First CruiseIn the morning there was a fresh breeze from the NW. A wind in this direction soon empties the river. At night we had 18 feet under our stern, in the morning only 13. From this cause, independently of intending to sail in the course of the day, it was advisable to move our anchorage.
The instant we had tripped our anchor the wind drifted us within a few yards of the buoy which marks the old wreck. Then is the time to watch sailors working: one foul rope & we should have been on shore. The sailors in the city were saying, ‘A dios Barca Inglese, A Dios’. A merchant ship certainly would have had no chance of escaping: but with our body of men it is the work of a second to set sail & get way on the ship. This has been for me the first specimen of working off a lee-shore with a stiff breeze blowing.
During the morning we tacked about, waiting for the weather to moderate & at last again anchored. In the afternoon we sent on board the Packet some parcels &c & my box of specimens, & the boats returning from shore, we made sail. A fine breeze carried us 40 miles from the Mount, where we anchored for the night. In such shoal water as in the Plata the sea is very short; I have never seen so much spray break over the Beagle & I have not often felt a more disagreeable sensation in my stomach.
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[Image - Clawing off a Lee Shore]
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