In this chap­ter, a group of sailors enjoys a day on the water, with Sol attempt­ing to impress her grand­fa­ther, Griff, by con­stant­ly pro­vid­ing food. Griff, who has a his­to­ry of sail­ing dreams, dis­cuss­es his past, includ­ing the extrav­a­gant lifestyle of astro­nauts. As he takes the helm, how­ev­er, he strug­gles to fol­low direc­tions. Ini­tial­ly, he fails to under­stand port and star­board, caus­ing the boat to veer off course mul­ti­ple times, cre­at­ing chaos onboard, with items fly­ing about. Despite Sol’s efforts to help her grand­fa­ther with steer­ing, it’s evi­dent he can­not effec­tive­ly adjust to the chang­ing cir­cum­stances.

As the day pro­gress­es, Griff attempts to demon­strate his knowl­edge of weath­er fore­cast­ing, shar­ing his cre­at­ed almanac filled with future pre­dic­tions, reflect­ing on his con­fi­dence and under­stand­ing of var­i­ous sci­ences. How­ev­er, as the wind picks up and the con­di­tions wors­en, he becomes increas­ing­ly agi­tat­ed and even­tu­al­ly resorts to actions that threat­en the ves­sel’s sta­bil­i­ty. His pan­ic cul­mi­nates in an inci­dent that almost sinks them but is avert­ed when Sol suc­cess­ful­ly man­ages the boat after shut­ting off the intake he opened.

Dur­ing the night, the sit­u­a­tion remains tense. The sailors press on, fac­ing the chal­lenges of rough seas and sleep­ing only fit­ful­ly. The nar­ra­tive hints at Grif­f’s dete­ri­o­rat­ing state, cul­mi­nat­ing in him becom­ing uncon­scious after some dis­tress­ing episodes. As dawn breaks, they dis­cov­er they have arrived at an island, poten­tial­ly offer­ing shel­ter. How­ev­er, their relief is short-lived when they spot a daunt­ing, unfa­mil­iar ship anchored near­by, mark­ing a shift in their jour­ney’s tone.

The chap­ter clos­es with an omi­nous sense of betray­al as the pro­tag­o­nists face a threat from indi­vid­u­als on the ship who seem to be observ­ing their every move. Among them is a man named Tom Skint, rec­og­nized from past encoun­ters, inten­si­fy­ing the feel­ing of dan­ger and fore­shad­ow­ing future con­flict. The descrip­tion of the ship reflects a sense of decay and men­ace, rein­forc­ing their appre­hen­sion as they cau­tious­ly assess their new predica­ment.