midnight
Since I had owned the Splash , I had spent all my vacations and holidays , and indeed all my spare time every week day when boating was practicable , on the lake . A spirit of adventure had prompted me to make long trips , and I had sometimes spent half the night in my lonely cruises . The darkness , therefore , was not an obstacle with me to the navigation of those familiar waters . I knew every point , headland , bay , and inlet , at midnight as well as noonday . Lake Adieno , though a fresh-water lake , was not always the smoothest of navigation . Its shores were nearly level land , and there was nothing to shelter it from the blasts when the wind blew ; and , with an uninterrupted reach of twenty miles from east to west , old Boreas had room enough to kick up quite a heavy sea . In a strong north-west or south-west wind , boating on the lake was no child 's play .