South Seas navigation
On Sunday morning the sky cleared and a soft west wind filled our sails. The Cap Pilar slipped merrily northward – away from the cold, grey, westwind seas – away from the gales and rain and fog – northward toward the edge of the tropics. The wind gained strength; the white caps danced joyously upon the sparkling wavelets; aloft the creamy castles of sail stood stiff and round and full.
Everyone was in the highest spirits. For more than a year we had been voyaging across twenty-thousand miles of sea. Now, at last, we were within a short distance of the islands; at any moment we might see them. Hour by
