding sails, and reeving the gear, shaking out reefs, learning the names and uses of all the ropes, and how to make the common hitches, bends, and knots, are also included in the knowledge first imparted to beginners. There is some difference in the manner in which boys are put forward in different vessels. ”

“ Reefing seemed never to be thought of, and our own men soon got into the habit of speaking of a one-man or two-man breeze, according to the number seen on the weather outriggers of the proas that flew past us. The appearance of these vessels when going wing and wing before the wind was very pretty. And others, in the fashion of the Chinese junk, or in every modification of European, engrafted on native form, afforded picturesque contrast, but need not be here described. ”

“ A small spinnaker is a great help in steering a boat when running before a strong breeze.
[48]
REEFING AND JIBING By reefing is meant the means by which a sail is reduced in size by rolling up and tying part of it down to a spar. The sail that you will have to reef is the mainsail, as the jib on a small boat is generally too little to be bothered with in that way. You will notice on a sail, stretching across it from luff to leach, a band, or sometimes two or three bands, in which are inserted short lengths of small line. ”

“ Then, when the wind lulls, one reef after another can be shaken out by untying the reef points, casting off the leech earring and then casting off the luff earring and hoisting the sail until taut.
Don’t wait too long before reefing. If the boat heels badly on the wind, if it labors, if it takes a hard helm or if the wind is puffy, squally or strong, reef at once. It’s far easier to shake out your reefs if the wind falls than it is to take in a reef when the wind is blowing hard and a heavy sea is running. ”

“ As soon as the order is given to clew down for reefing, and the halyards are let go, if there are hands enough to haul out the reef-tackles, he should go aloft, see that the yard is well down by the lifts, and then lay out to the weather yard-arm, and get his earing rove by the time the men are upon the yard. He then hauls it out and makes fast. If both topsails are reefed at once, he goes to the main; but if one sail is reefed at a time, he goes with the men from one to the other, taking the weather earing of each. ”

“ To reef the sail bring the boat into the wind, trim the sheet in until the boom cannot swing beyond the sides of the boat, lower the sail about halfway and then lash the first luff cringle to the boom with the earring, tying it in a reefing knot which can be readily cast off. ”

“ Here again it was—down [Pg 4305] yard, haul out reef-tackles, and lay out upon the yard for reefing. By hauling the reef-tackles chock-a-block we took the strain from the other earings, and passing the close-reef earing, and knotting the points carefully, we succeeded in setting the sail, close reefed.
We had but just got the rigging coiled up, and were waiting to hear "Go below the watch!" when the main royal worked loose from the gaskets, and blew directly out to leeward, flapping and shaking the mast like a wand. Here was a job for somebody. ”

“ Reef-fishing is full of exciting incidents, but its chief attraction is the amazing beauty of the sea-gardens as seen through the water-glass, with sponges and sea-fans of every hue, gently waving in the current far below, as fish of all the colours of the rainbow play in and out of them in the clear blue water. ”

“ With single reef we cut things wide open. Slack sheet, down peak and away we rushed the reaches. In sheet, up peak and we beat her up the bends and then repeat with our wake swashing from bank to bank. We kept at it all day and it was one of the sporting sails of my life. Through narrow creeks, down broad rivers, across big sounds we drove and hustled. Just a little slip-up in jibing or tacking and we would have been in the meadows, but we made none. When we shot out of the creek into Port Royal Sound we made just three jumps and landed with a swash in the river on other shore. ”

“ In the foresail, we shall have but two reefs; often, there is only one."
"What is a balance-reef?" asked Dick Short, who had never seen any thing of the kind on the lake.
"A row of reef-points is sometimes, but very rarely, extended from the throat of the gaff to the cringle of the upper line of reef-points in the outer leach. When this reef is put in, only the peak of the sail is hoisted. It is used in very heavy weather, when the other reefs are not sufficient.
"On the jib, laced to the lower leach, is a piece of canvas called a bonnet, which makes the jib so much larger. ”

“ On Saturday the 21st do. we set sail with a S.S.E. and S.E. by S. wind, a weak breeze and lovely weather. Here, from the point, the land extended to S. by W. and S.S.W. as far as one could see, with a slight curve only. The reef above referred to runs out to sea in a northward direction from the Roode Hoeck upwards of two miles, and from there very far to westward, upwards of 11⁄2 mile from the land. It consists of sandy shoals, having a small hill or rock above water; alongside it the depth was 7, 6, 5 and 4 fathom, uneven bottom. ”

“ Presently we caught on one; and dreading a capsize, we launched the boats at once; for there was not a point of the reef above water for miles, and no swimmer could have reached dry land in such a current. After a few anxious moments, the schooner swung free, and we dropped the anchor in a sort of pool. All the afternoon we were engaged in kedging out into the channel; and finally, after enormous labour, we got into deep water, where we anchored for the night.
The beauty of these coral reefs is something indescribable; nowhere else, either on sea or land, are such colours to be seen. ”

“ Sometimes the water would deepen a little and relieve us; again it would shoal. Between the coral-branches we would sink at times to our necks in the slime and water, our limbs lacerated with the sharp projecting points. Fortunately, the wind helped us; keeping all sail on, thus for more than a hundred yards we toiled, until the water deepened and the reef was passed. Wet, foul, bleeding, with hardly strength enough to climb into the boat, we were safe at last for a time. As we cleared the shoal, the schooner hauled by the wind, and opened fire from a nine-or twelve-pounder ”

“ The Goldwing had three rows of reef-points on the mainsail. The skipper required the sail to be lowered enough to permit one reef to be taken.
"This is a reef-pennant," said he, producing a cord of several feet in length. "Sometimes it is called an earing. I pass it through this cringle, which is only a hole in the sail, and then I carry the line around the boom,--twice will make it strong enough. This I have done at the clew, and now I do the same thing at the luff. ”

“ About a mile more or less off shore, there is as a rule a rocky reef, on which the breakers may be seen to dash violently in many places, the depth above the reef being in several places, 1, 11⁄2 and even 2 fathom, so that pinnaces and boats may get over it for the purpose of landing, there being deeper water close inshore, but all of it with a rocky, sharp coral-bottom, so that it is difficult to land there, and much harder still to keep a pinnace at anchor with a drag ”

“ She smelt just like a reef at low water; and it looked as if the fish took her for something of that nature, for she was accompanied by a perfect host of them, of all shapes and sizes, so that she rolled as if in some huge aquarium. She certainly presented a splendid field for the study of marine natural history. None of us went on board but the skipper; but some of the watch below leaned over the rail as we swung alongside and told us a pitiful story. Through somebody's negligence the lid of their only water-tank had been left off, with the result that some rats had got in and been drowned. ”

“ At present a flock of thirteen is to be seen diving in the deep water surrounding the reef. Scorning the crustaceans, molluscs, and other ground game of the eiders and longtails, these birds subsist entirely upon fish, in pursuit of which they are extremely dexterous. The long sharp-pointed bill is excellently adapted for securing their prey, the extremity of the upper mandible curving over the lower in a sharp hook, the efficiency of which I once saw forcibly demonstrated. ”

“ We therefore gave up the idea of taking the ship out as we brought her in, and set to work to discover another passage into blue water. But sure such a hopeless range of shoals, banks, reefs, and dangerous points of rock, never bewildered poor mariners; sometimes we thought that we had hit upon a channel, but just as we were upon the point of finding our way clearly into the open ocean, a few specks of white water only seen when the sea fell into a trough at that place, would stretch across the route, and reveal the fact, that a ledge of pointed and pinnacled reef barred the way. ”

“ A sand reef stretches out into the sea from the before-mentioned little fort, inside of which the water is the deepest, being three and four fathoms at low water. It is shallowest in the middle, and level towards the west shore, having two fathoms of water or less. There are two lights in the town, which you bring in range, in order to sail in or out. The highest light stands most inside, and when that comes west of the lowest you are west of the gate or channel; and when it is east, you are east of the channel, and are on, or east of the reef. ”

“ I thought, as I sprang on deck.
The wind was increasing, the foam-topped seas rolled in quick succession towards us, the sky to windward looked threatening in the extreme; that terrible wall of foam loomed higher through the gloom of night. Still, as long as the schooner’s head could be kept turned away from the reef, we might hope to claw off from it. The chart had shown us that a reef existed, but its form was indistinctly marked. ”

“ On the ocean side, on the mounds of the steep beach, over all the width of the reef right out to where the surf is bursting, in every cranny, under every scattered fragment of the coral, an incredible plenty of marine life displays the most wonderful variety and brilliancy of hues. The reef itself has no passage of colour but is imitated by some shell. ”

“ We are high upon a submerged reef of rocky coral, shipwrecked among cannibals! What the tribe is that lives on shore and how friendly it is remain to be seen. The moment is one of those deadly potential eternities that either make one lose all self-control or become cold sober. Luckily, we are not of the hysterical type and our first thought is to get our guns, food, and cameras to a place of safety on shore. The schooner may slide off the reef into deep water at any moment, and then we shall be in a pickle. ”

“ A strong southerly wind suddenly sprang up, and, though protected by the outer reef, we were on a lee shore. The master would not attempt to beat out through the gap in the reef, as his knowledge of the passage was none too good, neither could we kedge nor tow the Gannet against the wind. So we had perforce to remain weatherbound for seven long days, knowing full well that the same breeze that kept us prisoners within the reef was bearing the buccaneers away in safety. ”

“ An ugly reef is this of the Dhu Heartach; no pleasant assemblage of shelves, and pools, and creeks, about which a child might play for a whole summer without weariness, like the Bell Rock or the Skerryvore, but one oval nodule of black-trap, sparsely bedabbled with an inconspicuous fucus, and alive in every crevice with a dingy insect between a slater and a bug. No other life was there but that of sea-birds, and of the sea itself, that here ran like a mill-race and growled about the outer reef for ever, and ever and again, in the calmest weather, roared and spouted on the rock itself. ”

“ We furled all sails, and I was sent by Captain Arthur in the cutter to sound around the ship. I found the eastern edge of the reef on which we lay to be very steep, with shelves projecting beyond each other as it deepened. These edges were of very sharp and ragged coral, descending so rapidly as scarcely to allow room to lay an anchor on. ”

“ Every morning they start at early dawn armed with long many-pronged forks, to collect the treasures brought in by the tide. If the sea is calm they go to the outer edge of the reef, in search of the red bêche-de-mer, which love the sea-foam; but when the surf comes thundering in with mad violence, then the fishers have a quiet day with the black slugs ”

“ All these isles are connected, and include a lagoon in the middle, which is full of the finest fish; and sometimes there is an opening, admitting a boat, or canoe, in the reef, but I never saw or heard of an opening that would admit a ship. The reef, or the first origin of these cells, is formed by the animalcules inhabiting the lithophytes. They raise their habitation within a little of the surface of the sea, which gradually throws shells, weeds, sand, small bits of corals, and other things, on the tops of these coral rocks, and at last fairly raises them above water ”

“ The fins are small—so small as to appear almost rudimentary—yet the fish swims, or rather darts, along the bottom with amazing rapidity. They love to lie along the banks a few feet from the shore, where, concealed in the sand, they can dart out upon and seize their prey in their enormous 'gripsack'mouths. The approach of a boat, or a person walking along the sand, will cause them to at once speed like lightning into deep water, leaving behind them a wake of sand and mud, which is washed off their backs in their flight. ”