8:30
`` Do n't worry , Professor Aronnax , just keep rowing ! '' the Canadian replied . `` I only need twenty-five minutes to serve you one of my own special creations . '' By 8:30 the Nautilus 's skiff had just run gently aground on a sandy strand , after successfully clearing the ring of coral that surrounds Gueboroa Island . Some Days Ashore STEPPING ASHORE had an exhilarating effect on me . Ned Land tested the soil with his foot , as if he were laying claim to it . Yet it had been only two months since we had become , as Captain Nemo expressed it , `` passengers on the Nautilus , '' in other words , the literal prisoners of its commander .