Hi Dennis , the balentine and how do I discribe it on the net . Okeedokee here goes . Start with a coil , clockwise of course , make three in all, about a two and a half feet in diameter one on top of the other, then make a loop into the center of the coil you have going , this loop will take up a third of the space inside the coil . Now return the
line to the origional threee coils till you get another third of the way around and go into the center and take up another third of the inside of the coil , remember to allways feed the
line on top of the first loop you made. Again return to the origional coil and go again to another third way around and make the final loop. Now you have the base to build the balantine , you just keep following the same pattern over and over till you run out of
line . The trick is ,to allways feed
line on top of the one underneath it , so it has no choice but to return clean and safe , without snag . You can build the balantine as big as it has to be and it can look neat or scruffy , kick it around the deck and somehow it allways comes free when you strike sail . Just remember to place each
line ontop of the one bellow it and the shape of it will lock things into place for you . If you've crewed on a schooner it will come back to you with a wee bit o practice .
By the way what ship where you on , it wasnt The Clipper City was it ?
Oh one more tip . when coiling large
line , allways feed it between your legs so your only dealing with what you have at hand and if you able have a fresh new deck hand(bilge rat ) feed it to you . Better yet tell the bilge rat to make balantine right here yarrrrrrrrrr. I hope that helps ,as hard as it is to do the balentine the first time ,this may or may not jog your memory .
Fair winds
Paul