Wind right from
the south-east, veering and hauling two or three points. We have
experienced in the last two or three days a remarkable succession of
tide lips, coming on every twelve hours, and about an hour before the
passage of the moon over the meridian. We have observed five of these
lips, and with such regularity, that we attribute them to the lunar
influence attracting the water in an opposite direction from the
prevailing current, which is east, at the rate of some two miles per
hour. We had a small gull fly on board of us to-day at the distance of
five hundred miles from the nearest land. The tide lips came up from the
south and travelled north, approaching first with a heavy swell, which
caused us, being broadside on, to roll so violently that we kept the
ship off her course from two to three points to bring the roller more on
the quarter. These rollers would be followed by a confused tumultuous
sea, foaming and fretting in every direction, as if we were among
breakers. We were in fact among breakers, though fortunately with no
bottom near. No boat could have lived in such a cauldron as was produced
by this meeting of the waters. They generally passed us in about three
quarters of an hour, when everything became comparatively smooth again.
No observation to-day for latitude, but by computation we are in
latitude 5.25 N. and longitude (chronometer) 42.19 W. Current east by
north 58 miles.
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