“We’ll get it right along now,” said George, “until we can clear that point about a mile ahead there. The Spray does the best she can, but she does throw the water bad in a heavy sea. It isn’t her fault. And there’s one good thing about her; you can’t tip her over. She will stand up till the mast and sail are blown out of her.”
The boys now realized how deceptive wind and water viewed from a distance always are. Gusts of wind that were seen from shore to blacken the water and send the spray flying from the crests of waves, were found now to be of far greater violence than they had supposed. Viewed from the harbour, the waves had not seemed to be of unusual size, but, now that they threw the little yacht about like a toy, they assumed a more terrific aspect.
The wind increased, and the Spray rolled dangerously in the seas.
“She won’t stand this,” said George, at length. “We have got to put the third reef in and do it quick.”
They got the yacht into the wind for a moment, lowered the sail, and tied in a few reef-points; but the yacht would not hold in the wind, and they had to be content with a few knots tied at twice or three times the usual distance.
“We’re blowing offshore at a great rate,” exclaimed George, “but I can’t help it. I can’t hold her up any higher. She won’t stand it.”
“Then we cannot make the point,” said Arthur.
“I am afraid not,” returned George. “I don’t like the prospect of getting out into that bay, either, but I’m afraid we are in for it. I had no idea there was any such a sea running, nor anything like this wind.”
The prospect was, indeed, not encouraging. Across the wide stretch of bay for some eighteen miles the sea was one mass of whitecaps, a tumbling confusion of waves, which already broke aboard the yacht, covering the boys with spray and necessitating the use of bailing-dish and boat-sponge to keep the water from standing in the cockpit.
“We’ve got to get that topping-lift up higher, Arthur,” said George Warren, as the yacht rolled heavily, bringing the boom down dangerously near the waves.