"Let us put it to the vote.

Shall we make for Bermuda, which is actually nearer, but which is four or five days' from New York, or shall we go straight and take our chance of a fair wind ?" "If you are equally willing to do both, why not let the ladies decide ?" suggested Barker.
"Oh no," broke in the Countess, "it will be much more amusing to vote.
We will write on slips of paper and put them in a bag." "As there are five of you I will not vote," said the Duke, "for we might be three on a side, you know." So they voted, and there were three votes for New York and two for Bermuda.
"New York has it," said the Duke, who counted, "and I am glad, on the whole, for it is Sturleson's advice." Barker had voted for New York, and he wondered who the two could have been who wanted to go to Bermuda.
Probably Miss Skeat and Lady Victoria.

Had the Countess suspected that those two would choose the longer journey and out-vote her, if the decision were left to the ladies?
Meanwhile there had been heavy tramping of feet on the deck, as the men trimmed the sails.

She could only go under double-reefed trysails and fore-staysail for the present, and it was no joke to keep her head up while the reefs were taken in.

It was blowing considerably more than half a gale of wind, and the sea was very heavy.