Three circulations sat inside the Shoal box at 04:10, 86 leagues on the long side, west of the Cloudsdale intake. Kell held 64. Orry held 71, 28 leagues west of Kell. Vetch held 79, 19 leagues south of Kell and closing on the coast towns at 9 leagues an hour. The Westlane Weather Works sheet for Tuesday named Kell only. It listed a top wind of 40, a crew of 40, and a close at 18:00.
Orry remained on the internal log as Practice Gust 7. Vetch remained Practice Gust 9. Practice gusts do not open the Canterlot Council's triple-lane rule. The rule, written after the last triple in the Shoal, requires three named systems before the reserve reservoir is unlocked and a second horn crew is called. Director Ansel Mott confirmed the practice labels at 06:40. "The public is getting extra weather at no extra scheduling cost," Mott said. He gave Kell's wind as 40 and left Orry and Vetch off the note.
The close horn blew at 18:00, on time for the sheet. A day clerk blew it a second time at 05:12 after finding the first entry unsigned. At 05:14 Orry's outer band lifted the horn off the north roof and set it in the intake canal. The maintenance slip, posted at 08:00, reads "equipment relocated by seasonal enthusiasm." The horn is in the canal. The sheet is closed.
Sedge Carrick took the night board at 19:00 with eleven pegasi. The day room had released the other twenty-nine at the first horn and signed the fuel can back to stores. Carrick had four spare cloud-weights and no authority to rename a gust. "I had eleven and three eyes," he said. "You fly the fast one before they finish calling it a drill." He put six on Vetch, three on Orry, and held two in the gap so Kell would stay west of the intake. The placement held from 20:10.
Plover Ash was written in the margin as gallery. The poster, up since Last Seed, shows eight Wonderbolts in a wedge over one clean eye. The caption is "One Sky, One Shift." Ash was over Vetch by 04:40 in the sixth slot, the line Carrick filled by crossing out gallery. "They had me down as spare," Ash said. "Spare still has to sit in it."
Her left wing took the north band at minute 36 of the hold. She stayed in the eye until 08:05, when Carrick moved her to the gap and shifted one of the pair onto the 79. The Works injury card, stamped at 09:10, lists the wing as "gallery strain, non-duty." Carrick's card is a fuel slip. It lists a hold on Vetch, wind 79, one flier, minute 36 through minute 241.
By 09:40 Vetch was on the salt towns. Brine Market took 74. Latch Cove took 68. The town boards, which copy the Works' public line, showed Kell at 40. Kell's gauge at the intake read 31.
The Wonderbolt press office sent a wedge through the same gap at 07:20 and called the pass commemorative. Press officer Tansy Pell said the captain's remarks would be issued "once the sky matches the caption." The formation list carried eight names from the poster. Pell, asked who had the eyes while the wedge was in the gap, said the office does not comment on practice gusts.
Relief was posted for 06:00. At 12:00 Carrick had the same eleven in the air. The day crew's new call time, written under the poster, was "after the photograph."
Gale Report, issued from the Canterlot Institute at 10:00, put the last Shoal triple at 41 years and 6 days, peaks 70, 66, and 61, each system named before the second hour. Tuesday's public line from the Works, reissued at 11:15, shows one system, a wind of 40, and a close at 18:00.
Windfall Margin read the night slips at the rail. The day clerk had left at the close. The slips carry 214 hours on Kell, Orry, and Vetch after 18:00.
The chit posted under them reads 0.
Carrick signed the night board closed at 13:40, after the photograph. The day crew had been on the rail since 12:10, cameras up, weights still in stores. Ash's wing stayed on the non-duty card. The Works clinic measured the span at 14:02 and entered 11 degrees short of a full extension. The card kept the words gallery strain.
Mott's afternoon note, posted at 15:00, left Orry as Practice Gust 7 and Vetch as Practice Gust 9. The triple-lane lock stayed shut. The reserve reservoir at the intake read full at 16:00. Brine Market waited on a second horn crew that the rule withholds until three systems are named.
The intake repeater put Vetch at 81 at 14:18. Latch Cove's copy of the public line, refreshed at 15:30, still showed Kell at 40. Windfall Margin read the pay line under the blank chit at 16:20. The line, printed when a pony asks what the eleven were owed for the hold, is 0 bits.
