When this had been done, Caspian told the rest to sit down and laid the whole situation before them. When he had finished there was a long silence and some whispering until presently the Master Bowman got to his feet, and said: “What some of us have been wanting to ask for a long time, your Majesty, is how we’re ever to get home when we do turn, whether we turn here or somewhere else. It‘s been west and north.west winds all the way, barring an occasional calm. And if that doesn’t change, I‘d like to know what hopes we have of seeing Narnia again. There’s not muchchance of supplies lasting while we row all that way.
“That‘s landsman’s talk,” said Drinian. “There‘s always a prevailing west wind in these seas all through the late summer, and it always changes after the New Year. We’ll have plenty of wind for sailing westward; more than we shall like, from all accounts.”
“That‘s true, Master,” said an old sailor who was a Galmian by birth. “You get some ugly weather rolling up from the east in January and February. And by your leave, Sire, if I was in command of this ship I’d say to winter here and begin the voyage home in March.”
“What‘d you eat while you were wintering here?” asked Eustace.