noon
The wind still blew a pleasant breeze from the south-east , and the surface of the ocean offered little more inequality than is usually met on the bosoms of large rivers . The compasses showed a slightly increasing deviation from their old coincidence with the polar star , and no one doubted , any longer , that the fault was in the heavenly body . All this time the vessels were getting to the southward , steering , in fact , west and by south , when they thought they were steering west -- a circumstance that alone prevented Columbus from first reaching the coast of Georgia , or that of the Carolinas , since , had he missed the Bermudas , the current of the Gulf Stream meeting him on his weather bow , he would have infallibly been set well to the northward , as he neared the continent . The night passed as usual , and at noon of the 17th , or at the termination of the nautical day , the fleet had left another long track of ocean between it and the old world . The weeds were disappearing , and with them the tunny fish , which were , in truth , feeding on the products of shoals that mounted several thousands of feet nearer to the surface of the water , than was the case with the general bed of the Atlantic . The vessels usually kept near each other at noon , in order to compare their observations ; but the Pinta , which , like a swift steed , was with difficulty restrained , shot ahead , until the middle of the afternoon , when , as usual , she lay-by for the admiral to close . As the Santa Maria came sweeping on , the elder Pinzon stood , cap in hand , ready to speak her , waiting only for her to come within sound of his voice .