noon
There was I know not what of romantic interest in our peculiar situation . A hurricane would soon have drowned us all ; but the wind blew fair and steady . The prospect around us was unvarying , but one of which the eye could not soon grow weary . At noon , when the sun , vertical in that latitude , poured down his irradiation from the zenith , he appeared like a glorious ornament in the centre of the canopy of the heavens , from which they descended in a uniform arch of unclouded blue until they rested on the farthest edge of the waste of water , over whose billows our little bark was gallantly bounding , and which , wherever the eye was turned , seemed to stretch ` Far into silent regions , blue and pale . ' One cloud there was which rested on my mind . All seemed to regard me with confidence -- to look on me for direction ; but I had no confidence in myself . Unaided by compass or nautical science , we were steering almost at random , vaguely guessing at a south-westerly course , from the position of the rising and setting sun .