Having made a raft from wood taken from the giant mushroom forest,
with rigging consisting of a mast made of two staves lashed
together, a yard made of a third, and a sail borrowed from their
stock of rugs, they set sail from the harbour - Port Grauben,
named after Axel's fiancee. With a north-westerly wind propelling
them along at about three miles an hour, silvery beams of light,
reflected here and there by drops of spray, produced luminous
points in the eddy created by the raft. Soon all land was lost to
view. Five days out to sea, they witnessed a terrifying battle
between two sea monsters. One having the snout of a porpoise, the
head of a lizard, and teeth of a crocodile - an Ichthyosaurus. And
the other, the mortal enemy of the first, a serpent with a
turtle's shell, the Plesiosaurus.
