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(in a little flat bottom boat furnished with an improvised sail) to inquire whether we needed any help. One of them tomorrow goes to Miami so [[red underline]] I sent my letters for Celine [[/red underline]] thru him as it is possible that we are stuck here for several days.
A calm evening and a quiet night.
Dec 31. Up at day break. 5:30 A.M. preparing ourselves to [[red underline]] float the Cygnet. [[/red underline]] It occurred to me that in as far our kedge anchor slips and as we have little chance of the tide lifting us, (because we got stranded at high water) we may have to resort to [[red underline]] digging away [[/red underline]] 
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[[red underline]] the bank. [[/red underline]] If we are not successful today I shall go to that negro farm and try to induce them by good pay to start digging. I have the whole scheme already planned in my mind.
We started with an excellent breakfast waiting for high water which is due about 8 A.M.  In the meantime I found out that the  [[red underline]] rudder is twisted [[/red underline]] this explains why I had so much trouble in steering and and why the boat did not [[strikethrough]] seem to [[/strikethrough]] obey the rudder   I thought this was due to the current in that narrow channel.
Used our very biggest anchor on the stern and with very long rope started