Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 362: Chapter 230: A Perfect Hiding Place (Part 2)

This was simple. He just had to leave a certain distance between two of the strands. The extra length could then be used for reinforcement when tying the rope to the bamboo pole, so it wouldn’t go to waste.

When the shortest bamboo strip was about to end, he would insert a new one to replace it.

Repeating this process would produce a bamboo rope of the desired length.

To be safe, he also took a single bamboo strip and wrapped it around each joint for extra reinforcement. After all, at these points, only two strips were bearing the load, as the third one was broken off.

After being wrapped and reinforced, these sections became a single unit, eliminating the possibility of them breaking.

’Normally, after braiding a rope, you need to treat it with a preservative. The salt in the seawater will corrode the bamboo rope, but I don’t have the materials for that right now. I’ll just have to ignore it for now. If it rots, I’ll just replace it with a new one.’

The most common natural preservatives are pine resin and tung oil, but neither of those could be found in the Panama Forest.

’Now that I have a tow rope, the next step is to find a suitable spot on the shore to park the raft.’

This spot needed to be relatively flat and close to the sea. Ideally, it would be submerged at high tide, allowing the raft to float naturally without him needing to struggle to push it into the water.

The vicinity was all reefy shore, making it difficult to find a flat area. If it was too far, he wouldn’t be able to move the raft there anyway.

After a quick look around, he had to give up on finding a suitable docking spot for the time being.

’Looks like I’ll have to check again after the tide comes in. But I should get the other things ready first. I’ll definitely need paddles, right? And a stake on the shore to secure the tow rope.’

He waited quietly for five minutes. Seeing no signs of the tide rising, he hurried back, carrying two bamboo poles and bringing some embers for a fire.

’Making a paddle is actually quite simple. You cut a section of bamboo about 1.2 to 1.5 meters long, saw two-thirds of the way through one end, and then make another cut vertically. Then, you use fire to heat and soften the sawn part, and the two sides of the bamboo will slowly open up like a window.’

’Then, you just adjust it to the right size and cut off the excess. The final product just needs a blade at the bottom that’s significantly wider than the bamboo shaft.’

After making one, he thought for a moment and decided to make a second. That way, he could stand on the raft and paddle with both hands, which would be much more efficient.

Perhaps it was his lucky day, because not long after he finished the second paddle, the sea began to show signs of the tide coming in.

He quickly got onto the raft and moved all the remaining materials onto it, lest he run out of time and have them washed away by the rising water.

With paddles, he wasn’t too worried about being washed too far out to sea. He just needed to paddle around near the shore for a bit and find a suitable place to dock.

If he really couldn’t find one, he planned to head for the beach. That area would definitely work.

"Lin, I’m heading back. Good luck!~"

Erica, her basket full, waved at him from the shore and strode away.

Seeing the heavy bamboo basket on her back, Lin Chen pouted.

’It’s just seafood. I’ll have some of my own soon enough!’

While the tide was slowly rising, he took a round piece of metal he had previously removed from a can out of his bamboo basket.

He took a bamboo pole the thickness of a broom handle and sawed off the excess branches, leaving only the main shaft. Then, using his stone axe, he hammered one end of the metal piece into a U-shape, wrapped it around the bamboo pole, and continued to bend it.

He kept hammering until the metal was wrapped around the bamboo pole about twice, completely forming a metal arrowhead. Only then did he begin the secondary reinforcement.

He hammered every part that wasn’t flush, making sure the metal fit as snugly against the bamboo as possible.

Next was the tip of the arrowhead. He hammered it into a sharp shape, though he wasn’t aiming for perfection.

The edge of the cut metal sheet was already sharp enough. After being chiseled into this shape, it didn’t even need to be sharpened; it could pierce a fish with a simple throw.

Forget seafood; he felt that if he stabbed himself with it, it would probably leave a huge hole.

Finally, he used a bamboo-strip rope to wrap and reinforce the area where the metal met the bamboo. A simple fishing spear was now complete.

’Theoretically, bamboo is very buoyant. But whether it’ll be useful when spearfishing underwater... I’ll have to test it to find out. If it doesn’t work, I’ll take it apart and switch to a wooden shaft when I get back.’

’But it’s not a good idea to dive in the shallows during high tide. The increasing force of the waves can cause unnecessary energy drain. It’s best to dive when the sea is relatively calm.’

The waves crashed against the shore, one after another, each one reaching further up than the last.

In just half an hour, the area beneath the bamboo raft was submerged in shallow water.

When a wave hit, the raft would sway slightly with the force. Thankfully, the upturned front of the raft dispersed the impact, so the waves didn’t wash directly over him, instead passing beneath and around the sides.

Before long, pushed by an increasingly powerful wave, he felt his body lighten as the receding water lifted the entire raft and carried it away from the shore, out toward the sea.

He quickly stood up, gripping a paddle tightly and pushing it against a submerged rock, using the opposing force to propel the raft further out.

At the same time, he slightly lowered his body into a horse stance on the raft, trying to find his balance amidst the turbulent waves.

Slowly, he began to get a feel for the rhythm of the waves.

Whenever a wave surged under the raft, it would tilt. All he had to do was relax the pressure on his front foot, letting his leg bend naturally, and then press down lightly after the wave passed to bring the front of the raft back down to the water’s surface.

’This isn’t so hard~’

Once he got used to balancing on the water, he relaxed considerably, able to shift his focus from his feet to the paddles.

Paddling wasn’t exactly a rare skill; many children’s parks and places with streams or lakes had swan boats.

After about ten minutes of practice, he figured out how to use the bamboo paddles.

’Looks like these paddles aren’t long enough for paddling while standing. You’d need them to be at least two meters long. These are only suitable for paddling while sitting.’

’I also need to make some oarlocks on the side of the raft. Hmm, still a lot to do.’

He paddled around the reefy shore for a long time but still couldn’t find a spot he liked.

Just as he was about to turn and head toward the beach, two black boulders, about half a person’s height, on the water’s surface caught his attention.

These two boulders were in the direction of Bartel’s shelter, completely opposite from the beach.

He had seen these two boulders from a distance before the tide came in, but due to the angle, they hadn’t seemed special.

Now that he was out on the sea, he saw that there was actually a gap between the two boulders.

As he paddled closer, the gap between the boulders widened before his eyes, becoming a space more than three meters wide when he arrived.

One of the boulders was flatter and was leaning against the other, forming a triangular space beneath it.

’Perfect! This space is just right for hiding the raft. I wonder how much of it will be exposed when the tide goes out. How did I not notice this before?’

He crouched down and peered into the gap between the boulders, and it all clicked. The leaning boulder was tilted diagonally. From the shore, it just looked like two large rocks stacked together. Only from this angle could he see the hidden space underneath.

Having solved the problem of where to hide the raft, he had nothing else urgent to do for the time being. He turned and paddled out toward the vast, open sea.

’During high tide, the currents stir, bringing many marine creatures that live on the seabed or in the middle depths up to the surface—things like squid, cuttlefish, jellyfish, and ribbonfish.’

’Since I’ve got time on my hands, let’s see if we can run into anything good~’