Kaori sat on the stairs, holding her head in her hands. After all that, and they were still screwed. Truly and completely. They had no idea where they were, no land on the horizon, and the ship was dead. Even the helm’s wheel was locked in place. And that container ship that passed them as they lounged about? It had probably been their one and only chance for a rescue!

  It just was too much. A tear rolled down her cheek.

  Ma?l lifted her and placed her on his lap. He held her against his chest, gently stroking her hair as tears streamed down her cheeks. He didn’t speak. After a long, silent minute, he raised her chin up, moving her face in front of his.

  “We’ll find a way. Tell me what our problems are,” he said softly.

  She began to rattle them off. A long list. He listened without interruption until she stopped.

  “Is that all?” Ma?l said with a slight grin.

  She had a flash of anger. He wasn’t taking this seriously, was he?

  “We’ve survived worse,” he added before she had a chance to reply. “And we will survive this too. It’s not as bad as you think.”

  “What do you mean?” Kaori said. She had felt somewhat upset he didn’t seem to realize how bad the situation was, but also relieved he was there to take charge. He’d been very resourceful so far, maybe he could thing of something.

  “Well, for starters, we aren’t truly lost. We were off the coast of Japan, about a day and a half south of Osaka. That’s still a lot of Japan left nearby. The storm came from the East, so we are most likely rather close to the coast.”

  He pointed West with his arm. “It should be right over there.”

  “You’re right. But how do we get there? We can’t see it, so it’s at least 55 km away… Do you know how to fix the engines?” she asked, with a touch of hope in her voice.

  “No, that I do not, but if I recall correctly, we still have the jib. I took it down during the storm. I should have taken the main sail down first, but at least we have that. Even if it is damaged, we can jury rig-it to the boom and steer that way. It’s big enough to get us moving at a decent pace, I think.”

  She stared at him in awe. It was obvious now that she thought about it. The two biggest problems could be solved and he had done so in a few minutes while she… she’d allowed her mind to focus on the problems without actually trying to solve them.

  That ended now.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  She wiped her tears and gave him a smile:

  “All right. Next issue. The helm is stuck. That means we can’t move the rudder. How do you solve that, Mister Arairu?”

  He looked pensively and asked:

  “What do you think is the problem?”

  “There are two main possibilities I can think of: Either the rudder is twisted and stuck against the hull or there is something blocking it, but we have no way to know.”

  “Sure we do,” replied Ma?l with a grin.

  He stood up, dropped his pants and dove off the boat before she had a chance to inquire about the display.

  He popped back up and dove again. As he resurfaced a second time, he found Kaori dangling a diving mask in front of him.

  “We still have some gear, you silly man! Get back on board.”

  He climbed on board looking contrite and she laughed. It felt so good to see her back on top of things. He dove in again, this time wearing a mask and a pair of fins. They were a bit too small, but the open heel design allowed him to squeeze his feet in. She made him tie a line around his waist. Uncomfortable against his bare flesh, but she was right. If he was separated from the ship, he would die. Worse, she would die too.

  Unacceptable.

  He wished he also had a tank and some tools, but still, this was infinitely better than trying to squint his eyes in the water. He took a deep breath and made his way to the rudder. This time, the problem was obvious. It had been bent and was now stuck against the hull. He yanked on it in various directions. There was no give. At least it is not broken, he thought. He dove a few more times to inspect it fully and came back on board.

  “The right rudder’s bent.” He grabbed a pen and a waterproof tablet from the diving gear’s compartment and made a quick sketch of the rudder.

  “What do you think?”

  “That sucks, we can’t…” Kaori paused midway. She was doing it again. Think! Solutions, not problems.

  She smiled genially.

  “Come, we have a winch and some rope. This should work.”

  They freed the halyard of the main sail. That rope could hold several tons of pressure, and the winch was heavy-duty. They passed the rope over the railing at an angle opposite to that of the rudder and Ma?l dove back in to secure it the best he could. It was hard work, diving and working on a single breath at a time, but eventually he managed to secure the rope around the rudder. They checked the line once more, and Ma?l began cranking on the winch. The line pulled tight, grinding against the deck’s railing. It crunched down, the rope driving the railing into the deck, but it held, and he felt another kind of resistance.

  The rudder.

  Kaori joined in, adding her weight onto the winch handle. It moved! They fought for every fraction of a turn, and, inch by inch, the rope was being fed back into the spool.

  Ma?l dove once more down below. There was now a gap around the rudder.

  They had done it!