Creating something new, day 13
The Academy islands
Asta looks really tired and worn out, and she hasn't slept enough. After a while I understand that its because Gunhild last night, with almost sadistic joy, told her exactly how many North Arrows and sets of maps there are, who has them and how much King Aeriksson paid for his. That there are exactly three monoculars, and apart from their two, only the King has one. So, I understand why Asta slept badly when she knew the equipments value and rarity, and that I let her use it completely freely and it was in her cabin. Its several times more that what I paid for this ship. She just have to learn to accept reality too. Gunhild has of course gleefully told her that the ship compass is completely unique; handmade by me and the first of its kind and an improvement of the North Arrow. Asta asked if it was true, and I just nodded, but said I will make more, and they will be sold. But she and the crew should expect that this ship will test everything first and try out improvements, and I want feedback and suggestions, good or bad. I saw her standing and looking at the ship's compass with the small North Arrow lying in her hand. She probably wondered how much more the ship compass is worth.
Even though I've already given her and the crew directives, she makes all the crew be extremely careful with the ship's compass, and along with the shipbuilder in the crew, I quickly help fasten a mounting bracket in her cabin so it can be stored and mounted there when the ship is in harbor.
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Masterbuilder Pedr is waiting as we go ashore, and we great and inform him that we are sailing to Skiringsalr and were just curious about how it is going.
All the workers are so damn respectful when we walk by. That will quickly get old, and I will try to have them relax a bit in the future, but I have to live with people standing up and taking off their hats or bow when they see me - it's part of my future life. This is my own little Furstdome, I am its Furst and legally a King, and many are slaves so they're low on the social ladder. My company doesn't really lessen that impact, since they're dressed to impress.
Pedr is very happy with the construction so far. No big problems, good weather and a lot of resources to work with. They have cleaned up and widened the a path across the island. The cliff for my mansion has been cleaned up which makes it so much easier to see the shape of the cliff and they are completing the well. They've found a good water vein but its not deep as they've hit bedrock, but they made a shallow hole in the bedrock to collect water, and the well will be quite wide to compensate that it isn't deep. It is quite high up in the depression, but I prefer that as it means that the pipeline will be longer, but the pump pressure will be slightly lower. Still gonna be about 7m water height from the waterlevel in the well, so the waterpipe will be quite narrow to limit the amount in the pipes. It will be a lot of pumpstrokes to fill the pipe before water reach the watertanks. As futureproofing and giving options they will be laying double pipes, since I might want a return feed and one might burst due to ice in the winter. I don't think ice will be a problem since the pipes will be buried about 40cm under ground, but I like backup plans. They're paving the walls of the well, and will start making on another well east of the cliff, just as I asked for, but it ends up far from the mansion due to the rocky terrain.
Given where the road will be, that well will be for the barn, and since it too will be shallow, I decide that it will have a counter weighted bucket system. The animals will need quite a lot of water, and it need to store enough for shorter droughts, so they will use the shape of the terrain and make a much larger special well that can collect rainwater from a wider area of the rock faces, with a sedimentation pit and a braided branch grid to reduce soil, leaves and other things finding their way into the well. To make it easier to transport that water to the animals troughs, they will use the fact that the well is slightly higher than the barn on the other side of the road, so they will make four pipelines under the road. One pipe for outside watertank, one for the inside watertank and two extra pipes to just take the water under the road. Again future proofing. The special well is given a counterweight arm with a bucket to lift the water to the mouth of the pipelines, where you pour it out depending on which pipe you want the water to flow. Maybe this well will have a hand pump in the future, but a counter weight bucket is simple, fast and efficient. The point of the pipelines is to save time and work compared to carrying the water in buckets between the well and all the troughs. That will probably still happen, but I want to limit it as much as possible.
The three 6x4 houses mainly intended for practice, have surprisingly begun to be built. Sand and stones are in place and the first logs, and they are transporting the rest there. Give Pedr the updated drawings for the mansion and the cast grids that he will ensure are mounted in place in the masonry foundations. Everything feels good. I ask if there is anything I can do, but Pedr just says no, and in a week or two they will have more to show. We will return on the way back to Borgarsandr, probably in a week or so, and asks if there is anything he wants me to get for him? Skiringsalr is a large trading town. He might personally need something?
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But it seems that Masterbuilder Pedr has prepared for a few months; this is far from his first construction project, and he has several large tents and other stuff. He has spent the last few years building fortresses and fortifying larger villages south of the great ridge to help the Counts there resist the Daes hopes of expansion. The Daes Kingdom seems to be most of what I call Denmark and maybe a bit of Germany, and The Kingdom supports the Counts with a lot of resources and manpower, and let them stay in power instead of forcing Tings, because if both sides of the strait become part of the Daes Kingdom, the Daes King Magnbjorn will surely demand toll from ships that sail through to the East Sea, and the strait is a vital trading route east and south. Seems smart as exactly that actually happened for centuries on Midgard, and was a major reason why Göta Canal was built. Similar things also happened on the Göta River earlier in the Middle Ages.
Pedr really likes the Academy project so far. Its new, different and interesting. A bit like a holiday from building fortresses, digging earthen ramparts and making moats.
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Shortly after noon, we cast off, and The Millennium Eagle leaves for Skiringsalr. I've managed to take a sun height at noon. The results seems to agree with my calculations. I let Asta try, and she seems to understand the simplified basic principle, but can't follow the math for it at all, which isn't suprising since its other numbers she can't read and equations. I of course let Iselin, Kari and Ciara try too. And Alith. And finally Bodil and Gunhild too.
Ciara has done good progress on the maps during the morning when the ship was anchored, and its quite smooth sailing here between the islands.
Eventually we reach the open sea and sail north along the coast, so Ciara helps me finish the two remaining ring sundials. Of course it took longer with her help, but I've never had a girlfriend before who was interested in something like this, so I don't mind the extra time it takes. Ciara isn't used to metalwork but she is very meticulous and follow my instructions, so even if one of the sundials has a bit more play, it doesn't affect the function. I realise that I see Ciara as a close friend with benefits, instead of a concubine. But what do I know about the historical meaning of the word and how their lives really where?
I give Ciara a kiss on her cheek and a hug, and shes happy for my attention. I need to remember to do that more.
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I show the Ring sundial and let everyone who wants try using it, including the rest of the crew. Most don't understand why time can be practical to know, but that is unimportant. Discuss navigation technics with Asta and it is interesting. She is good at practical experience and know the surroundings, shallows and safe anchorages and where communities are located, but also how much it blows by reading signs of wave peaks, estimating her speed, finding direction via stars, etc, and I explain how to measure the ship's speed and calculate winddrift due to wind direction on the open sea where there isn't any landmarks, and that we need to find out how it effects the ship in different directions and winds, and when I start to show my numbers again, the discussion escalates and Asta really wants to be able to follow the math, so we could go deeper.
Iselin seems to feel slightly ignored, as I first worked with Ciara and then spend so much time with Asta. Iselin has nothing to do either, so I walk over to her up in the bow, and hug her from behind. We just stand there for a while, chatting about the future, music and I tell her that I will trust her with more information in the future, but it is important to me that she doesn't feel forced to like what I do, or participate in it. If it's uninteresting, it's okay, and I prefer if she spend her time on something she like doing.
She has a wicked smile as she turns, kiss me, and whispers that we havn't 'inaugurate' the ship properly, and the previous owner certainly didn't, so I'm quick to follow her to my cabin, and Alith's face show loud and clear that she's very well aware of what we're about to do, and she goes first into the corridor and holds up the door before we get there. I try teasing her a bit and tell her to be careful so she doesn't 'feel cold' again. Alith wins this round with the answer "Sir doesn't have to worry, I'll make sure to stay hot..."
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We spend the evening lying in the cabin, just me and Iselin. Listen to music. Talk about Midgard; about our cars and ships. Their size and performances. Show a photo of ferry with small people at the railing, and arriving in Picton, New Zealand where you can see a ferry and the tiny houses in the background. Videos filmed from my car. Show humans have machines that can fly, and show photos I took from airplanes flying over mountains or countryside, and that the sun always shine above the clouds. Explain that we could have flown from the farm in Borgarsandr to the Islands and on to Skiringsalr in part of a day by helicopter, but that we could drive the same distance with a car in one day, and stay comfortable, warm or cool with the climate control.
She's totally fascinated by flying, especially that something so big and heavy can fly, and then it can fly several times faster than the fastest bird and much higher. She's so sad that she will never get to experience wonders like that. I will definitely build a free-flying glider model and let Iselin be part of that construction. Spruce, pine and paper should work well and be light enough to get something. And who knows? In a few years a person carrying glider could be made if I find somewhere to fly it, and if I ever manage to build somekind of engine thats efficient, light and powerful enough, some kind of aircraft should be possible. It would probably have to be a vegetable oil diesel, or an alcohol driven engine. That will be an insane project and I have to make so much other machines, and then find solve all those problems too. About the easiest flying thing I could make thats interesting is a cross shaped boomerang...