They found that the wind had got up, and was blowing steadily off shore, and that they were now distant some five miles from land, the Rock of Gibraltar rising steeply from the sea some ten miles from them in a straight line.
Hawtry at once set the sail again, and the boat was soon slipping fast through the water.
"What a nuisance!" Hawtry said.

"The wind is hauling farther round, and we shall not make into the Rock this tack.

This tub of a boat makes no end of leeway.

We shall have to make right across towards the African shore, and then tack back again." They were, as Hawtry anticipated, fully three miles to leeward of Europa Point, as they passed the Rock.

The wind was now blowing strongly from the west.
"Upon my word," Hawtry said, "I question whether we shall ever be able to make the Rock in this beast of a boat.