|
Joshua Slocum - Sailing Alone Around The World
match it. She never dragged Jones's anchor once on the voyage, and the cable not only stood the strain on
a lee shore, but when towed off Cape Horn helped break combing seas astern that threatened to board
her.
CHAPTER VI
Departure from Rio de Janeiro - The Spray ashore on the sands of Uruguay - A narrow escape
from shipwreck - The boy who found a sloop - The Spray floated but somewhat damaged -
Courtesies from the British consul at Maldonado - A warm greeting at Montevideo - An excursion to
Buenos Aires - Shortening the mast and bowsprit.
On November 28 the Spray sailed from Rio de Janeiro, and first of all ran into a gale of wind,
which tore up things generally along the coast, doing considerable damage to shipping. It was well for
her, perhaps, that she was clear of the land. Coasting along on this part of the voyage, I observed that
while some of the small vessels I fell in with were able to outsail the Spray by day, they fell
astern of her by night. To the Spray day and night were the same; to the others clearly there was a
difference. On one of the very fine days experienced after leaving Rio, the steamship South
Wales spoke the Spray and unsolicited gave the longitude by chronometer as 48 degrees W.,
"as near as I can make it," the captain said. The Spray, with her tin clock, had exactly the same
reckoning. I was feeling at ease in my primitive method of navigation, but it startled me not a little to
find my position by account verified by the ship's chronometer. On December 5 a barkantine hove in
sight, and for several days the two vessels sailed along the coast together. Right here a current was
experienced setting north, making it necessary to hug the shore, with which the Spray became
rather familiar. Here I confess a weakness: I hugged the shore entirely too close. In a word, at daybreak
on the morning of December 11 the Spray ran hard and fast on the beach. This was annoying; but
I soon found that the sloop was in no great danger. The false appearance of the sand-hills under a bright
moon had deceived me, and I lamented now that I had trusted to appearances at all. The sea, though
moderately smooth, still carried a swell which broke with some force on the shore. I managed to launch
my small dory from the deck, and ran out a kedge-anchor and warp; but it was too late to kedge the sloop
off, for the tide was falling and she had already sewed a foot. Then I went about "laying out" the larger
anchor, which was no easy matter, for my only life-boat, the frail dory, when the anchor and cable were
in it, was swamped at once in the surf, the load being too great for her. Then I cut the cable and made two
loads of it instead of one. The anchor, with forty fathoms bent and already buoyed, I now took and
succeeded in getting through the surf; but my dory was leaking fast, and by the time I had rowed far
enough to drop the anchor she was full to the gunwale and sinking. There was not a moment to spare, and
I saw clearly that if I failed now all might be lost. I sprang from the oars to my feet, and lifting the anchor
above my head, threw it clear just as she was turning over. I grasped her gunwale and held on as she
turned bottom up, for I suddenly remembered that I could not swim. Then I tried to right her, but with too
much eagerness, for she rolled clean over, and left me as before, clinging to her gunwale, while my body
was still in the water. Giving a moment to cool reflection, I found that although the wind was blowing
moderately toward the land, the current was carrying me to sea, and that something would have to be
done. Three times I had been under water, in trying to right the dory, and I was just saying, "Now I lay
me," when I was seized by a determination to try yet once more, so that no one of the prophets of evil I
had left behind me could say, "I told you so." Whatever the danger may have been, much or little, I can
truly say that the moment was the most serene of my life.
After righting the dory for the fourth time, I finally succeeded by the utmost care in keeping her upright
|
