14 1 N A G U A 



haul were we able to get it down and reefed. 



We saved our sails. The immediate danger was over. We 

 were so exhausted by our efforts we had to sit for a few mo- 

 ments on the deck to recover. Our hands and fingers were torn 

 and burned by the whipping of rope. In all the melee the jib 

 lazy- jacks had chafed through and were flying out from the 

 masthead like pieces of string. Reefing a jib in a storm with 

 the lazy- jacks gone is a nasty job. You must creep out along the 

 footropes, feeling with your heels for the next strand, and 

 hope that the oncoming waves do not wash you from the bow- 

 sprit to which you are holding with all your strength. As the 

 surging water sweeps up and the bowsprit dips you are plunged 

 over your head into icy water only to come up and be buffeted 

 by the wild flapping of the sail. Lazy-jacks hold a sail in an 

 even bundle, but with these gone the canvas becomes a batter- 

 ing ram that thrashes and thunders in the grip of the wind. 



Even with the sails reefed we were not out of danger. We 

 had to continue to beat off the coast, for the wind was coming 

 out of the northeast and we were a bare forty miles from 

 shore. Forty miles is not much in a screaming northeaster that 

 in a few hours could pile one on the beach. Though we would 

 have liked to have hove-to until morning we dared not, but 

 beat on into the dark. 



The hours of the first night passed and morning came, but 

 the storm did not abate. Instead, it increased in intensity and 

 low clouds scudded just above the water. By the hght from 

 the east we could see that the sea was no longer green but a 

 deep indigo, a dull blue that showed in intricate openwork be- 

 tween the froth patches. We were in the Gulf Stream. And, 

 in verification, a yellow, berry-floated strand of sargassum 

 weed drifted by and disappeared in the wake. That was a com- 

 fort. We knew then that we could heave-to and get some rest. 

 We sorely needed it. For we were wet and cold; our fingers 



