The Bright Companion by Edward Llewellyn

Author:Edward Llewellyn [Llewellyn, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780886770075
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Published: 1980-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The Atlantic gave me time to adjust to my new command before testing me. During the next five days we had winds varying from light airs to a fresh southeasterly, and with seas ranging from mild to moderate. My confidence in myself and my ship increased as I learned how to handle her in the easy weather. Names became things, and most worked as the Commodore had told me they would.

On the eleventh morning out of Norfolk the barometer started to fall slowly, and several hours later the wind began to rise. By evening it had reached what I estimated to be a fresh gale, and Ann regarded as a hurricane. The books agreed that the best way for a yacht like Sabrina to weather a gale in the open ocean is to take in all sail, lash the helm, batten down, go below, and wait it out So that is what we did.

I now realize that what I had judged to be a fresh gale was little more than a strong southwesterly with a beam sea, the kind of wind that Sabrina would have relished in her ocean-racing days, and in which any racing skipper would have used all the sail he could carry. But my misjudgment was our good fortune. The wind moderated during the night, and after we had spent it rigid on our bunks waiting for something to happen, we went on deck in the morning to find only a gentle breeze and a heavy swell.

However the barometer was still edging down, and the swell worried Ann. I decided we would eat before we made sail, and during breakfast the wind began to build up again. It continued to increase all through that day, with the clouds coming low, spattering patches of rain white on the dark long waves. By nightfall the waves themselves were breaking into foam-capped mountains, and the spume torn from their crests was driving horizontally across our decks.

The gale we had feared had become real, but because of my earlier caution we were already secured to meet it. I retreated to the saloon where I joined Ann in listening to the rising scream of the wind and the thunder of waves on the decks above.

The combers began to break over us in a regular rhythm. Sabrina staggered under the successive blows from kilos of water and gusting squalls. The saloon light went out, and as neither of us volunteered to search for the break we lay on our bunks in almost complete darkness.

Presently I thought I heard Ann call my name. I clawed my way across the saloon and climbed in beside her, wedging her between the bulkhead and myself. By jamming my back against the bunk-board I was able to hold us both in the bunk against the wild rolling. She seemed as terrified as I, and during the next few hours I was so occupied in trying to comfort her that I forgot much of my own fear. The pandemonium around us prevented speech, so I had to communicate in the language of touch.

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