Lost At Sea

I wonder whether any readers have been "lost at sea". I was, for some anxious moments, twelve years ago. I was on a motorboat with three men, travelling between Maiana and Tarawa atolls in the Pacific, when we spotted the smoke of a trawler. Our skipper turned the motorboat around and chased after the trawler, to exchange greetings. But in the process, we completely lost our bearings. The skipper stopped the boat. All three men stood up -- silent for what seemed an age -- scanning the horizon, and trying to discern where Tarawa lay. Then they all at the same time pointed the same way. The way they found Tarawa was by discerning a (very, very faint) green glow on the underside of the clouds.