midday
When the sky cleared and the sea flattened , it left the big dock amid breathless heat beneath a molten tropical sky . As far as the eye could reach , the castaways saw no signs of life , not a sail , not a smoke , not a gull , not even the ripple of a wave ; nothing but gaudy , motionless markings from one flat horizon to the other , dead traceries that swiftly became uninteresting , then monotonous , then disagreeable , then maddening in the aching eyes of the crew . As much for the mental health of the men as anything else , Leonard worked them steadily . The day 's work was divided into morning and evening watches , because during the midday the iron barge reached a temperature where labor was impossible . During the cooler watches , the men painted desperately to cover the black expanse of the dock with red in order to reflect part of the palpitating heat rays . Through the idle noon periods , the crew lay about on gunny sacks under improvised awnings , with a man posted on the forward bridge as lookout . The colorful mazes of the Sargasso were as irritating as flowered wall paper in a sickroom .