I THE WINDGATE 37 



mistrust working the sheet as a means of standing 

 up to puffs; they leave it fast, letting fly in 

 emergency; but working the sheet, carefully done 

 with gear that runs free, should be as safe, and 

 prove quite as speedy, as luffing. A very sporting 

 race might be sailed over a squally course by two 

 boats, one of which agreed to luff up to squalls, 

 leaving the sheet fast; the other to 'saw' its 

 sheet and hold its course. In few places, however, 

 do squalls blow true enough for such a match. 

 Squalls are as various as the clouds and almost as 

 beautiful. They are Indeed clouds — water-clouds, 

 owing their forms as much to the wind as the 

 clouds in the sky do. 



At Steep Head the highest of the cliffs bulges 

 out Into the sea and ends abruptly. On the west 

 side the cliff slopes gently downwards to Refuge 

 Cove. To the east Is a gap called the Windgate. 

 Steep Head stands In the path of the winds escap- 

 ing from the inland hills and valleys. Air-eddies 

 rush around it In all directions, so much so that, 

 rowing beneath It with the wind northerly, it Is 

 sometimes hardly possible to make way against 

 easterly puffs, and In sailing there with the wind 

 north-east the boat may have to be put round 

 to face a westerly squall. When the wind Is 



