Trustee From the Toolroom Read Online Free PDF Page A

one.'
    'That's for Tahiti?'
    He nodded.
    'I don't suppose the compass will work,' she said. 'It's probably got rusty and stuck up, we've been on this one for so long.'
    He smiled. 'Like me to get breakfast?'
    'No, you come and take her. I'll get breakfast. After that we'll have to mend that spinnaker.'
    He nodded. 'We'll be bringing the wind more aft when we change course.'
    All morning they worked on the spinnaker together in the cockpit. It was finished before the noon sight had to be taken but they did not set it, for the wind was still well on the quarter. The noon sight confirmed their position, for what that was worth, but when they went to check it with the reading of the log they found the line trailing idly; the rotator had been taken by a fish. They had left England with a dozen spare rotators and were now reduced to three; they fitted one of these last ones and started to get dinner.
    They slept in turns all afternoon in overcast, rainy weather without much wind; in the hot humidity they paid little attention to getting wet at the helm save -to wear a hat to keep the rain out of their eyes. The overcast sky prevented an evening sight. John stood for a while at the chart table weighing the doubtful evidence of the noon sight and of the log, the more certain evidence of the morning sight, which did not give much indication of the latitude, the landfall that they had made the day before at Pinaki. Eight o'clock, he thought, would be a convenient time for the change of course when Jo took over for the first watch; if the wind held as it was they would take in the main and the jib then and set the spinnakers. They should be far enough by that time to make the turn, but he was very conscious of the massed coral islands of the Tuamotus over the horizon to the north. He didn't want to get mixed up with that lot.
    They followed on this plan, and started to change sails at half past seven, the wind still moderate from the east-south-east. By eight o'clock they had her settled under the twin spinnakers on the new course. ' I think this deserves a drink,' he said. At sea they drank little alcohol.
    She smiled. 'Whisky and lime juice for me. The compass seems to be working, anyway.'
    They had the sheets of the spinnakers rigged to the tiller and the ship would steer herself before the wind without attention. They watched her for a few minutes, and then went down into the cabin and sat with their drinks in the light of the oil lamp. 'What are the hazards, John?' she asked.
    He pulled the chart over and showed it to her. 'Ahunui,' he said. He showed her the island. ' Should be about twenty miles to the north, and abeam about three in the morning. We-probably shan't see it. After that there's nothing much until Tahiti.'
    They finished their drinks and put their heads out on deck at the companion; the ship was sailing easily on course in a gentle breeze and a long swell, the tiller moving now and then to the pull of the sheets. In those waters there was little chance of meeting any other ship and they sailed without lights as one chore less to do. They went below together and slept intermittently, one or other being up on deck every hour or so.
    All next day they sailed on placidly under the twin spinnakers, and the next night. The massed chain of islands constituting the Tuamotus now lay a hundred miles to the north of them; there was nothing in their path before Tahiti and they were making good about ninety sea miles each day. Rain squalls came occasionally without much strength in them. The barometer, which John watched unobtrusively but closely, pursued its regular diurnal variation according to the book. They began to make plans for cleaning the ship up, including themselves, before entering the harbour of Papeete.
    Jo had been reading the sailing directions for entering the port. 'We can lie alongside there, at the Quai du Commerce,' she said. ' It's going to be good for getting the stores in, but we'll have to get everything