Whale Boy by Nicola Davies

Author:Nicola Davies
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RHCP

14

Michael had never been out in such rough seas. His father had always been cautious. If the sky looked wrong, or if there was any report of a storm, he’d stay close to land or haul their boat up the beach at Cat’s Paw and not put out to sea at all. In his eagerness to show the whales to Eugenia, Michael had been careless, and now their lives were in danger.

Eugenia set to constant baling as Michael did his best to steer a course that would take them back towards the shore, where the wind and waves would lessen.

‘How bad is this, Michael?’ Eugenia asked, looking up at him.

‘Bad!’ he replied. ‘But I’ll get us through, I promise.’ He never liked to make promises he couldn’t keep, but he didn’t want her to be scared.

In minutes, the waves had become angry fangs, their tops drooling foam like spittle. The Louisa May was more like a surfboard than a boat. Rain fell, curtain after curtain of it, blue-grey and hissing into the sea. The island disappeared, and the boundary between air and water rubbed to a blur. Water streamed over them, making their clothes stick to their skin, running into their eyes. The wind was racing in from the Atlantic, blowing hard from the north-east. It ripped into them, stealing their heat until their teeth chattered. Michael clamped his hand to the tiller and tried to hold a course.

The compass was in his pocket. He guessed Anse Gabrielle was east-south-east, so that was where he had to aim. The beach lay beneath Morne Pierre, the highest part of the island. This was the most sheltered stretch, the nearest calmer waters. But steering directly for Anse Gabrielle would put the boat parallel to the waves; to avoid this, he had to zigzag to and fro, trying to keep in the right general direction, but feeling that in spite of his efforts the wind was pushing him away from the island.

The waves grew higher, the wind stronger, the sky darker. Rain and waves. Eugenia kept baling without a word of complaint, but water was getting into the outboard too. It began to sputter and misfire. Without an engine to keep her moving forward, the Louisa May would be spun round by the wind and hit with the full force of the waves. They would sink in moments.

It was time to switch to the back-up engine.

‘Eugenia, I need you to steer while I start the other engine.’

For the first time she seemed unsure, but he showed her how to hold the tiller, and she gripped it tight with both hands.

Michael pulled on the cord of the second engine with as much sudden energy as he could. Every nerve focused on the lovely sound of the engine starting up, but the sound did not come. He pulled again, almost bursting with the effort. But the result was the same. Nothing. Nothing. It was dead, completely dead. And then the first engine finally died.

Until the moment when both engines failed, Michael had kept his nerve.

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