Page:Small-boat sailing; an explanation of the management of small yachts, half-decked and open sailing-boats of various rigs; sailing on sea and on river; cruising, etc (IA smallboatsailing01knig).pdf/287

 of her my baggage and provisions for the voyage—biscuits, tinned meats, coffee, and whisky, and some goat-skins full of water—and in the afternoon the dhow dropped two miles down the reef-bound channel in order to take on board some sand from the banks as ballast, for she carried no cargo. It was arranged that I should pull off to the vessel in a shore boat at night, and that we should sail as soon as the tide served. I had been informed that another dhow, with a correspondent on board (not one of my companions on the ride from Berber, but another who had recently arrived from Cairo), had sailed that morning for Massowah, and that the said correspondent had determined to get there before me. But my skipper was proud of his vessel, and was keen to prove her qualities in a race. 'I know that they intend to do their best on the other dhow,' he said; 'but I will guarantee that, despite their long start, we will be the first to reach Massowah.'

At midnight I got a boat to take me off to the dhow. It was now blowing a full gale from the north, the sky was overcast, and it was very dark. The skipper did not like the look of the weather, and told me that he would not venture to navigate his craft on such a night among the intricate coral reefs which lie outside Suakin; and after glancing at a chart which I had brought with me, I had to acknowledge that he was right. The steamer Southend, on which my four colleagues had taken passage, was to have sailed that afternoon for Suez, but had