Read The Great Wide Sea for Free Online Page A

crackled through my body as an island appeared dead ahead. I could see its silhouette clearly—a gentle hill with two trees on top. We were much too close. A thin, white line divided it from the sea. That was a beach—or—I sat down. I held my head in my hands. It wasn’t an island. It was a cloud. It wasn’t a beach. It was the faint glow of the rising sun on the horizon just below the cloud.
    When I lifted my head, the island was slowly changing. The thin, white line wasn’t quite as thin, and the trees were slowly drifting away. Overhead, the stars were disappearing as the curve of our sails solidified to gray against the paling sky. Then far ahead of us, I saw the tiny ghost of another sailboat making its way to Bimini too.
    My cheeks felt hollow, my skin dirty, and my stomach empty. I lay back on the cushions as the wind grew lighter and lighter. I looked out to the horizon, a place you never get to, and I closed my eyes against the hot pink ball of the new sun.

CHAPTER NINE
    â€œWAKE UP!”
    I sat up straight. Dad was standing in the companionway.
    â€œI wasn’t sleeping.”
    Dad jerked himself into the cockpit. He motioned me aside. “When did the wind die?’
    I saw the sails hanging loose in the dead air. “Just now,” I said.
    â€œWhat’s our speed been?”
    â€œI’m not sure.” I paused. “The wind’s been getting lighter for a while.”
    â€œSince when?”
    â€œSince the sun started coming up.”
    â€œHow long ago was that?”
    I didn’t answer.
    â€œBen, how are we going to calculate where we are if we don’t know how fast we’ve been going? Do you want to ram into a marker or run up on a reef?”
    I snatched off the safety harness. “It hasn’t been long.”
    â€œTime passes quickly when you’re sleeping.”
    â€œI wasn’t asleep.” I threw the safety harness down.
    â€œPick it up,” Dad said. “Put it where it belongs, then take down the sails. We’ll have to motor the rest of the way.”
    â€œIt’s not my fault the wind died.”
    â€œDo what I said. Then keep a lookout for Bimini.”
    I followed his orders, then stomped to the bow, where I saw a dark streak growing on the horizon. Hours of sailing in the dark with no land in sight, and then there was an island. We’d found it after all.
    â€œBimini,” I shouted to Dad, and he nodded.
    I sat down forward of the mast, feeling the deck vibrate with the engine and watching the streak shifting shape every few minutes as we grew closer. When it had separated into two islands just like it was supposed to—North and South Bimini—Dylan and Gerry finally got up and joined me.
    â€œI’m hungry,” Gerry said as he sat down beside me.
    â€œWe have to wait,” I said.
    â€œBen!” It was Dad’s voice. “The engine.”
    I looked back and realized we weren’t vibrating anymore and the world was quiet. The engine had stopped. I left Dylan and Gerry keeping watch and climbed down below. There was air in the fuel line. I didn’t need the book to handle that one. You just loosen the bleed screw and pump until you get fuel coming clean. It takes time, though. By the time I climbed out of the engine compartment, Gerry was eating a breakfast bar quietly in the cabin and Dad had had Dylan raise the sails again.
    â€œThe wind came back up,” Dad said. “We can shut down the engine.”
    â€œBut I just got it going.”
    â€œWe don’t need it. Shut it down.”
    I did what he said, then sat in the cockpit with my arms crossed over my chest. I clenched my jaw. A slow pound started in my head. The island developed trees and buildings and a beach. When Gerry climbed back out into the cockpit, Dad started yelling at us to help him spot the markers. We squeezed between two sandbars, heading north to the harbor while Dad kept