Captain Josip Marek brought the Havenport alongside Berth 7 at 6:34 AM on Friday, in light rain and a following tide. The vessel had been twenty-four days out of Thessara via the Cape of Sarenne — a passage that, before the Kaelmar closure, takes eleven.

“The Sarenne is not a shortcut,” Captain Marek said, standing on the quarterdeck while his crew secured the mooring lines. “It is a long way around a problem that should not exist.”

Marek, fifty-three, has been at sea since he was nineteen. He has commanded the Havenport for seven years out of Port Caravel. This was his second Sarenne passage since the crisis began, and he hopes it will be his last. “We hear there may be an agreement,” he said. “If so, I should very much like to use the strait again. My crew would prefer it. The ship would prefer it.”

The Cargo

The Havenport carries approximately two hundred and twenty pounds of mixed eastern spice across sixteen varieties, including thirty-eight pounds of velveroot, forty-two pounds of black cardamom, twenty-six pounds of saffron bark, and eighteen pounds of golden peppervine. The consignment is the largest single delivery since the crisis began on 15 February — larger even than the Fernleigh Cross cargo that arrived on 6 March.

With the Havenport’s delivery, combined city reserves now stand at approximately 1,020 pounds across all varieties — the first time reserves have exceeded one thousand pounds in five weeks. Velveroot stocks, which were exhausted citywide in late February, now stand at roughly ninety-six pounds.

“We are no longer counting in days,” said Haroun Nazari, chairman of the Spice Crisis Committee. “We are counting in weeks. That is progress.”

Markets Respond

The Eastern Spice Index fell to 304 on Friday — the tenth consecutive daily decline and the lowest reading since 7 February, before the crisis began. Pre-crisis, the index sat at approximately 295. The gap is closing.

Copper, meanwhile, slipped to 812 florins per tonne on the Bramblegate Exchange — the twelfth consecutive decline, though the pace of the falls is moderating. The market, analysts say, has largely absorbed the Kaelmar agreement in principle and is now watching the technical annexes.

“The strait is not open,” cautioned Clement Varga of Fernwich Trading House. “An agreement in principle is a set of intentions. An insurance schedule is a set of prices. Until Caspar Helmsley starts writing policies again, the Cape of Sarenne remains the route.”

Helmsley, the senior underwriter at Tidewater Mutual, declined to comment on Friday but has not written a new Kaelmar-route policy since 12 February.

The Last Sarenne Ship?

If the Transit Corridor Framework is signed following the fifth session on Thursday, the first commercial transits through the strait could begin within two to three weeks. The Stellara, a bulk cargo vessel carrying a large velveroot consignment, is expected in Bobington by the weekend — possibly the last major Sarenne-rerouted delivery.

The Sarenne rerouting has cost the Bobington merchant fleet an estimated 2.1 million florins in additional fuel, insurance, and crew costs over the past month. Fourteen vessels have taken the longer route. If the strait reopens on schedule, the rerouting could end by early April.

Captain Marek, who was heading below for his first meal on solid ground in twenty-four days, paused at the gangway.

“A good port,” he said, looking across the harbour at the morning traffic. “I have been here many times through the strait. Eleven days. Eleven days is the correct distance between Thessara and Bobington.” He smiled. “Twenty-four is a conversation that goes on too long.”

The emergency pricing ordinance petition remains with the Commerce Committee, unscheduled. Six non-Guild merchants continue to sell above the 250 per cent cap. The committee has signalled it will review the petition “in light of improving supply conditions.”