Chapter 8, Among Polynesians Summary and Analysis

The crew inspects its tiny island, which is two hundred yards wide with the highest point only six feet above the lagoon. They find an old, unpainted wooden cross, an old shipwreck and see another island in the distance. Erik collects an armful of hermit crabs, and Knut builds a fire to cook them. Everybody still has their sea legs and stumble around on the solid earth.

The crew drags the big square sail ashore and set up a shelter bordered by flowering bushes on three sides and looking out over the lagoon. They sleep well on mattresses made of palm fronds and wake to find rainwater held in the sail, which Bengt stores away, then goes to the beach and catches fish by chasing them into channels he makes in the sand. The radio men go...