Hello TipOfMyTongue, this is my first time posting here and I hope you can help.

I wish I could remember more of what this novel was or when I read it but it suddenly popped into my head as I was reading yesterday. I recall a scene where a ship, I think it's a pirate ship, or at the very least a privateering ship, has to access a lagoon and cave that are on an island surrounded by a dangerous corral reef. They have a specific crewmate strain their eyes as they hang off the front of the ship and shout back headings so that the ship can safely pass through the reef. It's exhausting work and said character is out of commission by the end of it from the strain of having the sun shining off the water so harshly into their eyes.

I wish I could remember more but this is the scene that's just sticking in my brain and I can't get any relevant results on Google.