At the same instant I thought I detected a spot where the sea was breaking somewhat less madly than elsewhere, and I gave the cutter a strong sheer to starboard, that we might enter the surf at that point, it being my opinion that there lay the deepest water.
I had no hope of escaping, but the instinct of self-preservation asserted itself, as it always will, and prompted me to avail myself of even the slenderest and most doubtful chance in our favour.
The cutter heeled violently down, burying her lee gunwale half-deck high in the seething water, and I thought for a moment that she was going over altogether with us; the foresail jibed with a loud flap, and blew clear and clean out of the bolt-rope, and at the same instant the Water Lily plunged wildly into the boiling surf.
I braced myself for the shock which I expected would instantly follow, accompanied by the crashing in of the poor little craft’s timbers, but she did not touch.
The water tumbled on board forward, aft, everywhere, and Bob and I were frequently standing waist deep; and still the cutter rushed furiously on, all my efforts and energies now being directed to keeping as much as possible in those parts where the sea broke with least violence.
After the first half-minute or so, finding that we did not strike, hope faintly revived within me, especially as the cutter suddenly shot into a belt of unbroken water.
Down this channel we rushed, sheering now to port, now to starboard, as we followed its windings, the water becoming smoother with every fathom we proceeded.
I began to hope that our troubles were coming to an end, when suddenly the channel took a quick bend to windward, and without sail upon the boat it became impossible to follow it.
Selecting, as before, that part where the surf broke least heavily, I was fain therefore once again to let the little Lily drive into the white water, and the next moment we touched, though but lightly.
Another perilous quarter of a mile was run, and then, the air being rather clearer, I saw, some distance ahead, beyond the now much reduced surf, clear water again; but there was an unbroken barrier of foam between us and it, and from its appearance I greatly feared that the reef rose everywhere in that direction dangerously near to the surface.