After taking damage, the ship Revenge beached on a remote shore so the crew could make repairs, with Zelda sent to scout the coast before being put to hard labor scraping, chinking, and doing pitch work on the hull. The repairs are grueling and occasionally cruelly amusing for the crew, but progress is steady until a signal warns of an approaching boat, forcing an urgent departure with the evening tide. Working together, the crew frees Revenge from the sand and rows her back to sea, relying heavily on sweeps through long nights of calm winds. As they slowly cross the western Mediterranean, Zelda shares brief, halting conversations with a former enemy sailor, and the monotonous routine of rowing and waiting continues until, after many days, land is finally sighted, and the captain sends a boat ahead to investigate the port near Gibraltar.