Perhaps the "Albatross" would be able to remain in the neighborhood until she was again fit to work to windward.
The maneuver was instantly executed.

If a passing ship had sighted the aerial machine as she sunk through the air, with her electric lights in full blaze, with what terror would she have been seized! When the "Albatross" was a few hundred feet from the waves she stopped.

Unfortunately Robur found that the breeze was stronger here than above, and the aeronef drifted off more rapidly.

He risked being blown a long, way off to the northeast, and that would delay his return to Pitt Island.

In short, after several experiments, he found it better to keep his ship well up in the air, and the "Albatross" went aloft to about ten thousand feet.