noon
The captain said that if it had been rough he would not have come out at all . This sounded rather badly for us , because he might give up the search , if a little storm came on . And besides , if he was afraid of high waves in his tug , what chance could those boats have had ? Toward noon , we got into water that was quite smooth , and we could see land on the ocean side of us . I could n't understand this , and went to ask the captain about it . He said it was all right , we were going to take the inside passage , which is formed by the islands that lie along nearly all the coast of Georgia . The strips of sea-water between these islands and the mainland make a smooth and convenient passage for the smaller vessels that sail or steam along this coast .