334 THE VOYAGE OF THE ' FRAJM " 



course we lay close-hauled on one tack or the other for 

 about two-thirds of the way. For only three days out 

 of three months did we have a real west mnd, a wind 

 which, with south-westerly and north-westerly winds, 

 I had reckoned on having for 75 per cent, of the trip 

 from Buenos Aires to about the longitude of Tasmania. 



In my enthusiasm over the west wind in question, 

 I went so far as to write in my diary at 2 a.m. on 

 IX'ovember 11: " There is a gale from the west, and we 

 are making nine knots with foresail and topsail. The sea 

 is pretty high and breaking on both sides of the vessel, 

 so that everything about us is a mass of spray. In spite 

 of this, not a drop of water comes on deck, and it is so 

 dry that the watch are going about in clogs. For my 

 part I am wearing felt slippers, which will not stand 

 wet. Sea-boots and oilskins hang ready in the chart- 

 house, in case it should rain. On a watch like to-night, 

 when the moon is kind enough to shine, everyone on 

 deck is in the best of humours, whistling, chattering, 

 and singing. Somebody comes up with the remark that 

 ' She took that sea finely,' or 'Now she's flying properly.' 

 ' Fine ' is almost too feeble an expression ; one ought 

 to say ' lightly and elegantly ' when speaking of the 

 Frmn. . . . What more can one wish?" etc. 



But whatever time Adam may have spent in Paradise, 

 we were not there more than three days, and then the 

 same wretched state of things began again. What I 

 wrote when there was a head wind or calm, I should be 



