[[Just a quick note to say how pleased I am that you all have enough to say to keep the game going without my input. Bravo!  I'm going to advance the story, but don't let me interrupt the banter!]]<br/><br/>It becomes quickly apparent, once aboard the longboat, that the Admiral was right; the limited training with an astral sail the three of you have received (every crewman aboard the Securis is required to be able to operate a lifeboat) should be more than sufficient to pilot this craft, if clumsily.<br/><br/>The second thing that becomes apparent is that the longboat is a fine piece of seafaring timber. She catches each of your eyes, whether craftsman, pirate, or appraiser. Beautiful scrollwork adorns her gunwales, and she has been lovingly maintained, her hull scrubbed and her decks oiled.<br/><br/>You easily shove off from the moorings of the bay and float slowly out the gaping port in the forehull of the Securis. The massive cargo boom stretches out into the darkness before you, and the vastness of the Astral Sea below you lightly catches the hull of the longboat and bears it into the void.<br/><br/>You take your bearing as instructed, and initially have some trouble locating the required points of reference in the "sky" above you. You are then somewhat put off by the discovery that the reason for your failure is that the reference points are not above the horizon at all -- but below it! It would seem that the bearing toward Sigil is almost perpendicular to the decks of the Securis -- *straight down*.