23-05-31 Chapter 61 The next morning I was not too wet and I was feeling strong. I thought this was remarkable considering the strain I was under and how little I had eaten in the last several days. It was a fine day. I decided to try my hand at fishing, for...

23-05-23 Chapter 60 I awoke once during the night. I pushed the canopy aside and looked out. The moon was a sharply defined crescent and the sky was perfectly clear. The stars shone with such fierce, contained brilliance that it seemed absurd to call the nig...

23-05-23 Chapter 59 Alone or not, lost or not, I was thirsty and hungry. I pulled on the rope. There was a slight tension. As soon as I lessened my grip on it, it slid out, and the distance between the lifeboat and the raft increased. So the lifeboat drifted...

23-05-23 Chapter 58 I pulled out the survival manual. Its pages were still wet. I turned them carefully. The manual was written by a British Royal Navy commander. It contained a wealth of practical information on surviving at sea after a shipwreck. It includ...

23-05-23 Chapter 57 It was Richard Parker who calmed me down. It is the irony of this story that the one who scared me witless to start with was the very same who brought me peace, purpose, I dare say even wholeness. He was looking at me intently. After a ti...

23-05-23 Chapter 56 I must say a word about fear. It is lifes only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest sp...

23-05-23 Chapter 55 Dawn came and matters were worse for it. Because now, emerging from the darkness, I could see what before I had only felt, the great curtains of rain crashing down on me from towering heights and the waves that threw a path over me and tr...

23-05-23 Chapter 54 It rained all night. I had a horrible, sleepless time of it. It was noisy. On the rain catcher the rain made a drumming sound, and around me, coming from the darkness beyond, it made a hissing sound, as if I were at the centre of a great...

23-05-23 Chapter 53 I slept all morning. I was roused by anxiety. That tide of food, water and rest that flowed through my weakened system, bringing me a new lease on life, also brought me the strength to see how desperate my situation was. I awoke to the re...

23-05-23 Chapter 52 After a thorough investigation, I made a complete list: - 192 tablets of anti-seasickness medicine - 124 tin cans of fresh water, each containing 500 millilitres, so 62 litres in all - 32 plastic vomit bags - 31 cartons of emergency ratio...