about midday
We have plenty of provisions for a month , and will get more water than we want every night as long as we are in this cursed rainy belt . What we do want is wind . This breeze has no heart in it , and it looks like a calm before noon , or else it will haul round to the wrong quarter . '' His former surmise proved correct , for about midday the boat was becalmed on an oily , steamy sea under a fierce , brazen sun . This lasted for the remainder of the day , and then was followed by the usual squally night . And so for three days they sailed , making but little progress during the daytime , for the wind was light and baffling , but doing much better at night . On the evening of the third day they sighted the northernmost islet of Pikirami lagoon , and stood by under its lee till daylight , little dreaming that those whose life-blood they would so eagerly have shed were sleeping calmly and peacefully in the native village fifteen miles away .