Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 35 Wings and Sails
“Not all sails are the same.” Su Ming continued drawing various simulation circles on the sand table. “There are still 70 kilometers to go before reaching the 50-kilometer maximum strike range of the Azure Sea Valley. We have a tailwind now, and the Azure Sea Valley is sailing at full speed. As for its speed—”

Su Ming checked the time; 20 minutes had passed since the first scan, and it was almost dawn.

"Perform another radar scan!"

Unseen electromagnetic waves wandered through the other world. After the scan was completed, Violet retrieved the cable.

“Speed ​​12 knots.” Su Ming finished the calculation. “Including the flight time of the sea eagle beast, we can reach the enemy in four hours at the earliest, which is just enough.”

Zijin understood as well, "Right now they don't know that we can see them too—if we try to avoid them haphazardly, we'll only expose that fact prematurely."

"That's right, so we'll wait until everything is ready before we take action."

“But what’s next?” Violet asked. “With sails and a steam engine, we can outrun them, but we only have enough fuel for seven hours. If we go at full speed, the distance will be even shorter—that’s not enough for us to break through.”

A chase at sea can easily take days and nights to complete, and seven hours is just the beginning.

“I already have an idea,” Su Ming said. “Leave the ship to me. There are two things I need you to do right away.”

"Well, you said."

The first thing Su Ming arranged was to prepare food. The seabed here is relatively shallow, with abundant seabed vegetation, making it easy to catch fish. However, the situation in the open ocean is less certain.

Zijin immediately started fishing, while Su Ming continued with various calculations and preparations.

As a mage-level spellcaster, Violet was a scourge to the underwater ecosystem. She quickly emptied the area around the Zhiyuan and dumped it on the ship's zombies. With Violet present, the zombies were the most competent workers.

Of course, when Violet wasn't around, all of these people were mentally challenged, except for the skeleton servant who had been trained the longest and was barely usable.

The scholar quickly completed the task and asked Su Ming about the second thing she needed her to do.

"Place a buoy on the east and south sides, two kilometers from the ship, and install the calibration plates," Su Ming said. In a short while, he had a marine rangefinder in his hand. "I need to calibrate the radar."

According to the instruction manual, although the radar equipment was preset at the factory, it still needs to be recalibrated before activation. I skipped this step before because I was in a hurry, so now I have to make up for it.

"The technology in your world is quite complicated."

I think both sides are equally bad.

The skeleton servant retrieved a broom from the cabin. Violet tied the buoy to it, mounted the broom, and floated into the air.

"Why do we need to ride brooms to fly?" Su Ming asked, puzzled—what happened to the science and magic we were promised!
"A broom? You mean this low-drag flight aid?"

"Low resistance, auxiliary?"

Zijin sighed. "Have you heard of the 'wind-breaking' technique? The forward-leaning tip is designed to break through the air during high-speed flight, reducing wind pressure on the human body. You can also lean forward against it while flying to keep your body level. If you're interested in aerodynamics, I have a few books here."

"...No, no need, thank you."

The scholars quickly placed the buoy in place, and Su Ming began taking measurements.

The sea was very windy, the kind of weather sailboats love, but it was very unfriendly for distance measurement. Su Ming struggled for a while, but fortunately the distance wasn't too far, and he was able to successfully read the data from the calibration plate embedded in the buoy.

He then activated the balloon's S-band radar directly on the deck and began scanning. The comparison revealed a difference of approximately 10%.

“Which one is correct?” Violet asked. “The rangefinder,” Su Ming replied. “I just calibrated it on the deck.”

Su Ming corrected the radar parameters and conducted a retest.

Due to the limitations of the marine environment, the precision of this adjustment is limited. Fortunately, excessive precision is not required at present, and an error of around one percent is acceptable.

****
More than an hour later, Su Ming received the design drawings as promised.

The sail configuration is intuitive, and with his recent continuous improvement in modeling skills, he did not rely on ship models and completed the modeling directly in his mind's eye based on the data.

He dismantled the superfluous structures such as the bridge towers and used them to build masts and sails. There were six masts in total, with the first one at the bow pointing diagonally forward, and the other five being upright masts.

Then, crossbeams were unfolded one by one on the mast, and huge bone sails were hoisted.

One advantage of rigid sails is becoming apparent: they don't require a complex cable system, otherwise a novice like Su Ming wouldn't be able to operate them.

Violet frowned slightly upon seeing this.

No matter how many masts and sails you have, the overall wind-facing area will not increase, so three-masted ships are the most common type of ships in this world.

Su Ming's choice of a six-mast configuration overturned the scholars' understanding.

It's not impossible to assemble a rigid sail from bone pieces. Although it's heavy and difficult to deploy and retract, it's still usable. However, the sail that Su Ming constructed was a crooked arc, looking like a halved mango.

Won't it go astray like this?

With its sails unfurled, the Zhiyuan became even taller and more magnificent, much to Su Ming's satisfaction.

"That's about right." He checked the time and estimated the current positions of the three fleets. "Violet, I have a question for you. Are you still only able to fight against bishops?"

The sails gradually took effect, and the Zhiyuan began to turn south and slowly accelerate.

“We can add the word ‘big’ now,” the scholar replied. “Last time I was fighting while ill, and…” She summoned the Divine Scepter, “I’ve also taken some time these past few days to study it.”

"Are you confident you can handle them?" Su Ming pointed to the fleet on the sand table labeled "spectators".

“Reconnaissance ships aren’t equipped with much combat capability; I’m confident of that,” Violet replied. “But can you catch up with them?”

The wide field of vision of early warning units means that they will flee at the slightest sign of trouble. Just like on Earth, if an early warning aircraft is approached by a fighter jet, it is like meat on a chopping board—provided that you can get close enough.

"Then it's settled." Su Ming started the steam engine and began to accelerate the Zhiyuan.

"Steam engine power 60%".

A few minutes later, the power system began to approach its economical operating level, the propellers creating huge white waves. Su Ming turned the ship southwest, forming a 90-degree angle with the sea breeze. The speed gradually increased to 12 knots.

Operating a ship is a very complicated task, and now, in addition to the steam engine, the sails also need to be controlled. Fortunately, the workshop provides software and initializes the data.

He input the relevant parameters and completed the calculation of the sail angle.

"Port side wind, crosswind, speed 12 knots, sea wind 25 knots." Su Ming entered the information and instructed Zi Jin to control the zombie to adjust the sail angle based on the data, "26 degrees clockwise!"

(End of this chapter)