The Turn of the Tide

by Rosanne Parry

  “Whoa!” Kai said. “How will we get past that?”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Jet said, “By the time we catch up to it, it’ll be in a wider spot in the river.”

  When they made the turn around the east end of the island and back toward the ocean, Kai could feel the pull the current gave them. It was like a magnet. Even Jet was surprised at how strong it was.

  “Yeah!” she yelled, letting the mainsail all the way out over the port rail to let the Saga run before the wind.

  Kai pulled the jib sail to starboard so they were sailing wing on wing for maximum speed.

  “Yatta!” he shouted, laughing as they sped along faster than they’d ever gone before. Their luck was turning. He knew it. The tide was going out now, and the Viking would have to make the last upstream bit of the race fighting both the current and the tide. Kai felt confidence pouring in. He’d make his father proud. He’d make them all proud.

  “How far to the next treasure?” Jet called.

  “About half a mile,” Kai said.

  They had deep water and plenty of room. They let the Saga run. In no time they gained on the container ship, which was slowing to make a turn. Just off the starboard side was a sailboat about the same size as the Saga.

  “Wait! Who’s that?” Jet called. “Did somebody pass us?”

  “No,” Kai said. “Look. She’s got a blue dolphin on her sail. There’s no Blue Dolphin in the race. Beck and Roland are the only ones close enough to pass us.”

  They both looked upriver in time to see the Viking make the turn around Tenasillahe Island.

  “How did they catch up to us so fast?” Jet shouted, a note of panic in her voice.

  They’d been counting on the tide to slow Beck and Roland down on the upstream side of the race. It was the only hope they had. Already the catamaran was feeling the benefit of the river current.

  “Not over yet,” Kai said, looking at Jet with complete confidence.

  “The current would be faster in deeper water,” she said.

  She swung the tiller toward the shipping channel. They sailed on, Jet with one eye on the container ship ahead and one eye on the Viking closing the gap.

  “Wake!” Kai hollered as the whitecapped V that came off the stern of the ship rocked the Saga side to side. He was leaning forward, searching the way ahead for any scrap of advantage he could find.

  Jet gripped the rail and held the tiller steady. Kai threw a glance over his shoulder. The Viking would be a lot more vulnerable to rough water, with the way it was riding up on one hull in the wind. Would they risk the faster water closer to the ship channel or play it safe in shallower water? Beck was too good a sailor to take a chance he didn’t need to, and it was his boat. But Roland had the stronger personality and a reckless streak. Kai could hear him arguing with Beck.

  It was a foolish mistake to contend with a captain. Kai would never second-guess his cousin, if only because the confidence she gained from his support made her a better sailor every day. He’d been happy to hear the bickering aboard the Viking at the start of the race, when it had looked like it would work to the Saga’s advantage. But now that he thought about the danger of jockeying for leadership in the middle of the race with high winds and a strong current, Kai felt sick at heart.

  He scanned the river for other boats. The race officials were on the far side of Tenasillahe Island, and he hadn’t seen the coast guard since clear back at the Jim Crow Sands. Where was everybody? No, he shook off his doubts. Beck knew the river, and he loved the Viking too much to risk losing her.

  The wind blew so strong it sang in the stays and halyards of the Saga, but there was no competing with the lighter catamaran. It flew past Jet and Kai, riding high on one hull. Roland let out a victory whoop, and Kai could hear Beck laughing as they angled in front of the Saga, leaving Jet and Kai to eat wake.

  “Gambare,” Kai said grimly.

  “WE’RE DOOMED,” JET said. “We can’t outrun them in this.” She hung her head and let the Saga drift a bit closer to the ship channel than she should.

  “We can outthink them in this,” Kai said sharply. “Come on, Jet. You know this river. Where’s that treasure?”

  Kai watched Jet call up a mental picture of the ship channel that she’d drawn out by hand every day for the last month.

  “Welch Island is too swampy,” she said, looking up. “A treasure box there would sink. Tenasillahe has sand. But there are piles, see?” She pointed to the shore of the nearest river island. “They’re submerged now, but we saw them last week when the tide was lower. Right below the osprey nest. Remember? They wouldn’t put the treasure there, either—too dangerous. It’ll be on the beach right before Red Slough.” She pointed to a level stretch of sand.

  “Are you sure?” Kai said.

  They both watched the Viking speed past the spot without changing course. Beck and Roland were busy managing the sail. Neither boy was looking at the GPS.

  “Solid,” Jet said.

  She swung the tiller to bring them in. Kai leaned out over the bow, searching the beach. The Viking sped ahead, but Kai trusted his cousin’s call. The new boat fed Beck’s confidence more than it should. He and Roland were laughing when they should be sailing. Kai remembered his lucky cranes and searched.

  “Treasure!” he shouted, a few minutes later. He banged his palms on the deck like it was a taiko drum. “We’ve got them now!”

  Kai pointed the way, and Jet set a course by his guidance. Kai’s heart was hammering. He knew a way to cut their time on the turnaround, but it would mean he’d have to do the one thing he’d been avoiding the entire summer. In all their sails he’d never actually set foot in the water. He’d wanted to, but something about the way mists gathered over the water every morning made him hesitate. Obā-san had loved ghost stories. And in all her stories, that space where water and sky met was haunted. He didn’t believe in ghosts, not really. But somewhere thousands of miles away, somewhere in this same ocean, his grandparents were lost. It would be like stepping into their graves.

  And yet the treasure was so close! They had this one chance to take the championship. To win it in his father’s boat. He could feel his whole town watching from home. Yes. He had to try, no matter what it cost him in nightmares.

  “Jet!” Kai shouted. “Don’t run her aground. Just bring her in close, and turn her nose back out. I don’t want to lose one second beaching and then shoving off.” Kai crouched in the bow of the boat, eyeing the distance to shore.

  “Kai, wait!”

  “It’s okay. I want to.”

  “But—” Jet looked torn. She would sacrifice the time for him if he asked. She was that kind of a captain.

  “It’s cold,” Jet said. “Really cold. Don’t let it shock you.”

  Kai handed her the jib sheet. “Trust me.”

  “Ten more yards, and you’ll be in three feet of water,” she said.

  She held the course steady.

  “I can see the bottom,” Kai shouted.

  “Now!” Jet yelled.

  Kai jumped. Time froze for a moment as he leapt over the water. The grief he’d pushed away all summer long came roaring out of him like fire. He let out a yell that burned his throat. Jet pulled in the tiller and hauled in the mainsheet to make the turn. Kai thrashed out of the water, freezing even in his wetsuit. He threw open the chest, grabbed a gold token, and ran back to the water just as wind filled the Saga’s sails.

  “Come on!” Jet yelled.

  Kai popped the treasure in his mouth, ran into the water until he was waist deep, and then dove for the stern of the Saga. He closed the distance in a few strokes. He spit the treasure out into the bottom of the sailboat. It rocked dangerously to one side as Kai hauled himself aboard.

  “Got it!” he gasped.

  Water rolled off of him. And grief and fear.

  “You did it!” Jet shouted. She grabbed Kai by the shoulder of his life jacket and pulled him up. “We’re going to win this thing. Look!�
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  The Viking was still charging ahead. Now they’d have to fight the wind and the current to get back upstream to the third treasure.

  Kai shook water from his hair. He moved to his post, took the jib sheet, and waited for his captain’s command. He could feel it. Wind, current, tide, luck—it was all running in their favor.

  A moment later they heard shouting aboard the Viking.

  “I think they finally checked their GPS,” Jet said, grinning like mad. “They’ve got a fight on their hands now.”

  She didn’t take her eyes from their course for a second. They were coming to a narrower spot in the river, and the container ship, the Viking, and that spectator in the Blue Dolphin would have little room to maneuver. Kai was already anticipating the tack the Viking would have to make. He worked out the right-of-way in his head. The rules for how you could pass another sailboat were tricky, and they shifted according to the wind. There was more shouting aboard the Viking, and then they took a completely different turn.

  “What the heck!” Jet hollered. “They can’t do that! It’s against the—”

  “No!” Kai groaned.

  They took a wrong tack. Cut off the Blue Dolphin’s right-of-way. They were on a collision course with the smaller boat. Both boys were looking at the GPS, and nobody was steering.

  “Look out!” Jet yelled at triple her usual volume.

  Fear gripped Kai so he couldn’t speak. Any luck he’d wished for himself he now wished for the Viking and the Blue Dolphin, which was about to get run over. The smaller boat made an abrupt swerve. There was a shriek of terror and the sound of a splash.

  “What was that?” Jet shouted.

  Kai searched the waters ahead. The Viking had finished its turn and was heading upriver toward the third treasure, but the Blue Dolphin’s mainsheet was dragging in the water on the starboard side. There was no one at the tiller.

  “Man overboard!” he yelled.

  “LET’S GO!” KAI shouted. “We could save him!”

  Without a thought for the race, Jet swerved from the course and headed for the drowning man.

  “Do you see him?” she called.

  Kai stood up, a hand on the mast.

  “I don’t.”

  “He’s got to be there somewhere. The other side of the boat?”

  Kai put a foot on each rail to gain some height. He searched for the ring of ripples that would show where the man went in.

  “Come on, where are you?” Jet said to the water. “Nobody just sinks without a fight.”

  “Just get us there,” Kai said. “We’ll find him.”

  Jet closed in on the unmanned Blue Dolphin. It was moving in a slow arc that would take it right in the path of the container ship. Jet heard shouting from the Viking and then a splash. The catamaran turned, and the wind dumped out of its sails. Jet could see Roland at the tiller. Beck was nowhere in sight.

  “Beck!” Jet hollered.

  She stood up to look for him; the tiller slipped out of her hand. The Saga lurched to one side and lost the wind.

  “Steady,” Kai called. “He’s right there.”

  The empty Blue Dolphin continued on its collision course with the container ship, but now Jet could see a bearded man thrashing in the river and Beck swimming toward him. Beck was a strong swimmer, but the drowning man would pull him under in a heartbeat.

  “No!” Jet yelled.

  She looked upriver for the coast guard. Their lifeboat was at the far end of the island, facing the other way. The whistle on her life jacket would never be heard over the container ship’s engines. Jet lit her rescue beacon and clipped it to a life ring. The beacon would ping every coast guard radar for miles. It was Beck’s and the drowning man’s only chance.

  “Kai! Take this and throw it when we get close!”

  Kai grabbed the makeshift life ring and pointed the course for Jet to keep.

  “Can’t that ship see we’re in trouble down here?” Kai said. “They’re not stopping.”

  “Not a chance,” Jet said. “We’re in the ship’s blind spot. Besides, it takes them a mile to stop. And they’ll run aground if they go out of the shipping lane. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.”

  Jet gripped the tiller harder. She wasn’t being careful, and she knew it. The wind was fluky in the shadow of the ship, and the water was rough between the bow and stern wakes.

  “Almost there,” Kai shouted.

  He pointed the way. Jet squinted against the spray and saw nothing but trusted her cousin’s eye. The drowning man’s head bobbed with the swells. He thrashed his arms to keep afloat, and Beck drew steadily closer.

  “Come on, Coasties, where are you?” Jet said under her breath.

  The rescue beacon was flashing its red light. At least Beck and the man overboard were out of the path of the container ship. Jet and Kai had nearly closed the gap when they heard another scream. At first Jet thought it might be a bird, but then it came again, the unmistakable shrill voice of a child.

  “Daaaaaddy!”

  “Oh no, there’s a kid!” Jet shouted. “Where is he?” She scanned the water.

  Kai was still standing on the rails in front of the mast. “I don’t see him.”

  “Check the boat. Is he still in there?” Jet said, fighting to keep the Saga on a steady course.

  “There!” Kai shouted. A little kid cowered in the bottom of the Blue Dolphin, hands gripping the rail, his head just showing over the side.

  “Toss that life ring,” Jet yelled. “Beck can handle it. We’ve got to get that kid!”

  Jet steeled herself to turn the Saga away from the drowning man and straight into the path of the container ship. Her courage plummeted to her toes. What if…What if…No, she told herself, gripping the tiller. Stay the course. Beck’s a strong swimmer. The coast guard’s on the way. If someone was going to catch that kid before 70,000 tons of steel ran him over, it would have to be her and Kai.

  “Ready about!” she called.

  Kai heaved the life ring toward the Beck and the drowning man. Kai hopped off the rails and manned the jib sheet. Once they’d turned in the direction of the rogue sailboat, Kai took the spare boat cushion and some rope and made another life ring.

  Jet held the tiller steady as the Saga hit the bow wake of the container ship. They were nearly even with the front of the ship now. She could hear shouting from the deck, and a moment later the engine noises shifted to a lower drone.

  “They’ve seen us!” Kai shouted. “They’re stopping.”

  “They’ll never stop in time!” Jet said. She squinted in the sunlight as they came out of the shadow of the ship. The Blue Dolphin made a sweeping arc across the river. Jet picked a spot to head it off. She looked back to check on Beck. He was a few feet from the drowning man, pushing the life ring toward him.

  “But if the captain up there buys us a few minutes…” She looked back at the bow of the ship. It towered four stories above them. “Or a bit of sailing room.”

  “Just get me close enough to throw a rope,” Kai said, steady as a rock.

  “I’ll get you there.”

  The wind picked up once they were out of the lee of the ship.

  “Hold on!” Kai called out to the kid in the Blue Dolphin.

  Jet looked over her shoulder and saw the coast guard lifeboat heading toward Beck at top speed. She heaved a sigh of relief. They gained on the Blue Dolphin, close enough to hear the kid inside whimpering.

  “Hold her steady!” Kai called.

  Jet turned a few points north to give Kai a better angle and let the wind spill out of the sails. He heaved the boat cushion. It fell short by a few feet.

  “Try again,” Jet said.

  The container ship came closer. She could see the steel claw of the port-side bow anchor. There was a Moroccan flag and the name GLOBAL PROSPERITY painted on the hull. Jet held steady while Kai tried again. This time the cushion landed in the boat. Kai drew the Blue Dolphin alongside the Saga.

  “Hey!” he ca
lled to the kid. “Are you okay?”

  The boy was kindergarten size. He held the rail with a death grip. Jet gave the tiller a quick look. It was a sailboat’s most vulnerable piece, and it seemed to be in place.

  “Can you sail her alone?” Jet said.

  “I won’t be alone,” Kai said. “I’ve got good crew. I can tell.” He smiled at the boy. “Ready to go get your dad? He’s right there.” Kai pointed across the river. “We’re all going to make it home.”

  “Hurry,” Jet muttered quietly. The Global Prosperity was so close, she could smell the rusted iron of her hull.

  “Hang on,” Kai said. “She’s going to rock when I come aboard.”

  The boy scooted to the mast and wrapped his arms around it. Kai boarded the Blue Dolphin and sat at the tiller.

  “Go, Kai!” Jet said. “Go!” She pushed them off. Kai pulled in the mainsail and swerved out of the path of the container ship.

  Jet scrambled to pull her mainsail over to the port side to catch the wind, but Kai had moved the jib to starboard to get more room to throw the line. Jet opened the tiller extension so she could inch forward to reach the jib sheet and bring the front sail under control.

  The shadow of the Global Prosperity fell over her boat. A shiver rose up her spine. She held the mainsheet in her teeth and snagged the jib sheet with her free hand. She gave the rope a tug to pull the jib sail to the port side, but it was too late.

  The container ship passed her, cutting off the wind. A second later the bow wake rocked the Saga violently and tore the tiller extension from her hand. The boat spun in a tight circle, and by the time Jet had dodged the swinging boom and slid back to the stern to regain the tiller, the sail was flapping wildly and blocking her view. When the Saga struck the side of the container ship a moment later, it made a tiny ping against the vast metal surface, but the force of it was enough to throw Jet forward and strike her head against the thwart.

  “No!” she groaned, pushing herself back into place. She took the tiller, but with no wind there was no way to steer. Worse was the grinding sound of fiberglass against steel. The Saga’s patched hull broke. A split opened up that went the length of the boat. Jet heard it, felt it, like a knife through her own skin. Gurgling water filled the buoyancy space along the starboard side. The Saga dipped toward the ship; the top of the mast clanged against its side.