Some of them draw only about 3' of water unladen. Thistle carries people nowadays — up to fifty for a day-sail. A boat's speed is dictated by its le...gth, primarily (except when planing, but that's another story) and sailing barges are longer than yachts, so usually they're faster. Thistle is, I think, about 90' long, so her "hull speed", her theoretical maximum is about 13knots. Eirene's is about 8.4knots. The digression is because Jenni was fascinated by Thistle, and I might have pursued her.. " Panicked by this, Nazgul stage an impromptu version of what would be called a tactical retreat, assuming that the Nazgul had brains large enough to contain the idea of "tactical retreat" along with "Shire" and "Baggins." The Nazgul theory apparently being, as they explained it later to me, that one good stab was all it would take, and staying to hack everyone's heads off would have been a senseless waste of their talents. "Hacking heads off is your only talent," I pointed out, in between. I looked up into the face of a smiling bald hunk.The arms and chest of the banlon shirt he's wearing threaten to come apart at the seams from the work- out his muscles are giving them. We introduced ourselves.His name was Alex and he'd just been posted to Aberdeen from somewhere in Kansas.He was still waiting for base housing so that he could bring his wife and k**s East.As we're chatting I'm looking around.I notice I'm the only chick in there and I'm not even a chick.Now,I really change my. I didn't have long to wait.The snow did come, but it was mostly wet mush down here in Houston's humid bayou air. She adjusted her tent a bit, boiled up a good deal of hot tea water and seemed resolved to tough it out. I started to become obsessed with whether she was actually still out there or not and if so was she 'ok', and at length I grabbed a blanket and pillow and spent the evening and a very night long lying right next to the doorway.I'm sure we heard each other moving about and even.