Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
iner, was depressed by it and 'resolved then that I would anchor
to avoid the treacherous currents swirling around the craggy shore,
only to find that he had exchanged one potential danger for another:
. . . while the sloop was reaching under short sail, a tremendous
wave, the culmination, it seemed, of many waves, rolled down upon
her in a storm, roaring as it came. I had only a moment to get all sail
down and myself upon the peak halliards, out of danger, when I saw
the mighty crest towering masthead-high above me. The mountain of
water submerged my vessel. She shook in every timber and reeled un-
der the weight of the sea, but rose quickly out of it, and rode grandly
over the rollers that followed. It may have been a minute that from my
hold in the rigging I could see no part of the Spray's hull . . . However,
the incident, which filled me with fear, was only one more test of the
Spray's seaworthiness. It reassured me against rude Cape Horn.
18
Generally speaking, Slocum had timed his arrival well. After the
incident with the freak wave he had a good run as far as Cape Vir-
gins, and slipped easily inside Magellan's Strait.
But this hostile region was not going to let him off scot free. A
storm sprang up that night as he lay at anchor and pummelled
Spray
for thirty hours. But she withstood it and thereafter Slocum enjoyed
a trouble-free passage through the Straits. On 3 March he passed
Cape Pilar, believing that 'the blind Horn's hate' was behind him. He
was wrong. Ahead of him lay what he would later call his greatest
adventure.
Spray
sailed out of the shelter of the land straight into a north-
westerly tempest. There was nothing for it but to take in all sail
and run before the wind under bare poles. Day after day the little
boat was driven back towards Cape Horn. Slocum again changed
his plans: he would make for the Falklands, refit there and cross
