Chapter VI.
When the boys awoke, soon after dawn, a thick fog hid everything except the oyster sloop from their view. The crew of the latter were already on deck, and as soon as the Captain saw that the boys were putting away their blankets, and getting out their breakfast dishes, he invited them to come to breakfast. There is nothing more cheerless than cooking your own breakfast in a cold wet fog, and the young yachtsmen, who were feeling rather tired in consequence of loss of sleep and the excitement of the previous night, were glad to accept the Captain's invitation. Harry, foreseeing that the oystermen's coffee would not be quite suited to his fastidious taste, and also desiring to make some return for the Captain's kindness, asked to be allowed to furnish the breakfast table with coffee made by himself. The oystermen were pleased with the proposal, and Harry, taking the Ghost's coffee-pot to the galley, made what the Captain declared was the "bulliest" coffee he had ever drank.
They sat down to breakfast in the cozy little cabin of the sloop, and the Captain told them all about the oyster fishery. He was on his way to Amityville, where he lived, with a cargo of clams; for during the summer months, when there was no demand for oysters, he loaded his vessel with clams and scallops, which are in season all the year round. He prophesied that the fog would last all day, but assured the boys that by steering due northeast by compass, they would reach the northern shore of the bay, and could then safely pursue their voyage by keeping close to the land, where the deepest water in the Great South Bay is usually found. During the night the tide had ebbed, leaving the sloop aground in the mud, and it would be several hours before she would be afloat again. The boys would have preferred to let the sloop lead the way, and to follow her through the fog, but they did not care to wait until she would be afloat. So bidding their new friends good-by, they hoisted their sails, and with a fair breeze, just strong enough to give their boat steerage-way, they started to cross the bay.
They neither saw nor heard any other boats during the hour that they sailed silently on the course given them by the Captain of the sloop. At first they felt a little nervous, and had a dread of being run down by some big schooner or other craft; but in a little while they began to enjoy the novelty of sailing in a dense fog, and were rather sorry when the Ghost unexpectedly ran her bow against the low shore of the mainland of Long Island.
What to do next was the question. Nobody wanted to spend the day moored to the shore, and waiting for the fog to lift; and as Charley, in consulting the chart, found that the shore-line was very irregular, indented with a succession of long narrow bays separated by low sandy capes, neither he nor his comrades liked the idea of keeping close to it, and thus wasting time in a very uninteresting way. While they were still studying the chart, they heard what was evidently a breakfast bell ringing a little to the west of them.
"That bell must be in Amityville," said Charley, "and we must be close by this little creek that is laid down on the chart. Now let's find that creek, and then we'll know exactly where we are, and can tell what course to steer without following the shore."
"I'll go ashore," said Harry, "and hunt up the creek, and get some eggs, and a loaf of bread. It will be twice as much fun to sail straight ahead through the fog as it would be to keep along shore, just as if the Ghost was a canal-boat."
"I'll go with you," said Joe. "I am getting the cramps sitting still in this boat so long."
The two explorers stepped ashore, and immediately vanished in the fog. Charley and Tom presently heard a dismal exclamation in Joe's unmistakable voice, and in a short time he returned, announcing that the creek was only three or four boat-lengths distant. He was dripping with water, having found the creek by unexpectedly walking into it from off a boat-landing.
"Wet again, boys," he remarked, sadly, as he proceeded to find a dry shirt and trousers. "The next time we go cruising, I'm going to wear a water-proof suit like Captain Boyton's. This is our fourth day out, and I've fallen overboard twice, been rained on once, and walked off a pier once. I wonder how it would do to rub myself all over with oil. Do you think I'd shed water then?"