Post Captain (Aubrey & Maturin, #2)

by Patrick O'Brian

Sometimes at sea you have that feeling of a lee-shore. Dirty weather, close-reefed top-sails, not a sight of the sun, not an observation for days, no idea of where you are to within a hundred miles or so, and at night you feel the loom of the shore under your lee: you can see nothing, but you can almost hear the rocks grinding out your bottom.’