Landfall

It normally took a burly sailor to turn the handle that let down the anchor but, by using muscles that she never knew she had, Andrea manages it. Then she goes to stock the lifeboat, only to find that - as was standard practice - it has been kept fully provisioned.

Lowering the boat is if anything even harder than lowering the anchor, but eventually she manages it. Unfurling the rope ladder that is kept for such an emergency, she climbs down it into the boat, casts off and starts rowing.

After so much hard exercise, Andrea is almost at the point of collapse by the time she makes landfall and drags the boat up beyond the high water mark. She has blisters on her hands, and her fine clothes are torn and soaked with sweat.

Andrea decides that she has to rest for a while before exploring the island and finding a place to make camp. She lies down on the sandy beach underneath the warm tropical sun. She doesn't know what dangers there may be on the island, so she will need to keep alert.

But in spite of this, she is so tired that she can't help dozing off.

1. By the time she awakes, the sun is setting.
2. She is woken by a crack of thunder and torrential rain. A sudden tropical storm has begun. Great! she thinks. As if things weren't bad enough, now I'm soaked to the skin.

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