CHAPTER III 

 RIDING THE BREAKERS 



BOCA GRANDE'S no place for a canoe!" 

 objected the captain anxiously, as we 

 paddled away, leaving him on the Irene, 

 our cruising craft, which was safely anchored 

 within the Big Pass. 



The wind was strong from the west and 

 breakers were thundering along the outer beach, 

 but the incoming tide was strong, and through 

 the deep channel of the mile-wide pass the 

 smooth waves rolled without breaking. Here 

 and there through the pass appeared patches of 

 spattering water, marking places where shoals 

 of minnows had been driven to the surface by 

 bigger fish. Quickly gathering flocks of peli- 

 cans and gulls attacked the doomed little fish 

 from above, sharks plowed the water beneath, 

 and tarpon leaped among them, while swift and 



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