Soon the new day dawned, and for the first time in her life Mia saw the sun come up. A ball of red fire rose up from the horizon, turning yellow as it got higher. The sky faded from dark to grey to blue, and colour returned to the world. Clouds floated on the horizon ahead, like piled-up giant tufts of cotton wool sitting on a glass surface. She pointed them out when Bear came up on deck.

“Those are the first I’ve seen since I came on board.”

Bear looked pleased.

“That’s cumulus cloud, and it usually hangs over land. The temperature difference between land and sea makes water droplets form in the air.”

“So, that’s our island?” Mia asked.

“That’s our island!” Bear agreed with a smile. “Bang on course, too. Go us! I couldn’t have done it without you, Mia.”

Mia felt a proud glow inside her.

But the land was still a long way off, and Ursula wasn’t exactly fast. They plodded on, and Bear and Mia kept up their routines. Bear had stretched out a couple of tarpaulins on deck overnight, and in the new light Mia could see they were covered with dew – thousands of tiny droplets of water. Bear ran this into a bottle for drinking later. They had a breakfast of dried fish strips, and a bowl of tinned fruit from the cabin. They took turns on the tiller. They checked the solar still for water. They pumped.

The cumulus cloud slowly got closer. After a few hours, Mia could see something dark on the horizon below it. At first it was just a dark line, but gradually it grew and spread out. Then she began to see colours. Greens and browns.

Bear studied the island through the binoculars.

“Trees and plants,” he said approvingly. “That’s good. It means there’ll be fresh water too.”

Once Bear was back on the tiller, Mia took the binoculars so that she could see the island for herself. It was surrounded by cliffs, with waves smashing hard against them.

“Um, Bear,” she said. “Where are we going to land?”

“Good question. We’ll go around and see what we find.”

And so, they had to wait even longer as Ursula crept around the island’s coast. Mia watched it pass by, inch by inch. Even if she and Bear just stayed on the island until rescue came, she hoped that they would be able to patch Ursula up properly. Mia had grown fond of the old boat and it deserved good treatment. Ursula had her ways – very particular ways. But as long as you remembered that the boat was boss, not you, you could handle her. Mia felt pretty good that she had helped Bear bring them this far.