The Triangle and The Mountain: A Bermuda Triangle Adventure Read Online Free PDF

and he reckoned with almost complete certainty that he would be alone
on the watch for a minimum of twelve hours. He fervently hoped that his only
crew member would somehow be fit enough in the morning to at least keep a
lookout. He would really have liked to put in four hours of sleep once the sun
was up.
    He turned the wheel and watched the sails fill again with
the wind. In order to increase the chances of Madeleine recovering during the
night, he had decided on a slightly new course and pointed the bow northwards. That
way they were not crossing the large rollers at an angle. It was a gentle lift
and fall and he expected the slower speed of six knots to help as well.  
    He marvelled at the steadiness of the trade wind. No wonder
people liked to come sail in these waters. If the wind stayed like that, he
reckoned that they could see a seven day journey being reduced to five or even
four.
    He realised that Madeleine had disappeared again without him
noticing. He could not keep himself from taking a quick look behind the yacht
for a blonde head bobbing in the waves. There was none. For a moment he
considered whether he should set out a trailing rope with a buoy and its own
beacon at the end. After a particularly robust episode of horseplay on their
way across the South Atlantic they let it out and never pulled it in again
until they had reached St Martin. He decided against it. There was just the two
of them and one tended to stay below while the other knew his way around on
deck. She took his admonitions about the safety harness very seriously anyway.
At least so far.
    It was dinner time. Madeleine was nowhere to be seen when he
stepped into the galley. The gourmet chef was missing on her first assignment. Yesterday,
when he was looking forward to this trip, including well-prepared meals by a
real cook, he had not reckoned with seasickness.
    He decided on a pre-packed beef curry and nothing for her.
She could help herself when she felt like it. He warmed up the curry in a saucepan
on the gas cooker and took the whole pan out with him into the cockpit. Eating straight
from the saucepan meant that there was one less plate to wash. Only two things,
in fact, because he ate it all with a single spoon.  This was perfectly in line
with the unofficial meal code that prevailed on the trip up to St Martin. For
dessert he stood up and took a beer from the fridge. It was delicious.  The
second one no less so. It was simply remarkable how much nicer a good quality
beer tasted after a day of exposure to sun and sea. Especially if it was fully
deserved. It happened to be the perfect sundowner. Yes, he considered the
general rule about how much alcohol the person on the watch was allowed to
consume, which was nothing at all. But the beers were there and somebody had to
drink them.
    The short dusk of the lower latitudes was soon a thing of
the past. A gibbous moon rose and reflected off the glassy swells. He looked up
at the stars. They were so amazingly bright out here, where there were no
lights from a city to interfere with the darkness. He realised that he was
looking for the stars of the southern hemisphere. Where was the Southern Cross?
His searching eyes found it on the horizon.  And then where was the Pole Star? This
was the northern hemisphere after all. It did not take him a long time to
locate it. For somebody from the southern hemisphere this first discovery was a
special moment, almost magical. It was supposed to be on the other side of the
main mast for the course that they were taking and close to the Big Dipper,
which he also identified. He leaned out to the starboard side and found it
hugging the horizon. Every now and then a gentle sea pushed the yacht off
course and he caught a better glimpse of it.  Sailing by the Pole Star. How far
back have people been doing exactly this? He felt a close connection to
generations of seafarers from the earliest dawn of man. What did the vessels
look like that these people used right