X Is For Xebec | Nancy Drew Investigates {A To Z Challenge}

During April, we're participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. Every day (except Sundays), we'll be doing an alphabet themed post starting with "A is for Anchor" and ending with "Z is for Zodiac." Each post is an installment of "Nancy Drew Investigates the Case of the Missing Anchor" - so you may want to read the posts from the beginning, in order to follow along with the story (click here for the first post and here for an index of all the posts). At the end of each post, you'll also find some random thoughts on the day's particular topic. So, if Nancy isn't your thing, feel free to skip the story and go straight to the end.  

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When we last left you, Nancy was hiding in the v-berth when one of the men heard her make a noise and went to investigate. Armed with a winch handle, Nancy nervously watch the doorknob turn and worried about getting caught.

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As Nancy braced herself for the door to the v-berth to come flying open, she heard Pete say decisively. “Knock it off. I’m the captain of this boat and what I say goes. Now get up on deck and we’re going to check that anchor out. After we’re done with that, we’ll start moving the stuff out of the v-berth.”

Nancy breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down on the v-berth cushion. As she set the winch handle next to the bolts of Sunbrella fabric, she noticed a small wooden model of a ship. She got her flashlight out of her pocket and looked at it closely.

Noticing its distinctive overhanging bowsprit and the aft-set mizzen mast, Nancy instantly knew it was a replica of a xebec. As she turned it over, she noticed a small indentation on the bottom. She pushed down on it and the bottom of the model boat popped open. Inside she found a rolled up piece of paper.

Could this be the list Captain Gus was talking about, Nancy wondered. Realizing that she needed to get out of the v-berth before she was discovered, Nancy put the piece of paper in her pocket, closed the model boat back up, put it back where she found it and grabbed the portable VHF.

Cautiously opening the door to the v-berth, Nancy peeked out into the salon. Not seeing anyone, she crept over to the companionway, climbed up the ladder and poked her head out. She saw the two men at the bow of the boat arguing over the anchor. Nancy looked across the cove and saw Party Time, the white catamaran anchored nearby.

The men’s argument grew louder.

“You’re always grumbling about the anchor. It looks fine. We gotta get this stuff moved before Captain Gus gets here.”

“Fine, we’ll check it again later. Come on, you get the dinghy down and I’ll get the first load from the v-berth.”

Nancy’s eyes got wider as she realized they would be making their way back to the cockpit.

Tune in on Friday for the next installment of Nancy Drew Investigates – Y is for Y-Valve.

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Image courtesy of The Graphics Fairy.

There aren't that many English words that start with the letter X, so I was delighted to find a nautical themed one that I could use in my Nancy Drew series - xebec (last year I went with xenophobia). As Nancy already knows (and what doesn't she know?), a xebec was a Mediterranean sailing ship with a long bowsprit and an aft-set mizzen mast.

Don't know what a bowsprit or a mizzen mast is? Join the club. I'm kind of clueless when it comes to all of this sailing stuff too. Basically, a bowsprit is a pointy thing that sticks off the front of the boat and the mizzen mast is a pointy thing that sticks up out of the deck. Pointy things are important when it comes to sailing. Along with plenty of snacks, as Bess would tell you.

You'll notice I don't have a picture of a xebec. That's because they were used in the olden days, before cameras were invented and long before I was born. Plus, I'm quite wary of using images on our blog that we didn't take and getting sued by someone for copyright infringement, so if you want to have a look at some pretty pictures of xebecs, check out Wikipedia.

For those of you who share my paranoia about getting sued for large sums of money that you don't have (you can read more about it here under point 6), but like to jazz your blog up with pretty images, check out The Graphics Fairy. She has all sorts of vintage images which you can freely use. Having said that, she does have a disclaimer on her site saying that she can't guarantee that everything is royalty free and that every country has its own copyright regulations, so you do take your chances, but the images, like the sea lions above, are charming. (Charming is a word Nancy would use, don't you think?)

What about you - what's your favorite word that starts with X?

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