would be plain sailing. It was the ideal way to go, if you could
make it. We were in the tail of the southeast trades between 25
and 28 degrees south of the line, and these steady, balmy winds
could be relied upon to take us at least as far as the south of
Madagascar. Then we would soon find the Agulhas current, which
sets from there toward the southeast and around the Cape. Once
around the Cape, the southeast trades of the Atlantic Ocean
would waft us on toward the line, for southerly winds predomi-
nated at that time of the year, right from Cape Agulhas. It was a
flying-fish voyage.

The words of the old shanty

I'm a flying-fish sailor,
Just in from Hong-Kong:
Oh-way-oh, blow the man down!

took for us a new meaning, and the lauded voyages of the shapely
clippers in the old tea trade from China became, in retrospect,
fine-weather romps. Flying-fish sailors, indeed! Our ship was a big
Cape Homer having a rest, and in the southeast trades of the
Indian Ocean was a good place to enjoy it.

Later there blew up a bit of a cyclone, somewhere to the south-
ward of Mauritius, and even that big ship had to fight for her life
for a day or two, while the seas raged mountainous and the wind
screamed. But it was warm, and there was no ice in the footropes.
Apart from that touch of cyclone, we had good weather, there, for
seventy-five days.

The southeast trade of the Indian Ocean seems designed for
the use of big sailing ships. So are the other winds in that great
ocean--the wild westerlies of the far south, the dependable mon-
soons which made possible the sailing commerce of the ancient
East and still bring the fleets of Arab, Indian, and Persian dhows
upon their voyages between the Persian Gulf, India, and Zanzi-
bar. The west winds could blow a square-rigged ship from Good
Hope to Australia in three weeks and less, though the distance

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