Back to: CBSE Class 11th English Summary
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An Arduous Adventure!
The narrator and his wife had this long dream of sailing around the world. He and his wife Mary, along with their son Jonathan and daughter, Suzanne, set sail from Plymouth, England. The first three years went smoothly.
They sailed on a wavewalker boat that had been professionally built. When the narrator and his family started to sail toward the east, they sought Larry Vigil and Herb Seigler’s help because it was a rough sea.
After they had reached Cape Town, they encountered strong winds. The size of the waves was huge. They were as high as their boat. For the narrator, it was a portend of coming danger when the sea was suddenly calm. They had prepared themselves for any trouble and had their life jackets on.
Suddenly, a wave (very high) appeared and hit them very roughly. According to him, it was a near-death experience, but it was very peaceful in the water. Suddenly, his head popped out of the water. His rib cage cracked. He also had a shattered tooth and blood inside his mouth.
The Damaged Boat
He knew that the ship was slowly getting filled with water, but he did not leave the wheel. Mary (his wife) suddenly appeared and cried that the boat was sinking.
Larry and Herb (two seafarers) were trying their best to get the ship out of that storm, but all in vain. Everything was a mess. The narrator went to the kid’s cabin to check on them. Suzanne had a little bump above her eyes.
The narrator knew that the only way to save the ship and his family was to repair the boat. He went to find some tools and a waterproof canvas. It helped a lot; most of the water coming inside the ship had stopped, though a little bit was still coming inside the boat.
The situation got worse when the handpump malfunctioned. Luckily, they had a spare pump that came in handy at that moment.
Injured Suzanne
The situation had stabilized a little bit, as they were getting no response to their Mayday! Calls. Suzanne’s head was dangerously swollen, and she also had a cut on her arm. She did not tell this her father as she did not want to bother him.
The pumps helped them stabilize the water flow, and upon checking, he found out that the whole of the ship got damaged from below. He had no choice but to reach two islands in the vast sea. One of them was Ile Amsterdam, a French scientific base. The narrator knew that wavewalker would not hold long.
Hope in Despair
They ate their first meal after two days. The weather deteriorated, and the situation was again the same after a couple of hours. The narrator went to comfort the kids as Jonathan asked him if they were all going to die. He also told the narrator that he was not afraid of dying if they all died together.
This response gave the narrator some strength, and he made some countermeasures to fight the oncoming rage of the sea. The narrator and Mary thought that their end was near as they saw more and more water piling up at the boat’s deck.
Ilm Amsterdam
Suzanne came and handed his father (the narrator) a card that had some drawings on it. The narrator figured out the location of that island with a spare compass that did not work correctly.
With his wit and intelligence, he told Larry to steer to 185 degrees with the hope that they would reach the island. He slept that day and woke up at 6 in the evening. It was getting dark, and he thought that the island is gone.
But Jonathan came to him and hugged him. He told the narrator that they had found the island. Suzanne had to undergo six minor surgeries to remove the blood clot. All the inhabitants of the island welcomed them, and they survived.
