midday
Erik thought it best , however , to wait until the next day and see if the fog would lift ; but fogs appeared to be the chronic malady of Cape Tchelynskin , and when next morning the sun rose without dissipating it , he gave orders to hoist the anchor . Leaving to the south the Gulf of Taymis -- which is also the name of the great Siberian peninsula of which Cape Tchelynskin forms the extreme point -- the `` Alaska , '' directing her course westward , sailed uninterruptedly during the day and night of the 17th of August . On the eighteenth , at day-break , the fog disappeared at last and the atmosphere was pure and enlivened by the sunshine . By midday they had rounded the point , and immediately descried a distant sail to the south-west . The presence of a sailing-vessel in these unfrequented seas was too extraordinary a phenomenon not to attract special attention . Erik , with his glass in his hand , ascended to the lookout and examined the vessel carefully for a long time . It appeared to lie low in the water , was rigged like a schooner and had a smoke-stack , although he could not perceive any smoke .