Author's Note: I usually don't add notes to my chapters, but I'm going to here. I needed to get this chapter out and over with so it's a little light on everything and not very well polished. Mostly it just gets the Arendelles out of Noord, teaches my captain a skill he lacks, gives some character information(I won't spoil who), and sets up the return to Saint Martin in the next chapter where I'm going to explain a few things about the world. Sorry it's taken so long these last few chapters, but I've not been much inspired to write and feel so stressed out by things going on in my life and in the world.

Keep safe out there and I hope I still have some faithful readers out there!

Chapter 30 – There's Always Someone Smarter
April 26, 1660

The next morning, as the last supplies and clothes were loaded and the Sea Poppet already free of the pier and waiting to put to sea, a carriage pulled up at the end of the pier as I waited in my uniform. The first one out was the mayor who briefly removed his hat as he stepped out of the tiny carriage door to reveal his wispy blonde hair before returning his hat and helping a similarly aged brown haired woman in a lavender dress from the carriage. She eyed the ship with a smile as the mayor helped another lady from the carriage, her form still slender even after bearing two children. The next lady from the carriage was a stunning blonde that was just as tall as the brunette but far younger in her appearance in a light blue dress and a red head landed next to her in a dress of green. Both had the appearance of youth and I suddenly realized that Eugene was right about governor's having daughters to wed off, their daughters seemingly coming of age about when the promotion came in.

"Admiral Hunt!" the new governor said as he led the women to the gangplank. "Permission to come aboard?"

"Granted, sir," I said as I gestured for them to join me. The governor and I shook hands briefly before he turned to introduce the woman I thought was brunette but found her hair was actually auburn in the morning sun.

"My wife, Iduna," he said as I took her hand and kissed it. "And my eldest daughter, Elsa."

"My dear," I said as I kissed the blond haired woman's hand as well.

"And this is my youngest daughter, Anna," the governor said as he introduced the redhead.

"This the boat of the king?" Elsa asked as she looked around at my crew and their mismatched clothes.

"We are privateers," I informed her. "I bear the rank of admiral for my acts in support of the king, but the ship is mine to do with as I please and my crew are civilians."

"I mean no disrespect," she said quickly but I smiled and accepted her apology.

"None taken," I said as I turned rearward to the poop deck. "Governor, ladies, I extend to you the hospitality of the Scarlet Wench. If you will follow me."

"No wasted space," Anna commented as she landed behind the officer's dining table that sat between all the officer's cabins.

"Just be glad we're not laden with goods," I told her with a smile. "Then I'd have the officer's dining area full as well. Governor, you and your wife will billet in the cabin beside the ladder."

"That would be the captain's cabin, is it not?" he asked of me.

"To which I relinquish to you and your wife for the duration of the voyage," I told him as I gestured to a room next to the ladder. "I've moved into the cabin here, and Elsa and Anna may use these cabins. They are originally intended for ship's officers, none of which are currently in use."

"You don't have ship's officers?" Elsa asked as she checked out her room as Ella and Monica joined us from the common area.

"Jasmine is aboard the Sea Poppet, Linguini and Colette have their own quarters in the galley, and Timon chooses to keep his friend company rather than take private quarters," I listed off for her.

"A female officer?" the governor asked me.

"She has been with me for some time since my last crew was nearly eradicated and is a fierce warrior," I told them to their general astonishment. "It is to her I've extended the offer and to date it has worked well."

"Nearly eradicated?" Elsa asked me though she seemed hesitant to ask.

"British nearly overpowered me earlier this year," I told them and sighed. "A long story for a different time. For now, if you wish, you may lounge in your rooms or at the table here. Monica and Cinderella will attend your needs, and if you want to take in some fresh air, please join me above on the poop deck."

"I think I'd like to watch," Elsa said as she moved back to the ladder. The others were quick to follow her back up and onto the main deck and up to the poop deck as I got the Wench underway and found my first snag as the Wench clawed its way back out to sea.

"Iduna, dear, are you alright?" I heard Iduna ask her daughter.

"I…" she started to say before she bolted for the side of the ship.

"Was it something she ate?" Elsa asked as her mother threw up over the railing.

"Sea sickness," I said as I regarded the slender woman's backside.

"You've seen this before?" Elsa asked me and I nodded.

"Best thing to do is to keep your eyes on a fixed point and not move your head to counter the tossing of the ship," I explained as Iduna finally stopped and wiped her face with a handkerchief. "It might be best to take her below until later in the day when we get further out to sea and the ship won't rock so."

"Thank you, admiral," the governor said as he helped his wife go below.

"My pleasure, sir," I said as I tipped my hat to him.

"And I thought it was the big breakfast we had," Anna commented as she sat on a barrel full of powder charges for the cannons.

"That doesn't help," I told her with a wan smile. "Though I have to admit I used to get a little light headed when I first took to water."

"But you don't now?" Elsa asked me with a raised eyebrow.

"You learn to deal with it," I told her as I had Ariel turn us due west as I charged us through the breakwaters and out to open sea. "For one, pick a constant point on the horizon and the second is to keep your head still. If that fails, move to the center of the ship and lie down until it passes."

"I wonder how that works?" she asked me curiously.

"In the ways of all things, balance," I told them as Elsa looked thoughtful and Anna confused.

"But, why do some people have trouble and some don't?" she asked me. "You said it yourself, you used to have trouble with it."

"It's a problem with the ear," I told them but then both looked confused. "Have either of you suffered from bad allergies? Runny noses?"

"But the nose isn't connected to the ear," Elsa argued. "The mouth, maybe, as you can breathe through both…"

"Wrong," I said as I shook my head. "Try this. Take a deep breath, hold your nose, and without letting the air out through your mouth try to gently exhale. You can feel the pressure in your ear increase."

"Wow," Elsa said after trying it. "So, the mouth, nose and ear are connected?"

"Yes," I told them as I leaned up against the railing as we began to have a conversation when Anna eyed a sea gull as it flew.

"I don't suppose you know how birds fly?" she asked me with a smile as she turned back to me. "Elsa says its a mystery that science hasn't solved yet."

"A bird flies for the same reason this ship is propelled through the water," I told her and her smile fell into astonishment.

"But that's impossible," Elsa argued. "It's two separate ideas. The wind catches the sheets…"

"Ariel, hard-a-larboard and put us due northwest," I said in a low tone to the redhead. She nodded as Elsa continued her argument but I paid it little mind as the ship turned to sail almost into the wind coming off the island.

"Why did you change course?" Anna asked curiously.

"To illustrate a point," I told them as I began to point out the sails. "We sail now into what is called close haul. Any further into the wind and the Wench would be laid in irons and unable to move. Now, if Elsa were correct that sails do little more than catch the wind, no ship would be able to move past beam reach when you are sailing perpendicular to the wind. Also, note their shape, and where have you seen that shape before?"

"A bird's wing?" Anna said as the two young ladies looked at the sails.

"So there is something else," Elsa said quietly.

"Thank you, Ariel," I said with a nod as she turned us back to our previous course. "The shape of the sails and a bird's wing along with a form of propulsion is what allows birds to fly. For a ship, that propulsion is still the wind. For a bird, it's the flapping of its wings that it mainly uses to fly with until they too can catch the wind and use it like we do to fly and rest itself."

"A bird doesn't have to flap its wings to fly?" Anna asked me.

"Watch the gulls," I told her as one began to illustrate my point as it flew over the water without flapping. We spent some time watching the birds as they flew, Elsa and Anna both asking me a multitude of questions about birds when eight bells came and went again.

"You're not going to mark noon?" she asked me as my crew changed out the watch.

"Well, no need today," I told her as I looked to the sun directly overhead. "I synchronized the ship's time with the port's this morning before your arrival."

"But as we move further east…" she began and I chuckled which brought her up short.

"You speak of finding latitude and longitude?" I asked her as she stood and moved to the navigational desk.

"I would think that a sea captain would consider those critical to his success," she said as she pulled out the sextant.

"To many, I imagine they'd be as important as drilling on the cannon," I told her as she took her readings. "They also, I would imagine, sail more open waters than I."

"You can sail without knowing where you are?" she asked me. I nodded as I pushed off the rail and retrieved the maps the navigational desk contained and laid them out for her.

"We are here," I showed her on the map with the compass, using its fine end as a pointer. "As we round the tip of the island, we'll sail due north for Santo Domingo, then head due east following these markers into more known waters to Saint Martin. A longer trip for sure, but one I won't get lost on."

"You really do sail without knowing your location," Elsa said softly as she seemed to collect herself as she turned back to me. "Would you be willing to learn the mathematics of charting a better course?"

"Latitude and longitude?" I asked her and she nodded. "Gladly."

For the next several days I was Elsa's student as she taught me how to find my latitude and longitude, the latter already known to me as it was rather simple. Longitude was, and is, marked off like a clock and marking noon at your current point gave you a narrow band of the map you could be on while latitude was a little more difficult but Elsa showed me how to properly use a sextant at noon, the only time your position could be accurately calculated. Still, I had to marvel at how easy it was once you knew the algebraic equation and Elsa was delighted I had some intelligence which also sparked more of our conversations as the days passed though our topics ranged mostly over basic scientific matters of which Elsa was highly interested in though unable to learn the deeper intricacies of science since it was the 1600's and she was a woman.

Still, as the days passed I was able to better use the wind this time much to my crew's delight as I sailed us directly for Neverland. It was also a much faster trip, allowing me to make the trip in just over a week but it was in our talks on Saturday that I found a slight hitch to my social plans for the trip. It was how I wound up playing my guitar and singing southern gospel on the poop deck with the family, even teaching a few of the simpler songs to them though Ariel kept unusually quiet through it all. I figured the redhead to join in on the second chorus after the first run through but she never did.

"Land ho!" Melody called from the crow's nest the next day.

"Saint Martin?" Elsa asked me as she looked at my most recent charting and the map.

"A pirate port called Neverland," I told her as I pointed it out on the map. "It was where Hook kept himself and a small harem of private girls for his crew taken from ships he had attacked."

"Hook?" the governor asked me. "Are we expecting him?"

"No, but the lady of the town, a Miss Clarion, wanted to harvest their crops before relocating to a more civilized area," I told him. "I promised her I'd return, and it is on my way."

"It is your ship," he said as I began to give directions for making the pier. The governor had to take his wife below as the ship began to rock in the heavier waves as we passed the breakwaters, but we soon had the ship lined up as Jasmine and the Sea Poppet moored off the side of the Scarlet Wench.

After loading up the poppy harvest, I dismissed my crew for the night to enjoy themselves before we made port in Saint Martin the next day and allow my guests a brief moment of respite ashore as well. I was pleasantly pleased to find most of the girls had given up their habits in the interim and were getting along well without their former habits. It was early the next morning as we left Neverland behind that the governor asked me what I intended to do with them.

"I have five hundred acres outside Saint Eustatius I had planned to use as a sort of plantation for them to grow crops," I informed him. "However, my situation with the governor there has soured some and I have no intention of basing my operations there anymore."

"Which as an agent of the king means you'll be at Saint Martin quite often," he mused with me. "I can gift you a hundred acres along with a small gold offering to keep your crew happy in delivering my family and I safely to my new posting."

"That would be...very acceptable," I said with a smile.

"Good," the governor said as he and I shook hands. "I look forward to doing business with you."

"And I you, governor," I said as I looked out on the horizon and planned my way forward. I could keep all the girls on Saint Martin without problem, increase my power there and continue my attacks with ease.

Life was good and I couldn't help but feel I was getting my fantasy fulfilled as I looked out over my ship. Even as I looked back to the governor's daughters, I could only wonder what it would be like marrying such a high-class woman like the blond haired Elsa who in my time would be a beauty unlike any other.

I just had to get them to home which was only a few hours due north. How hard could that be?