Summary

The 11th chapter is titled “Sliding Currents.” Leif believes he has come to understand the current that often pulls the canoe along. He pays attention to the islands only when he is looking for a place to stop for rest and food. He considers that everything else is just random: that nature or Odin or the sea is responsible for their placement. What he does not know is that the islands affect the tide, slowing the flow in some places and rushing it along in others. The tide fills the inlets, but not at the same pace and same time. The “flood tide” happens when the tide rolls in. For a brief time, the water levels are static, “Then the tide fell and the water started to run back out of the inlets” (132). When...