midnight
By a stroke of the greatest good fortune , the day was beautifully fine and clear , so that I was able without the slightest difficulty to get every one of my bearings with the most absolute accuracy , and to place my several buoys on the prearranged spots with perfect precision . The work was successfully and most satisfactorily accomplished shortly before noon ; and now all that remained to be done was to affix the different coloured flags to the buoys . But that part would have to be deferred until our ships should actually come into action ; otherwise our sharp-sighted enemies might prematurely catch sight of them , and , guessing their purpose , destroy them . An hour before midnight , launching our own boat , my crew and I pushed out of the cove into Kinchau Bay , in readiness to board the _ Kasanumi _ immediately upon her arrival from the offing . Toward the close of the afternoon the weather had undergone a change , becoming overcast and hazy , with a drizzling rain . The wind , too , had shifted , and , as we pushed out of the cove , was blowing fresh from the westward , knocking up a short , choppy sea that threatened soon to become dangerous to such a small boat as ours . Luckily for us , however , Hiraoka was a bit ahead of time that night , the barometer having warned him that bad weather was brewing , with the result that in little more than half an hour after leaving the cove we made out the dark form of the destroyer , hove-to and waiting for us , within fifty fathoms of our boat .