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himself. Only now did he
realize that what he thought was a stubbly beard on her face was
actually some kind of grime no doubt purposefully placed there as
part of her disguise. “Sleep well, Mr. Greene,” Robinson said
softly. “Sleep well, Robinson,” Jeff replied sleepily. Although the
crew quarters were noisy with the snoring of the men and creaking
of the ship’s timbers, Jeff soon drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 5: A New Day
    Jeff was awakened by the sound of the
crew around him as they stumbled from their bunks and stomped up
the steps to the deck. Robinson’s bunk was empty as she was already
in the galley preparing food for the others. Jeff sat up slowly.
His head was pounding from the excess of the previous night’s rum.
Perhaps Robinson would boil some water from the rain barrel for him
so he could at least partially rehydrate and relieve the
hangover.
    Jeff made his way up the steps and
onto the deck. The sun was just coming up and even though it was
still low in the sky, it was still painfully bright in his eyes.
The crewmen on deck were already engaged in a variety of ship
maintenance activities. One man nearby started working on securing
deck boards by hammering in nails that had worked their way up. The
noise shot through Jeff’s head like a bolt of lightning, so he
quickly moved toward the far end of the deck.
    He noticed a thin cloud of smoke
emanating from below deck and guessed that it was coming from the
galley, so he followed the cloud down some steps and through a
short passageway that opened up into a room with pots and kitchen
implements. Robinson was slicing up and pulling large seeds out of
some sort of tropical fruit or vegetable Jeff did not recognize.
“Good morning, Mr. Greene,” Robinson said with a smile, “I trust
you slept well.”
    “Yes, thank you, Robinson. I don’t
want to interrupt your work, but I was wondering if you might boil
me some water to help my hangover.”
    “The only water we have is the rain
barrel, and I don’t think you want to drink that, even with it
boiled,” Robinson replied.
    “If you’re willing to boil it or at
least allow me access to the stove, I will take my
chances.”
    “Very well, you may collect some water
in that empty rum bottle if you like,” Robinson said nodding toward
a shelf next to him. “The rain barrel is on the aft port side of
the deck.”
    Jeff made his way topside and walked
over to the rain barrel. He now saw why Robinson and the Captain
had recommended against drinking from it. Thick algae covered the
walls of the barrel and a thin layer of what looked like pond scum
floated on the surface of the water. The thought of drinking the
water combined with his pounding head made him more than a little
nauseous, but he decided that disgusting water was better than none
in his current state. He placed the tail of his shirt over the
opening of the bottle to serve as a makeshift filter before dunking
it below the surface. The bottle filled quickly and Jeff returned
to the galley. “Just put it directly in the coals,” Robinson
instructed, nodding towards the brick-lined fire pit. Jeff complied
and the coals hissed as the water on the outside of the bottle made
contact.
    “What’s that you’re preparing?” Jeff
inquired.
    “They call it breadnut. The Captain
likes the seeds for his morning meal. I also make flatbread from
them. It tastes much better than the hardtack.” Robinson turned and
pulled another breadnut from a pot hanging in the fire pit and
water dripped over the coals with a sizzling sound.
    “Wait a minute!” Jeff exclaimed, “If
you don’t have drinking water, what are you cooking the breadnuts
in? For that matter, how did you make the stew last
night?”
    “Well, I’m cooking the breadnuts in
seawater and as to the stew, that was cooked in a combination of
seawater, grog, and coconut water.”
    “So you do have coconuts on board?”
Jeff asked.
    “Of course, we have boxes of them in
the cargo hold,”