The maiden voyage of the Mary Belle 1/13

A tremendous crash and then the sound of rushing water above her head woke Jennifer Jane with a start. Then she relaxed as she remembered she was aboard a Davy Jones brig on its trial run. She was too inexperienced to help sail the brig in this bad weather and had been sent below to stay out of the sailors’ way.

Her latest adventure had begun on the first morning of the school holidays; the whole of the Bell household was in bed having a lie in.

In the end it was Dave who got up first. He went down to the kitchen to make everyone a cup of tea and had only just got back into bed when there was a loud knock on the kitchen door.

“You go young Jane; it’s probably one of your friends if they’re knocking on the back door!”

She took a mouthful of tea to help her wake up and went down to the back door to see who it could be at this time of the morning. Fern was standing outside peering in through the kitchen window, so she hurriedly unlocked the door and let her in.

“Whatever are you doing in bed at this hour? It’s nearly ten o’clock!”

Jennifer Jane explained that she’d just begun her school holidays.

“Oh good, that means you’ll probably all be able to come on the maiden voyage of the new brig. We finally finished her fitting out yesterday and you’re all invited to sail on her trial trip as a thankyou for your help in getting rid of the pirates.”

This news brought her fully awake at last and she rushed upstairs to tell her parents. Strangely, neither of them seemed to be too interested.

“We’ve spent all our spare time lately helping you with your schoolwork, so neither of us been able to keep up with the usual household jobs. You go off and have a good time and tell us all about it when you get home again.”

Fern wanted to get away immediately and wouldn’t let Jennifer Jane stop for breakfast. “You’re all right as you are, you can have a meal when you get on board and you won’t need any more clothes, as we’ll only be gone for the day. We’ve got to hurry and get back to the boatyard before the tide turns, or they may sail off without us!”

Wilfred the giant, stood up and looked at the weather in the Therdle estuary, while Fern was hoisting sail on Jayjay. “Looks like a strong blow from the west coming. You’ll have to hurry in that little boat of yours if you don’t want to get wet!”

He was quite right. Fortunately it was nearly high tide, so the rough water was beginning to die down as the dinghy came out of the fog. Fern kept Jayjay sailing full and spray flew over the bow in sheets. Jennifer Jane just had time for a quick look at Attersea Island as they approached.

“It doesn’t look as if Barnacle Bill’s at home!”

“No, he came past the boatyard about a week ago and went out to sea, we haven’t seen him come back yet. Now then make sure you keep your weight in the middle of the boat when we round the point.”

Things quietened down a bit as they turned east towards the boatyard, even so, they were both kept busy stopping the dinghy from rolling too much when an extra strong puff of wind hit them.

However, it didn’t seem too long before they were approaching the creek leading to the boatyard. One of the whalers was waiting just outside the entrance and turned back towards the quayside as soon as it saw them coming.

A goblin in oilskins, wearing a sou’wester hat, leaned over the brig’s rail and shouted at them to hurry up. Norman ran along the quay and caught hold of the shrouds as Fern came alongside.

“I’ll look after the dinghy,” he said, “you go on board, the skipper’s in an awful hurry to get out to sea before the weather gets any worse. Any delay in the acceptance trials means a delay in trading and the delivery is already overdue.”

Jayjay’s crew went on board as quickly as they could. Jennifer Jane was rather disappointed to be sent below at once.

“We can’t have inexperienced sightseers cluttering up the decks until the weather improves,” the Captain had told her.