I was a man, a god, and the very elements rendered me allegiance as I bitted them to my will.
The tide was out.

A full hundred yards of soft mud intervened between the boat-wharf and the water.

I pulled up my centreboard, ran full tilt into the mud, took in sail, and, standing in the stern, as I had often done at low tide, I began to shove the skiff with an oar.

It was then that my correlations began to break down.

I lost my balance and pitched head-foremost into the ooze.