Shipwreck

Luke worries that the bow of The Phoenix is sinking. The team is focused on pumping out the engine room at the rear of the boat, making the bow dip dangerously into the water. Finally, the engine room is clear of water, and the motor is spread across towels. Lyssa concentrates on drying and reassembling the parts while the others pump out the bow. Will and Luke chat in the cockpit, mulling over whether someone could really be as cruel as Radford or whether there might be a grain of truth in J.J.’s theory about it being a test.

The engine is ready. Luke reminds Lyssa that the captain had said never to start the engine without the blower running. Lyssa points out that they’ll have to improvise since the blower will drain the battery. She passes out oily beach towels and tells them to stand over the hatch and “fan like crazy” (91). Lyssa pushes the starter button. The motor turns over but dies. She tries again and the motor starts. They all cheer, but when Lyssa pushes the throttle, the motor dies again. Lyssa keeps trying as Will and Luke keep fanning, but the motor eventually stops turning over. Lyssa smells gas and thinks the carburetor might be flooded. She tinkers with the motor before saying it’s ready to try again. As she presses the button, the wind snatches Will’s oily towel from his hand, and it lands over the engine hatch. The trapped fumes ignite and an explosion blasts Lyssa, Will, and Luke into the ocean. J.J. and Ian try unsuccessfully to put out the blaze before jumping into the ocean. Charla is knocked off the foremast into the tangled lines, but she clambers back up the mast as the foresail below her catches fire.

Panicked and shocked, Luke paddles to stay above water. He hears Will calling his name but can’t see him. Luke’s arm hits a six-foot piece of The Phoenix’s cabin top, so he pulls himself onto it, frantically calling out for the others. Will answers, and Luke sees him clinging to a plank. Despite his best efforts, Luke cannot move the cabin top toward Will, who is struggling, so Luke throws himself into the ocean and swims toward Will. Luke finally sees Will and grabs him, dragging him back toward the cabin top. Darkness moves in, making it hard for exhausted Luke and Will to find the floating cabin top. Luke is ready to succumb to a voice telling him to quit, but at the last moment, they bump into the cabin top. Luke pushes Will onto it before climbing on, gasping and choking. They hear a voice and see Ian, struggling with a piece of canvas. Luke yells at Ian to drop the sail, but Ian refuses. Will and Luke haul Ian aboard their raft, along with the damaged sail and a rubber rain hat. Will frantically asks about Lyssa, and when Luke asks about Charla, Ian looks toward The Phoenix; as it slides into the ocean, they see a shape dive perfectly off the tip of the foremast into the ocean. Charla swims to them, and Luke briefly jokes that maybe she can tow them home. The light moment fades when the cabin top tips over as Charla climbs on. Realizing that their raft can only hold three people, Luke hangs on to the side of the cabin while the other three sit on top, agreeing to switch every few hours. Calls for Lyssa and J.J. go unanswered.

Charla is in “shark-bait position” (106) the following morning. She wakes up Will to make the switch and notices the lettering on the cabin top. The only three remaining letters of the name “Phoenix” are the NIX. She jokes that they are on the S.S. Nix. As the scorching heat rises, Ian explains why he was determined to hold onto the piece of canvas. He wets the canvas, and they pull it over themselves as protection from the sun. Ian tells them the hat is for collecting rainwater, information he gathered from shows about shipwrecks on the Discovery Channel: “The big difference between who survived and who didn't was thirst and sunburn” (108). The four survivors talk briefly about where they last saw Lyssa and J.J. but quickly fall into somber silence. Will suddenly says, “Aw, Lyss, I knew you’d bust it” (109), lamenting that those were the last words he spoke to his sister, rather than thanking her for rebuilding the engine “on guts alone” (109). He thinks about all the times he wished he was an only child, and swears that if Lyssa is okay, he will never be mean to her again.