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A bar stretches across the mouth of the harbor , with water enough to float common vessels , but , being low in the water , and having kept well to leeward , as we were bound to the southward , we had stuck fast , while the California , being light , had floated over . " Upon the whole , we were perfectly satisfied that the Alert might hold up her head with a ship twice as smart as she . Before stowing the hides , as I have said , the ballast is levelled off , just above the keelson , and then loose dunnage placed upon it , on which the hides rest . The ship being now ready , we covered the bottom of the hold over , fore and aft , with dried brush for dunnage , and having levelled everything away , we were ready to take in our cargo . Our crew was somewhat diminished ; for a man and a boy had gone in the Pilgrim ; another was second mate of the Ayacucho ; and a third , the oldest man of the crew , had broken down under the hard work and constant exposure on the coast , and , having had a stroke of the palsy , was left behind at the hide-house under the charge of Captain Arthur . " We were half in the rigging before the order came , and never since we left Boston were the gaskets off the yards , and the rigging overhauled , in a shorter time . Our rigging was all examined and overhauled , and mended , or replaced with new , where it was necessary : new and strong bobstays fitted in the place of the chain ones , which were worn out ; the spritsail yard and martingale guys and back-ropes set well taught ; bran new fore and main braces rove ; top-gallant sheets , and wheel-ropes , made of green hide , laid up in the form of rope , were stretched and fitted ; and new top-sail clewlines , etc ., rove ; new fore-topmast back-stays fitted ; and other preparations made , in good season , that the ropes might have time to stretch and become limber before we got into cold weather .