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believed.”
    Sarah frowned. “Do you believe in mermaids?”
    Captain Norm grinned. “If you’d seen some of the things I’ve seen? You’d believe in just about anything.” He stood and headed back to the helm.
    Nacho followed him, holding his Eco-Scout safety manual out in front of him. He asked, “How many personal flotation devices do you have on board? You need to have at least one for each passenger.”
    Captain Norm pointed to the back of the boat, near Sarah and Ahab. “Check the locker there.”
    Nacho went to the back. He wrapped his hand in the bottom of his T-shirt and lifted the creaky lid of the wooden locker. A strong, musty odor wafted out and Nacho made a face. He pulled out a misshapen, drab orange life jacket that was lumpier in some spots than others. He held the strap by two fingers, protected by the bottom of his shirt.
    Sarah said, “That looks a thousand years old.”
    Nacho leaned forward and looked into the locker, and his lips moved silently as he counted. “There’s enough for all of us.”
    â€œDisgusting.” Sarah shook her head. “I’m not wearing one.”
    Her dad said, “You wouldn’t be so picky in an emergency.”
    Sarah shivered. “Can we not talk about it?” She took another sip of ginger tea.
    Nacho set the life jacket on the deck in the bright sun and started pulling out the others. “Maybe airing them out will help.” After he had lined up the six life jackets, he pulled a bottle of hand sanitizer out of his fanny pack and drenched his hands. Then he opened up his manual and paged through. He called to Captain Norm, “Did you file a float plan?”
    Captain Norm nodded.
    Sarah asked, “What’s that?”
    Nacho said, “It tells where you’re going, when you’ll be back. In case something happens, someone will know where to look for you.”
    Sarah looked around and saw nothing but ocean and a few distant islands. “How could anyone find anyone in this?”
    â€œGPS,” replied Nacho. “It’s not as hard as you think as long as you have some coordinates to start with.”
    John asked Captain Norm, “Where exactly are we headed?”
    Captain Norm pointed straight ahead. “There’s a nice private island about a day’s sail from here. I haven’t been there for a while, but I think it’ll be perfect for you all. We’ll anchor and spend three days, then head back.” He glanced up at the cloudless sky. “If this breeze holds through the night, we should make it there about dawn tomorrow.”
    As Sarah looked out onto the endless stretch of water, a large white bird with turquoise feet circled the boat. Sarah stared, noticing the bird’s yellow eyes. “What is that?”
    Captain Norm called out, “Blue-footed booby.”
    Marco laughed.
    Sarah rolled her eyes. “Real mature.”
    â€œIt’s a funny name.” Marco narrowed his eyes at her. “I just meant that there’s no way there’s a bird called that.”
    As they watched, the bird sped like a missile toward the water and dove, surfacing a moment later with a fish in its mouth.
    â€œWhoa!” Nacho whooped. “That was cool.”
    Captain Norm said, “The blue-footed booby’s nostrils are permanently closed because they dive so much. But there’s also the masked booby, the brown booby, and the red-footed booby.” Captain Norm looked at Marco and tilted his head. “See for yourself. There’s a bird book down in the hold.”
    Sarah said, “That would require knowing how to read.” And then she felt a surge of nausea and leaned out over the rail, too busy puking to notice the scathing look that Marco shot her way.

 
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    Marco pushed open the hatch and stomped down the few stairs into the cabin, more to get away from everyone than to look for the stupid book about the