Midian, Whisper, and Seria all quickly move down to the stern Ballista and aid the sailor in loading the weapon. With two people turning the crank, another loading, and the fourth making aim corrections, you are able to rearm the weapon within a few seconds. The second shot tears through the rigging of the pirate ship.
The pirate ship brings their own weapon to bear and fire. The bolt strikes the upper hull near the bow of the ship and splinters two planks. Luckily it is above the water line and the only water entering the ship at the moment is from the swells.
Meanwhile Johan works with the sailors to adjust the rigging. He frees up one of the sailors to prep the forward ballista for when the pirate ship overtakes your ship. Their ship continues to close on you while the second ship hangs back a bit, remaining just out of ballista range. The captain shouts a warning that soon your the ship will be within bow range of the first pirate ship. You can see several pirates gathering near the bow of their ship with bows in hand.
OOC - If you want to take over firing the ballista, here's the formula to roll: BAB+int. I'm removing the usual -4 to hit since you have help aiming and it's mounted in one spot. Normally it is just BAB-4 for medium creatures. You can then use the weapon to aim at specific targets, such as creatures or parts of the ship. If the sailor keeps firing I'll roll randomly to see what he shot at that round.