Page:Castaway on the Auckland Isles (IA castawayonauckla01musg).pdf/121

Rh every reason to believe is out of order and is leading us astray, and where we are, or which side of the channel we are on, it will be impossible to ascertain until I can get sights in the morning. Unless we see the land at daylight, this is one of the most awkward positions that ever I remember being placed in. It is quite likely that we are in the vicinity of those ugly dangers, the Traps Reefs; and if the sea is running high and breaking all over, it will be impossible to see them before we should be on the top of them. We are now under double-reefed sails: the little vessel appears to lie-to very well. 9 —When daylight came nothing was in sight, so we continued to lie-to until 8, as the weather was thick and hazy. At 8 we stood to the N.N.W.; wind west. I have just had sights, but they are very indifferent, for the vessel is tossing about and throwing so much water over, and the sea is so rough, that it is impossible to get good ones. However, I find by using an assumed latitude that she is to the eastward of the island, but how far it is difficult to judge, as a few miles in latitude make a great difference; but she is no doubt between 60 and 70 miles from the South Cape. We are now lying-to again, as I consider it prudent to do so until noon, when I can get the true latitude.

We are all very miserable, everything wet, and we can get nothing cooked; for the man whom Captain Cross engaged, who was to have done the cooking, is a sea-sick, lazy, good-for-nothing fellow, and can't or won't do it; and Cross and the other men have to be almost constantly on deck. She is very wet and uneasy, and all this is bad enough, and we all wish the cruise well ended; but still it is pleasure compared with what I suffered on coming up in the boat, and I think now that these sufferings should have deterred me from undertaking the trip again in so small a vessel, if at all. 1 —I got the sun at noon, and find that the vessel is about 60 miles S.S.E. from the East Cape of Stewart Island, which is the nearest land. The compass must have led us nearly three points out of our