Chapter 9 and 10 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 9—The Long Way

Bernard is sailing his boat south of Australia and is again thinking of finding another boat to give word of his position and his progress. He balances this urge with the dangers of approaching near to the island of Tasmania. Bernard has built two little sailboats with messages on them and puts them in the ocean. They are recovered a year later by people onshore. Bernard recalls the days of his youth sailing in the Gulf of Siam. On the junks there would be a mystical old sailor called the Taicong, who could interpret the moon and the wind, and know the coming weather. Later, when Bernard taught sailors to cruise in the Mediterranean Sea, he taught them how to sail without compasses, and tell direction by the tides, the moon and other natural...