Chapter Seventeen: Wednesday, July 19, 0300 hours Summary

Night time was the hardest. Will asks what time it is, interested only in seeing the light from Ian's National Geographic watch. Surprisingly, it still works. He tells the rest of the group that every time he falls asleep, he dreams that he is blind and the light from the watch is comforting. The temperature never goes lower than seventy degrees, but it still feels bone chilling cold after a day on the raft. They try again to find an arrangement where they can all be on the raft, but after being dunked several times in the process, they give up and go back to keeping three riders at a time. There were fins in the water on occasion, but Ian assures them they belong to dolphins. On the second day, thirst set in. Without...