47. Force Ten. Sophie writes that the winds have intensified even more—Uncle Dock says that they’re in a force-ten gale, the winds blowing at fifty knots an hour. She writes that the wall-like waves are pounding day and knight, and about every 20 minutes a wave fills the cockpit. Uncle Stew is seasick, and everyone is covering his shifts.
The storm keeps getting more and more intense, stripping the crew of any sense of hope, especially now, when their sails are in disrepair. The crew is at the mercy of a sea, which quite clearly doesn’t care about their survival.