There will be time for
emotions later. There is no other way. Are you prepared?'
.. 'Yes.' He moved away from her and lifted the balking cub,
placing her in the left-hand shell, where the woman would ride. 'We
must be off.'
Without further speech they pushed the craft the remaining distance,
then clambered in to take up their positions near the back of the
parallel hulls, there both to paddle and steer, using only the awkward,
bladed shafts that he had made.
*
Almost at once Kalus perceived the most serious flaw of his
construction. The vessel was too heavy. As soon as they left the
dreamy backwater he knew it. The catamaran-like craft responded to the
current, and as the sail slowly filled, to the wind as well. But it
often moved (or failed to move) with a will of its own. The strokes of
their paddles, and even with the girl joining him for a time in the
right-hand shell, were barely enough to move them a safe distance from
the shore. A less auspicious beginning was hard to imagine.
And the boat was horribly slow to tack, or even move to counter the
wind. This concerned Kalus more than anything. For at the meeting of
the Broad River and the River of the North---in the wide water-tract of
the delta---the southward flow of the latter would try to carry them
away from their destination, and out into the open sea.
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