three o'clock
Why , inside of half an hour I 'm steppin ' out brisk with my chin up , breathin ' in great chunks of salt air and meetin ' that heave of the deck as natural as if I 'd walked on rubber pavements all my life . After that , whenever I got to havin ' any of them up and down sensations in the plumbin ' department , I dashed for the open air and walked it down . Lucky I could , too ; for about Friday afternoon we ran into some weather that was the real thing . It had been cloudy most of the mornin ' , with the wind makin ' up , and around three o'clock there was whitecaps as far as you could see . Nothin ' monotonous or reg ` lar about the motion of the _ Agnes _ then . She 'd lift up on one of them big waves like she was stretchin ' her neck to see over the top ; then , as it rolled under her , she 'd tip to one side until it looked like she was tryin ' to spill us , and she 'd slide down into a soapsudsy hollow until she met a solid wall of green water . `` This is what we generally get off Hatteras , '' says Vee , who has shown up in a green oiled silk outfit and has joined me in a sheltered spot under the bridge .