From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 17 Coming ashore
On October 9th, the weather was fine.

Around two o'clock in the afternoon, a southwest wind was blowing on the sea, the tide was rising slowly, and the waves were slightly moving.

There were a few light white clouds floating in the sky, and the sun was shining directly down, warm but not harsh.

Next to the gap in the cabin, Chen Zhou was tired of laughing. He saw the raft gradually drifting away from the merchant ship with the sea water. He quickly found a long rope, tied one end of the rope to a pillar in the cabin, and jumped into the sea holding on to the other end.

This was due to his lack of consideration. He did not expect that the raft would drift to the shore with the tide after being pushed into the sea. Fortunately, it was not too late to make amends.

The distance has not been closed yet.

Chen Zhou quickly tread water, swam to the back end of the raft, tied a long rope to the wooden stake used to tie the anchor, and pulled the raft, thus stopping it from drifting with the current.

His thin underwear was already soaked. He swam around the raft to make sure that the raft was not loose or falling apart and was very solid. Then he grabbed the edge of the raft and climbed onto it.

The lower level of the raft was submerged in sea water, and the upper level was covered with wooden boards.

The two ends of the wooden board were nailed to the frame. Thanks to Chen Zhou's carefulness, the raft surface was very flat and tight. Although the edges were inevitably wetted by the waves, the middle was very dry.

In fact, when assembling the raft at the gap, Chen Zhou wanted to brush a layer of waterproof paint on the wooden boards of the raft, but there was insufficient light inside the cabin and the paint dried too slowly. In a hurry to reach the island, he finally gave up this step.

Standing on the raft, Chen Zhou squatted down and poured out the seawater in his shoes. Then he took off his shirt and hung it on the mast to dry, then looked up at the tall side of the ship next to him.

The most difficult problem had been solved, and next he had to find a way to move the cargo onto the raft.

This is not a difficult task. Most of the supplies are packed in containers such as boxes, sacks or barrels. They can be tied with ropes and lowered from the side of the ship.

But this method is not efficient enough, and Chen Zhou wants to find a more convenient way.

Looking at the gap on the side of the ship, he seemed to see a small loading and unloading port and got an inspiration.

The long rope tied to the wooden stake was shortened little by little, and the raft gradually approached the hull as the rope became shorter. When the distance was about 1 meter, Chen Zhou fixed the length of the rope, climbed into the cabin through the gap.

Then he found a long and wide wooden board and nailed long wooden wedges to the front and back ends of the board to hook the gap and the raft to prevent sliding. Then he placed the long wooden board through the gap and onto the raft.

Although the raft was swaying with the sea water, the wooden planks were very stable and served as a bridge connecting the two ends.

With the help of this bridge, Chen Zhou moved the counted, organized and marked supply boxes onto the raft.

Considering that the supplies stored on the island needed to be waterproof, windproof, rainproof and protected from wild animals, Chen Zhou specially added nails, hammers, dozens of wooden boards, several large canvases and several empty wooden barrels in the first batch of supplies.

The wooden boards are nailed into a simple support, and after covering it with canvas, a small rainproof shed can be quickly built to protect the supplies inside.

The empty wooden barrel is used as the door of the shack. As long as the canvas on the edge of the shack is pressed down to block the gap, it can effectively prevent wild animals from entering.

Of course, Chen Zhou had no way to deal with smaller rodents, such as mice and rabbits.

Not to mention the island, even in the corners of this sailboat there are countless rats hiding.

During the few nights he rested in the first mate's room, he was often awakened by the sound of mice grinding their teeth and gnawing on wooden boards.

These hardy rodents cannot be completely eradicated, something that even 21st century humans cannot do, and he doesn't think he has the ability to solve it.

Speaking of mice, Chen Zhou thought of another question.

It was clearly written in "Robinson Crusoe" that there were two cats on the ship in addition to a dog.

Now he has found the dog.

There is still no clue where the two cats are hiding.

Logically speaking, he had visited most of the corners of the ship, big and small. If there was a cat, it should have been discovered long ago.

I haven't heard any cries in so many days. Could it be starved to death?

"If it really dies, we can only catch two wild cats from the island and tame them slowly."

The image of the big cat he encountered on the morning of the second day of the challenge emerged in Chen Zhou's mind. Thinking of its wild eyes, he felt that it would be too difficult to tame them.

However, once successfully domesticated, this agile and ferocious hunter will surely terrify mice.

While driving absent-mindedly, he moved the supply boxes onto the raft step by step.

During the transportation process, Chen Zhou did not forget to observe the waterline of the raft to determine how much load the raft was carrying.

The wooden boards, canvas and empty wooden barrels together weighed about 70 to 80 kilograms, and the several supply boxes that were subsequently moved up weighed more than 100 kilograms.

After placing them as evenly as possible along both sides of the sail, Chen Zhou discovered that two hundred kilograms was not the limit of the raft at all. Its load-bearing capacity seemed to be far beyond expectations, and there would be no problem even if another fifty kilograms of supplies were placed on the raft.

But this is not a stress test after all, and there is still plenty of time. There is no need to work too hard, and safety comes first.

Besides, the first trip has not yet been completed, so we have to learn more about the situation before making plans. If we bet too much, we will lose everything if the ship capsizes.

Chen Zhou's view on this matter is to try to be as stable as possible.

Just like the slogan: "Running fast doesn't necessarily mean you win, but not stumbling is success."

The raft was successfully launched into the sea and the transportation of supplies progressed rapidly.

Good news came one after another, and Chen Zhou's thoughts became active.

The new job freed him from the tedium of carving wood and brought him back to the freshness and fun of life.

Before we knew it, the first batch of cargo had all been loaded onto the raft.

Throwing the short-handled one-handed paddle found in the boat onto the raft, removing the long wooden board and untying the rope, Chen Zhou's first journey to the island began.

During the loading process, Lai Fu remained silent and watched his new owner's every move. Seeing him lower the boat, load the supplies, and then row away like the sailors before, a familiar feeling of being abandoned became stronger.

It hung its head and slowly walked to the gap, watching the raft go away. Finally, it couldn't help but bark loudly at its new owner.

The loud barking of dogs, like sirens, echoed across the sea.

Chen Zhou was squatting on one side of the raft, holding the oar in one hand, and was studying how to row. When he heard the dog barking, he turned back in confusion, looked at the yellow dot that was getting smaller and smaller at the gap in the cabin, waved his hand coolly, and shouted loudly.

"Wait for me on the boat, Lai Fu, I'll be right back!"

Unexpectedly, when Lai Fu heard his voice, his mood did not improve, but became even more excited.

After responding to two consecutive barks, it looked at the raft moving farther away on the sea, anxiously wandered around the boat, hesitated for a moment, and finally made up its mind. It jumped through the gap, dived into the water, and swam towards the raft.

Seeing this, Chen Zhou was worried that Lai Fu was exhausted, so he had to paddle hard in the opposite direction, trying to get the raft back towards the boat.

But a paddle is not as easy to use as a hammer or chisel. Chen Zhou first encountered this new tool and had no idea how to use it. After paddling for a long time, the raft just turned around in the sea and made no substantial progress.

So Chen Zhou could only hold the oar awkwardly, watching Lai Fu's dog head appear and disappear in the waves, and finally swim to the side of the raft.

Lai Fu was extremely happy to see his master again. He flapped the sea water with his front paws, and stared at Chen Zhou's face with his bright eyes, unwilling to look away.

Chen Zhou smiled, grabbed Lai Fu's front paw helplessly and distressedly, and pulled him onto the raft.

Lai Fu is a male dog with a huge body. Although he is not fat, he weighs more than 70 kilograms. After his fur is soaked, he becomes even heavier. It is difficult for an ordinary man to pull him up in one breath.

Fortunately, it understood what its owner meant, and used the momentum of being pulled upwards to grab the edge of the raft and then climbed onto the raft.

Ha~ha~
Due to excessive physical exertion, his body temperature rose. Lai Fu stuck out his tongue, panted, and shook his fur.

The sea water splashed out from its wet hair like raindrops, splashing all over Chen Zhou.

However, Chen Zhou didn't put on any more clothes after swimming, and his pants were also wet. He didn't care about Lai Fu's behavior, but just touched its big head to comfort it. "Why, you don't think I don't want you anymore?"

While talking to Lai Fu as if talking to himself, Chen Zhou continued to fiddle with the oars, trying to figure out how this thing made the raft move forward and backward.

The tide slowly pushes towards the island, so you can reach it even without rowing or rafting.

But Chen Zhou didn't want to just find a place to stop the boat.

He hoped that the raft could reach the rocky beach and then dock in the river, so that the supplies could be moved directly into the low-lying woods.

The forest is rich in resources, including wood, wild animals and fruits, and is close to water sources, making it a good place to build a temporary shelter. It is convenient to store supplies there. If the supplies are unloaded on the beach, they will inevitably have to be transported again, which will take a lot of trouble.

After trying for a long time, Chen Zhou finally discovered the key reason why the oars were not working well - the raft was too big.

The two oars that remain on the boat are only suitable for multi-person boats such as canoes and sampans, which require at least two people paddling on both sides of the boat at the same time.

And he was alone.

The raft was two meters wide and the oars were too short for him to paddle both sides at the same time.

If he keeps paddling on the same side at the same frequency, the raft will spin in place. If he wants to paddle both sides at the same time, he needs to move left and right frequently, and the movement range cannot be too large, and the back cannot be straightened, so as not to affect the balance of the hull.

Repeating this set of movements made Chen Zhou more tired than sawing wood.

Physical fatigue is nothing, the worst thing is that Chen Zhou feels that if the raft does not follow the flow of the water, its forward speed may not be much faster than a turtle. In this process, the effect of the oars is almost zero.

"At this rate, we will definitely reach the island, but how can I row the raft back to the boat?"

Sighing and feeling the raft swaying beneath him, Chen Zhou couldn't help but think of his own name.

"Chen Zhou" is a homophone of "Sinking Boat".

For people who live in coastal areas and rely on water for their livelihood, this name is definitely not auspicious or easy to pronounce.

It was because Chen Zhou's parents and elders had lived inland for generations and had no taboos about words like shipwreck and capsize that they gave him this name.

However, this name was not randomly chosen on a whim. It actually originated from a poem by Liu Yuxi.

"Thousands of ships pass by the sunken boat, and thousands of trees bloom in front of the dead tree."

Chen Zhou's father hopes that he can thrive and surpass the older generation as the new generation of the family and escape from this poor and ordinary family environment.

But obviously, this expectation did not work.

Of course, the meaning of the name did not help Chen Zhou to stand out, and the so-called homonym and curse of the shipwreck were naturally nonsense.

However, in his previous life, Chen Zhou had never thought that there would be a day when he would row a boat on the sea.

The sea was calm, and Chen Zhou jumped left and right on the raft like a crab. He paddled hard twice on this side and twice on the other side, and finally rowed the raft into the rocky beach.

When the tide rises, all the rocks that dot the beach are submerged underwater. If you travel through it in a canoe or a small boat, the bottom of the boat will inevitably hit the rocks, causing leaks or sinking.

The flat-bottomed raft does not have this concern. Its unique hull shape can effectively reduce the draft depth and there is no need to worry about running aground.

Moreover, while moving forward in the rocky beach, Chen Zhou gained an unexpected benefit - the water in the rocky beach was shallow and clear, and the tops of the rocks could be seen clearly. As long as he used the oars to push against the rocks and give a backward force, the raft could move forward.

This unique way of paddling is similar to punting, which only requires strength and does not require much technical skills, making it very suitable for Chen Zhou.

With the help of the "punting method", Chen Zhou completed the impossible task and successfully docked the raft beside the river.

Fearing that the low tide would cause the raft to run aground, he deliberately kept a distance of more than one meter from the river bank and crossed to the land via a small bridge made of two wooden planks.

Lai Fu had been drifting on the sea for so long that he almost forgot what it felt like to be on solid ground. Just now when he was on the raft, he looked around curiously. If he had not been afraid of not finding Chen Zhou, he would have dived into the river long ago.

At this moment, the raft was docked. It finally couldn't suppress its deep desire for land and jumped onto the shore before Chen Zhou.

The river bank was muddy all over, and as soon as Lai Fu's heavy body landed on the ground, he was covered in mud.

But it didn't care, it wagged its tail and ran wantonly, stepping on the green grass on the hillside and happily jumping into the woods. Its carefree and happy appearance was very much like a child squatting by a puddle playing in the water after a summer rain.

Seeing Lai Fu having so much fun, Chen Zhou smiled knowingly, temporarily put aside his bad paddling experience, and began to move the supplies on the boat, laboriously moving them one by one to the woods on the hillside beside the river bank.

He originally wanted to find a suitable open space in the forest and build a simple shack on it.

After a walk around, I found that the environment on the island is completely different from the common forests in the north. The trees here are naturally reproduced, grow wildly, and are extremely dense. There is no empty space left by artificial planting between the trees.

Especially in the area near the river at the bottom of the slope, there grows a kind of tree that looks like a river willow. Its branches are tough and slender, and its height is only over one meter, but its length is nearly two meters.

The dense branches and leaves are intertwined, almost forming a wall.

It was difficult to turn around in this bush, let alone place wooden boxes and barrels.

There was no other choice but for Chen Zhou to pile the supplies at the edge of the woods, simply build a fence with wooden barrels, cover it with canvas, and then return to the raft.

Lai Fu had disappeared. Knowing that there were no large beasts on the island, Chen Zhou was not worried about him. While paddling towards the rocky beach, he summed up the lessons learned from his first landing on the island.

First, he discovered that his estimated round-trip speed was too optimistic.

Even if we go with the tide, because the raft does not move in a straight line, we have to adjust the direction, sail onto the rocky beach, and stop in the river, which will take much more than ten minutes.

As for loading and unloading.

Loading is simple and quick, but unloading to the hillside and woods requires carrying the boxes back and forth for more than a hundred meters. If there are a lot of supplies, even an hour may not be enough, let alone half an hour.

Moreover, after unloading, the return journey was against the current. He used the oars very poorly, and even if he used his best effort, it would take at least two hours to get back to the boat.

If you don't row the boat and use sails to propel it, your hope is even slimmer.

The wind direction at sea is changeable, most of the time it is southwesterly wind blowing towards the island, and even if there is easterly wind, the wind is very weak.

His simple sail had harsh conditions for use and could only be used as a decoration unless he was lucky enough to encounter a strong wind in the right direction.

After all, it only took a few hours to make the sail, so its decorative value far outweighs its practical value. But it’s still pretty good for hanging clothes.

From this perspective, if we are unlucky and there is no east wind, we may not be able to row back during high tide and can only wait for the tide to recede and then follow the water flow back to the boat.

But if you don't control the direction well when returning at low tide, you may be sucked into the sea by the tide.

Theoretically, the probability of deviating from the course and turning into the deep ocean is not high, but the danger is too great. Once a mistake is made, death is certain.

Looking at the short oars at both ends of the raft, Chen Zhou made up his mind.

"Reform the tools as soon as we get back to the ship."

He once rode in a wooden boat in the water towns of the south of the Yangtze River. The rowers used long oars hung on both sides of the boat.

When in use, the rower sits in the middle of the canoe, holds the paddle handle with both hands and pushes it back and forth to row the water on both sides at the same time. It is very agile whether moving forward or backward, and is closer to the "fool-style" paddle that Chen Zhou likes.

Not only that, the shape of this long oar is also simple, and it is not complicated to make and does not take much effort, which meets his needs very well.

Of course, in addition to oars, the situation in the woods on the river bank slope is also a bit tricky. If you want to open up a suitable storage point for supplies, you need to use a machete and an axe.

He kept all these things in mind and would bring them with him the next time he went to the island.

(End of this chapter)