sixthiterationlogs | 12 Building A Boat~! [OPEN MINGLE]

WHO: Moana
WHERE: 7i Beach Area [Also around the 7i Boat House & Town looking for stuff]
WHEN: Month of September
OPEN TO: EVERYONE [Feel free to make top posts if you'd like as well. Moana will hit everyone up but this is open to whatever people want.]
WARNINGS: None

Throughout the month, Moana was at the beachfront assembling different parts of a boat. She had the design sketched on few pieces of paper though the sketches were not very good.

She had spoken to a lot of people about building a boat and will accept everyone's help with its construction. They needed pieces of wood, someone to build the hull, stronger materials for the sail, which meant that Moana was back to collecting reeds and stalks that wouldn't absorb the water as it sprayed up from the ocean. She really needed a better drawing of the boat and its design, even if she was bad at trying to explain what she wanted to build. The hull needed to be shaped from a single piece of wood to avoid leaks. As well as the side-canoe that would help keep the craft balanced on rocky waves.

Everything had to be collected from the new parts of the island since it would take too much effort and time to try to carry all the pieces through the now small breach between the canyon walls. When Moana wasn't working the boat she'd watch others work and encourage those around her to join. It was something like an event. If there were enough people come night fall Moana would start a large bone fire and cook fish. She would welcome others to lend a hand in any part of any process. Much like her home, she wanted to build a community of people working together and helping.

She could be spotted around the 7i boathouse looking for any useful materials, as well as rummaging through the other houses on the way back to the beach. She also brought a handful of tools from the inn, including a grappling hook that she had found in the inn's storage closet. Moana wasn't sure how anyone might use it but it looked useful enough to take with her.

Image References: Moana's Boat, Boat One, Boat Two, Drawing One, Drawing Two, Drawing Three, Drawing Four.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was an important detail to get out of the way. Moana didn't mind that he was experienced, that just meant that she had to pause and explain what she was doing. She had been raised as the village chief and part of that was teaching people. Her voice was calm, kind and clear as she began to explain the basic design of the canoe.

"There are many types of boats." Which he probably knew. "The one that I'm making is a type of Canoe. It has a smaller float attached to it so that you can take sharp turns and ride the wind in any direction. "It's designed so you can use your own body weight to keep it from turning over."

She pointed to the grid that they were setting out and why she was picking these sticks. "This grid has to be strong because it'll be handling the force of a sharp turn. If it falls apart then the boat will flip without having the leverage to flip it upright again."

Fortunately, he's willing enough to learn. True, it's a little odd to be doing so from someone so much younger than he is, but that's certainly no barrier to her being an expert in the matter at hand. Or being more of an expert at it than he is, and given that he hasn't so much as seen a boat being built, that's not exactly hard.

That said, he is at least familiar with the fact that there are a wide variety of types of boats. Admittedly, he's more used to the sort of canoes that don't have attached floats, but the canoes he's familiar with don't have sails attached either. But rather than actually say as much, he simply nods at her explanation.

"I can see how that would be a problem, yes. Especially if there's no other way to force the boat upright again, and with the sail underwater, that would likely be more trouble than it would be worth."

Perhaps not entirely impossible. But certainly a significant hassle over all.

Moana was from a primitive island. In a way that gave her an advantage over everyone else. She knew how to build a boat, make baskets or other tools, fish and farm. As the daughter of the chief she was put in a position where she had to learn every aspect of the island. It was her duty to help her people and teach them anything they might be struggling with.

This meant that Moana had to learn everything.

She wasn't complete her training but she was nearly ready to take over for her father and then she arrived here. Dark eyes looked up at him as she spoke, waiting for questions or comments. It was easier to start somewhere and build the learning experiance off of what interested the person that Moana was teaching. This wasn't her first time teaching someone though she hadn't had to explain the construction of a boat before now.

"It depends how far out to sea you are." Moana glanced passed him, out over the rolling waves before turning her attention back to the older man with her. "Anyway. That's the basics. Questions? I'm going to be making some rope to tie this together. I use dried grass because it won't absorb water like the rope that is at the inn." It was super annoying how heavy it got when wet.

Having a basic familiarity of how to work the land definitely gives her an advantage, it's true. Not that he expects that most people are unwilling to learn, but if everyone had to learn, then things would likely have been a good deal more awkward than they already are. And there'd have been less of a guarantee that the settlement would have managed to survive quite as well besides. But given that clearly isn't the case, the point is largely moot. Even if it does still help that there's someone around who knows how to make things like this.

(And if the boat that they're currently making helps them find out something more about their current location, so much the better, as far as he's concerned.)

"I believe the sailing ships of yore often tarred any rope that was going to be exposed to the elements over long periods of time. Although that also made it less flexible as well."

And as far as he's aware there aren't exactly any ready sources of tar available besides, in which case it probably is best to use the dried grass rope that Moana already has in mind.

Moana blinked and stared at Jean-Luc. "I don't know what taring is." The method of taring rope came about centuries after Moana's time period. Not all ropes had to go through the taring process in order to remain strong, the most common was hemp which grew in the northern hemisphere, far away from where Moana was from.

She squinted, trying to infer his meaning by his sentence but she didn't completely understand.

"Is it like... wrapping the rope in something?"

"Similar, yes. It involves applying tar to the outside of the rope - when it dries it leaves the rope imperious to the weather. Although it does have a tendency to stain, even after it's dried."

There's a pause there, and then it occurs to him that if Moana isn't familiar with the process of tarring, then it's entirely possible that she isn't familiar with tar either.

"Ah, pine tar. It's one of the substances that results from burning pine wood under specific conditions - usually involving a kiln, if I recall correctly."

The records available to him are a little less than clear on that front, and he hasn't exactly had time to do a whole lot of experimenting on that front. But it's what makes the most sense, and assuming they had a suitable kiln (and need of tar for whatever purpose) he'd be glad to try his hand at making some. Even if it might take him a couple of tries to get it right.

Moana continued to stare at Jean-Luc. "Like ash?" She knew what lava was but her island didn't have tar on it and Moana has yet to run across tar in the village. She was trying to visualize what he meant but his phrasing wasn't giving her a lot of clues.

She didn't understand how ash could be used to make rope stronger. The plants that she weaved were like plastic to the touch, so maybe it was something like that? Moana's imagination was being stretched by this whole conversation.

"I think the string I made will be fine. It won't absorb water." Which she assumed was the point of taring.

"Not quite. It's closer to a very thick sort of sap. If you're familiar with pine trees, it will sometimes ooze from their bark a little and make it sticky."

And then proceed to be entirely irritating to get off of ones skins with a fair bit of washing, but he figures that isn't something that he needs to mention just at the moment. Mostly because it's not terribly relevant to the explanation of what tar is, and if Moana should happen to go looking for herself she'll no doubt find out in relatively short order anyway.

"But as long as what you're using won't absorb water it should absolutely do fine."

12 Building A Boat~! [OPEN MINGLE]

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