Perhaps because of the smooth wind, the colonization fleet maintained a high speed after its departure, and passed through the open sea area south of Yazhou at noon that day, and arrived at Yinggezui in the evening. After discussing with the personnel of the shipping department on the "Shangyun 01", the commander of the fleet, Wang Tomtongguò, decided to continue the voyage to the west overnight, but the speed had to be slowed down by at least half. It is also extremely troublesome if the fleet is scattered during the night voyage, and the speed is reduced so that the ships can keep the same course in the dark.

As for how to identify the correct course when sailing at night, with a group of veteran crew members on the "Speedy", this problem is difficult to pass through, and the other ships only need to follow the "Speedy". In order to make it easy for the ships in the fleet to identify the pilot ship at night, a large circular LED light fixture was installed on the top of the mast of the Speedy, which is powered by solar panels and turned on at night, making it visible for up to two nautical miles in fine weather. Strings of lanterns were also hung on the masts and stern of the other Chinese sailing boats, so that other ships in the vicinity could maintain a reasonable distance between them and avoid colliding with each other during night sailing. Each ship has a cross-over crew with walkie-talkies, and there is always a wireless communication to keep the flotilla from being too loose at night.

When Chinese ships of this era went to sea, captains and crews mainly relied on tools such as "needle books" and relatively primitive compasses that recorded various routes to identify their routes. The "needle book" is equivalent to a text version of the navigation guide, which not only records the routes, directions and navigation times between various ports, but also the sea water rise and fall times of each port, and the reefs and shoals that need to be avoided on the route.

However, the routes recorded in this kind of "needle book" are often limited to a few places that are well known to the makers, and the descriptions of the same route by different "needle books" may be quite different, and there is no relatively objective standard. This is also limited by the navigation technology and social environment at that time, people who rely on the sea to eat are often passed on from generation to generation, and the son inherits his father's business, and no one will take out the guy who eats to share with others. In this way, even if someone discovers an emerging overseas route, it will not spread quickly among the people, which will also reduce the enthusiasm of the people to explore the unknown seas.

The advantage of crossing the public is that it has mastered more detailed charts and various hydrographic data, and has a variety of advanced navigation instruments made by later generations, which can accurately calculate the route of the ship, and there is no need to use the "stargazing method" recorded in the "needlebook" to identify the direction of navigation at night. (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable dìng) (.)

The fleet maintained an average speed of about three knots that night and continued to move north-west. After reducing the speed, the crew took turns resting in two shifts, but they could only sleep on deck in case of emergency. With the shiny pilot ship in front of them, the captains of each ship were much more relaxed, they did not need to expend energy to identify the course in the dark, they only had to direct the ship to follow the pilot ship in front of them.

The next morning, the pilot ship measured the latitude and longitude with a sextant and came to the conclusion that the distance traveled yesterday night was only about a quarter of the distance between Yingge Tsui and Thanh Hoa. The fleet also had to make a temporary stop after dawn, and several seasick people were transferred from various ships to the "Speed". Compared to its contemporaries, the catamaran "Feisu" was indeed much smoother at sea, and this was also done to make these unlucky people a little easier in the coming time.

The next day the fleet was at full speed, but it was only less than 100 nautical miles before dark, and considering that it was still about 40 to 50 nautical miles away from the east coast of Vietnam, the fleet decided to continue to stay up and get to the east coast of Vietnam the next morning for rest.

The crew had to brace themselves and continue to move forward overnight. The Speedy is a very easy one, with one person steering and two lifting the sails, making it easy for just three people to navigate the 30-metre sailboat. The six members of the North American Gang are divided into two groups and are responsible for driving in shifts. However, those who are not on duty do not mean that they can be idle, and they need to continue to make nautical charts in the cabin in order to calculate the voyage.

Shi Diwen yawned heavily, dropped the pencil in his hand and said, "This trip is much more fortunate than the last time I came, and it has been a long time since I have sailed for more than forty-eight hours in a row in my memory. ”

"Mainly because the boat is slow. Tom Wang also felt quite helpless that his ship had to slow down and wait for the other ships: "The other ships can't even reach half our speed, it's not difficult to imagine what they will be like without the pilot ship in the future, we think it's just the voyage from Thanh Hoa to Yingge Tsui, they will have to take an extra day to complete." ”

"It would be nice to increase the speed of these ships a little, even if it is only about ten knots, so that the crew will not be so tired after running this distance in one day. Roger joined the discussion.

"The shipyard is building right now is said to be designed to reach speeds of more than 10 knots. "If this route uses more than 10 knots of ships to run the transport, then the whole voyage can be shortened by at least one day." ”

"I went to see the shipyard ship, and it was a Chinese sailing ship, just like the ships in our fleet. Can the average speed of a Chinese sailing ship reach more than 10 knots?" Roger questioned Tom Wang's claim.

"Yes, they are indeed building Chinese-style sailboats, but I heard that the Ministry of Shipping has redesigned the sails and rigging, and will probably use some of the advantages of Western-style sails to create a combination of Chinese and Western works. Tom speculated.

"God, I hope they don't make a freak who doesn't look like it. Shi Diwen sighed.

Although Tom Wang is not very clear about the details of the construction plan of the shipping department, considering that the shipping department has been discussing internally for more than half a month before the construction of this ship, it is definitely impossible to completely copy the old design plan of the Chinese sailing ship. In terms of hull structure, the use of V-shaped hulls and watertight compartments has made Chinese sailing ships far ahead of this era, and there is no need for significant improvements, at most only to increase the length and width ratio of the hull, then the most likely change is in the design of the mast and sails.

Western-style sailing ships are known to have a faster speed at sea, which has a great deal to do with the sails used by Western-style sailing ships, which increase the wind area of the sails by increasing the number of masts and increasing the number of masts, thereby increasing the speed. However, it is not possible to increase the mast lightly if the mast length exceeds the length of the hull, then it is better to wait for the ship to capsize, so compared to competitors, the sail area of Chinese sailing ships is generally relatively limited, which also limits the maximum speed that the boat can achieve in disguise.

Of course, the disadvantages of Western-style sailing ships are also extremely obvious, because the mast is raised, it is necessary to use a large number of support cables to pull the mast, which will greatly limit the rotation angle of the Western-style sail, so that the ship can not effectively use crosswind and headwind, so that the so-called fast sailing ships can only have a relatively fast speed in the downwind situation. At the same time, due to the complexity of sail rigging, the number of operators required on deck has also increased significantly, which in fact reduces the endurance of the boat. Although the sail area of the Chinese sailing ship is relatively small, it is easy to operate, can be controlled by a small crew, and can be used in almost all directions. However, as for how to combine the two sails and learn from each other's strengths, Tom Wang, a nautical expert, has no good idea, after all, this kind of expertise involving ship design and fluid science is not his specialty.

After a second sleepless night at sea, the pilot "Feisu" finally saw the horizon of the east coast of Vietnam through a telescope in the early morning of the third day. When the news was relayed to the rest of the ship via walkie-talkie, it drew cheers from the exhausted crew.

After discussion, the group of people from the headquarters of the colonization team decided to go to the mouth of the Thanh Hoa River, where the last expedition stopped, to see what the current situation of refugees there was, and then dock for a day before continuing to advance.

The place where the fleet arrived at the coast was about ten miles south of the mouth of the Thanh Hoa River, a small fishing village called Cen Mountain. The "Speed" put down its rubber assault boat and landed first to visit the fishing village, but the results surprised everyone. The fishing village here is deserted, and judging from the clean-up houses, it is perhaps more accurate to say that all the residents have been relocated with their families.

"It seems that the shape of shì here is deteriorating faster than we thought. Tom Wang also felt a little unbelievable in the face of such a situation. The last time I came here, there were still a large number of refugees gathered nearby, and in just over 20 days, even the residents here have all left their homes and become war refugees.

"The Thanh Hoa River is not so easy to cross, and if we continue to walk north, we should encounter a large number of refugees. Roger said.

So the fleet abandoned its intention to dock here and continued its voyage north. After arriving at the mouth of the Thanh Hoa River, the fleet turned into the river, and after not far going upstream, Shi Diwen, who was in charge of the lookout, shouted at the bow of the boat: "Look, Roger is right! There are many people on the shore!"

There were more people waiting to cross the river on the banks of the river here than there had been when the expedition had last arrived, and there were as many as two or three thousand people in the dark. Gu Kai heard Shi Diwen's cry and also got out of the cabin and came to the deck, and his eyes lit up when he saw such a situation: "It seems that the working population we need must be in place!"