luzula: a Luzula pilosa, or hairy wood-rush (Default)
[personal profile] luzula
Title: Easy
Characters: teenage Benton gen
Rating: G
Length: 297 words
Prompt: upper
Summary: Benton learns to sail.
Notes: This is kind of self-indulgent, okay? Basically, it's like a PWP, except that instead of sex there is...sailing. At least I have canon support for this. *points to Mountie on the Bounty*

Benton swung the rudder around and narrowly escaped getting hit on the head by the boom. Captain Smithers' method of teaching him to sail was very similar to his father's way of teaching him to light a fire.

"Get out there and experiment, and you'll soon get the hang of it," Captain Smithers had said, after teaching Benton a few knots.

The little boat only had one sail, and it really should not be that hard. To get out from the shore in the face of the wind, he needed to...tack, that was the word. He'd read about this sometime.

Benton frowned and hauled in the sail, and then turned the boat towards the wind. The sail flapped indecisively and then filled. The boat began to move, and excited by this success, Benton forgot to keep hold of the rudder, and the boat nosed up to the wind and slowed.

He tried again, and held the boat steady as she gathered speed. Out from the shore, the wind was stronger, and he squinted at the upper part of the sail, making sure it was full. Ah, of course--if he took the boom in even more, he could get closer to the wind.

The waves were higher here, too, the spray soaking his shirt. The boat was like a live thing, leaning over in the wind and singing with tension. Benton grinned. It was...not like dogsledding at all, actually, except for the speed and the exhilaration and the way the sun sparkled on the sea instead of the snow. And he'd gotten the hang of it now--it was easy.

At least, Benton thought so until the inadvertent jibe on the way back, after which Captain Smithers had to come and pick him out of the sea, dripping wet.

For now, please comment at the LJ entry.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-09-25 03:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] marymac.livejournal.com
Ah, the inadvertant jibe. Gets everyone. :D

(no subject)

Date: 2009-09-25 07:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] marymac.livejournal.com
And some of them you're even allowed to forget.

Also, since I forgot to say, its a lovely evocation of the learning curve.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-09-25 03:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mizface.livejournal.com
This was just lovely. To get to see Benton happy like this is a rare thing, and you've done a beautiful job of it. I loved the lack of tension in him, how he finds his way through a mix of hands-on and book learning, and the overconfidence that gets him in the end. But I'm betting that it didn't bother him too much.

The comparison between Smithers and his dad was great, and I loved this line:
It was...not like dogsledding at all, actually, except for the speed and the exhilaration and the way the sun sparkled on the sea instead of the snow.
both for its beauty, and because it was so very Fraser.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-09-25 05:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] julia-here.livejournal.com
Handling the sailis like flying a kite with you on it, but I myself never got the hang of the rudder due to my little problem where left and right are as one to me.

Lovely feeling, this, and now I'm sad again that nobody in the family has a boat right now.

Julia, the traditional boat of my people is a 14 foot aluminum hulled Puget Sound salmon fishing boat with a 25HP Mercruiser outboard and eight foot oars shipped; I learned sail handling in an 8m fiberglass keelboat.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-09-25 10:58 pm (UTC)
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
From: [personal profile] china_shop
*loves*

(no subject)

Date: 2009-09-27 04:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] exbex.livejournal.com
You've captured teenaged Benton beautifully, with this kind of...innocence about him.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-09-28 12:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mergatrude.livejournal.com
This is lovely! I want to duplicate mizface's comment in it's entirety, and add that it resonates so nicely with my own sailing experience.
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