"What are we going to do with the Spindrift when we get her back to Wootton, sir?" asked Findlay.
"Find a suitable spar, use the old fittings and make a new mast," replied Mr. Graham.
"I don't mean that exactly, sir," continued Jock. "Do you intend to keep her there or sail her back to the East Coast?"
"That is a matter for all of you to decide," said the Scoutmaster. "Personally, I think she draws too much water for the Essex estuaries. That would limit us to the deeper channels. Here, on the South Coast, are plenty of harbours capable of taking her at any state of the tide, and it would take two seasons to explore the Solent, Portsmouth, Langston, and Chichester Harbours, to say nothing of Poole Harbour."
"I vote we keep her on the South Coast, sir," suggested Desmond. "It's a new cruising ground, and we can get six weeks every summer. We still have our cutter at Southend to go afloat in during the week-ends."
To this the others agreed.
"That settles it, then," added Mr. Graham. "We can go into details later. What's that on your starboard bow?"
The lads looked in the direction indicated. Just above the horizon was a faint, triangular-shaped patch of white.
"Looks like a sail, sir," said Coles.
"Six hundred feet in height, eh?" exclaimed the Scoutmaster. "No, it's not a sail, Coles, it's the chalk cliff at the western end of the Isle of Wight, sixteen miles away."