She regarded the cabin. Pillows and sleeping bags had fallen to the cabin sole. A chart table drawer had come open, spilling pencils, charts, rulers and old logbooks across the galley floor. A locker to port banged open, closed, and banged open again. She slammed it and made her way aft. The hatch seemed jammed.

She tugged at it ineffectually. She was very weak, and afraid that she was going to be seasick. She yanked at the hatch two-handed, and it still did not budge. She felt a tug of claustrophobia. He had locked it. But suppose something happened to him, up there, and she could not get out to help? Stupid, stupid. He was losing his common sense. She pounded on the bottom of the hatch. She stopped to listen.

She was suddenly aware of creaks and groans and strains she had never heard. Linda Lee slewed wildly to port, as if there were no hand on the wheel. The motion hurled her across the galley. Panicked, she screamed for Mitch and began to bang on the companionway hatchboards with a pot from the stove.

Finally she heard an answering thump, and the bolt slid back. To a shriek of wind from topside, the hatch opened six inches. Mitch’s face appeared, very close to the crack. She had a sense of unreality. She could hardly believe today, let alone last night. And if she did not get some air, quickly, she would be sick all over the galley.

“Let me up!” she demanded.

“We’re in it,” he said tersely. “But just on the edges. It’s going to get worse. Stay put!”

“I’m going to be sick,” she said. “Open the hatch!”

“Get your gear on first.” He slammed the hatch again. She reached into the foul-weather locker. It had been so long since she had had to wear her slickers that she had trouble with the snaps. By the time she got everything on she was exhausted, and so nauseous she could hardly make it up the ladder. She banged on the hatch. He yanked it open, pulled her through, and slammed it again as a fifteen-foot wave crested the stern, swarmed over the taffrail, and hit the hatch in a shower of spray. She felt salt water trickling down her neck.

He snapped her safety belt around the mizzen and she crawled blindly for the leeward scupper, where he held to the belt while she was very sick for a very long time. When she finally got off her knees and turned to sit in the cockpit she could not believe her eyes.