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.'
