It went over suddenly, burying its gunwale level with the sea and shipping a bucketful or so of water.

I was opening a can of tongue at the moment, and I sprang to the sheet and cast it off just in time.

The sail flapped and fluttered, and the boat paid off.

A few minutes of regulating sufficed to put it on its course again, when I returned to the preparation of breakfast.
"It does very well, it seems, though I am not versed in things nautical," she said, nodding her head with grave approval at my steering contrivance.
"But it will serve only when we are sailing by the wind," I explained.
"When running more freely, with the wind astern abeam, or on the quarter, it will be necessary for me to steer." "I must say I don't understand your technicalities," she said, "but I do your conclusion, and I don't like it.

You cannot steer night and day and for ever.