They floated in the water and lay on the ice, where they had been cast by the waves.

The petrels and skua- gulls were swooping down and picking them up like sardines off toast.
We made our way through the lanes till at noon we were suddenly spewed out of the pack into the open ocean.

Dark blue and sapphire green ran the seas.

Our sails were soon up, and with a fair wind we moved over the waves like three Viking ships on the quest of a lost Atlantis.
With the sheet well out and the sun shining bright above, we enjoyed for a few hours a sense of the freedom and magic of the sea, compensating us for pain and trouble in the days that had passed.

At last we were free from the ice, in water that our boats could navigate.
Thoughts of home, stifled by the deadening weight of anxious days and nights, came to birth once more, and the difficulties that had still to be overcome dwindled in fancy almost to nothing.
During the afternoon we had to take a second reef in the sails, for the wind freshened and the deeply laden boats were shipping much water and steering badly in the rising sea.