The Turn of the Tide by Rosanne Parry

Author:Rosanne Parry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-01-12T05:00:00+00:00

JET SLIPPED AWAY from Kai and her dad and went to stand on the far side of the platform. The morning fog had burned off, but the view was lost on her.

She had seen the compass before. She’d snooped in the chest in Dad’s office last year. The chest held old woolen pilot uniforms, a brass telescope, coins from all over the world, and war medals. But the compass was the prize of them all. As soon as she’d seen it, she’d wanted it. Her cell phone had a compass app. Sure. But this was the real thing! She’d promised it to herself, promised that she’d earn the right to own it.

Across the platform Dad was taking Kai’s picture. Jet felt struck through, as if the future she’d always imagined had run aground. Did he not even think of her as a mariner? Okay, technically she hadn’t told him that she wanted to be a pilot, not since she’d made a dramatic pronouncement at Thanksgiving dinner when she was six.

Dad had laughed and acted like she was being cute. Even when she was little, cute was the last thing Jet wanted to be. She’d gone to her closet that night and thrown away everything pink, including socks and underwear. She promised herself he’d never call her cute again. She joined the swim team and won her weight in medals and trophies. She got books from the library about the weather and the ocean and every sea captain she could find. There was one book about an Irish woman sea captain that she’d loved so much, she stole it from the library and read it until the covers fell off.

All she wanted was for him to understand that she was serious about being a pilot. But maybe it was already too late. Maybe he wanted Kai. Piloting was a heritage business, and not just on the Columbia. It was the same on the Mississippi, in San Francisco Bay, on the Chesapeake, everywhere. Dads handed pilotage on to their sons like they’d done for generations.

Jet kicked at the platform railing. Kai could fix a boat. Fine. But he hadn’t set eyes on the Columbia before this summer. He didn’t know the name of a single navigation marker. If she could just get out there and win the Treasure Island Race. Dad would respect her then. Everybody would.

She knew that course like nobody else. She could win the thing. The Saga could be handled by a single sailor. It would be a challenge to reach the jib sheets from the stern, but Jet was getting taller, she could feel it. She was almost thirteen. Okay, not until September, but she felt thirteen now. Twelve was so tight on her, it itched. She had to persuade him to let her race. She lined up her best arguments. The race was only a month away. She’d need every minute of practice she could get.

Dad was still talking to Kai about the compass. Her great-grandfather’s compass. It just wasn’t right.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.