Cover

Title Page

The BEAR GRYLLS ADVENTURES series

The Blizzard Challenge

The Desert Challenge

The Jungle Challenge

The Sea Challenge

The River Challenge

The Earthquake Challenge

The Volcano Challenge

The Safari Challenge

The Cave Challenge

The Mountain Challenge

The Arctic Challenge

The Sailing Challenge

Dedication

To the young survivor
reading this book for the first time.

May your eyes always be wide open
to adventure, and your heart full
of courage and determination to
see your dreams through.

1

FIVE TO TWO

Left or right, left or right …

Mia had reached a junction in the path. Left was the way to the Camp office. Right was the tents. Mia had to get her swimming gear from her tent, but she also needed to get to the office before two o’clock. She hesitated.

“Hey, Mia, we haven’t got long! Are you coming?” Her friend Lily was heading towards the office.

Mia immediately set off down the path on the right to the tents. “I need to get my gear. I’ll catch you later, Lily.”

“But we’ve got to sign up on the board by two o’clock for tomorrow’s activities! And that’s …” Lily checked her watch. “Five minutes!”

They had already had this argument at lunchtime, and Mia knew what Lily was going to say. But instead of waiting, she called out “It’ll be fine,” and started walking towards the tents. She hoped Lily would get the hint. Mia hated being hassled to do things. She preferred to do things in her own time, her own way.

“But if you don’t sign up for what you want,” Lily went on, “they just put you down for any old thing where there’s a space.”

Mia knew Lily was right. But somehow she just couldn’t change her mind now.

“So?” Mia gave a big, couldn’t-careless shrug. “That’s cool. Maybe I’ll get something fun.”

“Yes, or maybe you’ll get wildflower spotting, and you’ll nearly die of hay fever again!”

Mia laughed it off.

“Hey, they won’t put me down for that again, not after last time.”

“I know.” Lily tried to sound patient. “They might put you down for something even worse, Mia! Why don’t you just tell me what you want to sign up for, then I can put your name down on the sheet?”

“Look, it’ll be fine,” Mia called over her shoulder, as she headed for the tents. “I’ll sort it out later. But you’d better hurry up or you’ll miss the sign-up yourself!”

Lily hopped from one foot to the other in frustration, but then she turned and hurried off towards the noticeboard.

The moment she was gone, all Mia’s confidence vanished. She knew Lily had been right, really. She just couldn’t bear to admit it. She scuffed her feet and sulked silently as she headed for the tents.

It had been like this for as long as Mia could remember. Whenever someone tried to make a rule or suggest she should do something, she always wanted to do something different. Mia had been all set to make the two o’clock deadline for today – until Lily had reminded her at lunch. Straight away it was like every part of Mia’s body decided that it didn’t want to sign up. Not even if it meant risking being put in an activity she didn’t enjoy.

Mia was confused and angry and upset with herself. She was going to get something really rubbish tomorrow, now, wasn’t she? Maybe not wildflowers. The Camp staff had probably got the message about that. But something else boring, probably.

Mia gave herself a shake. Maybe she had blown her chances for tomorrow, but there was still Tube Polo today, and she enjoyed that. She grabbed her swimming gear and a spare t-shirt from the tent, and hurried off.

2

NO CARRYING!

The umpire was blowing her whistle outside by the pool while Mia was still in the changing rooms. She quickly stuffed all her things into her locker. Something dropped out and narrowly missed her bare toes.

“Whoa!”

It was that stupid compass Joe had given to her. She hoped it hadn’t been damaged by hitting the tiled floor.

Its needle was going round and round and somehow it seemed to have five directions on it. Mia didn’t have time to study it. She put it back in the locker, strapped the key to her wrist and hurried out.

Mia was the last to arrive at the outdoor pool. Eleven other boys and girls were all there in their swimming gear and t-shirts. Inflated rubber rings bobbed in the water.

“Now, let’s give you all a quick check.” The leader walked among them. “Everyone got a t-shirt?” she said. “Unprotected backs and shoulders might get sunburnt. Tommy, no goggles, I’m afraid. I know the chlorine stings, but you could injure your eyes if someone knocked you. Mia, that looks like a new t-shirt. Do you really want to wear it? The chlorine will bleach it.”

Mia hadn’t thought of that. She had just grabbed the nearest t-shirt she had. It was a new one, a birthday present, only worn a couple of times.

“It’s fine, thanks,” Mia told her. Inside, she was cross not to have realised that herself. But now the leader had pointed it out she didn’t want to take the suggestion. Instead she quietly said goodbye to the shirt’s cheerful patterns and colours.

The leader raised her eyebrows, but didn’t say any more about it. She went on to remind everyone of the rules, and put them into teams with yellow and red armbands. Mia was in the Yellow team.

Tube Polo was designed so that you didn’t have to be a strong swimmer. Players sat in inflated inner tubes, and pushed themselves around the pool with their hands. The teams took up their positions. The umpire blew her whistle and chucked the ball into the middle of the pool.

Both teams splashed towards it, eager paddling hands sending up clouds of spray. Mia was at the back of the Yellow team. A boy on her team got to the ball first. He quickly passed it but a girl on the Red team caught it and chucked it to another boy on the far side of the pool.

Half the Yellows started to paddle-charge towards him – but not Mia. Mia had worked out that the Reds would have to pass it again, so she might as well stay put and wait.

Sure enough, the ball suddenly flew out of the mass of laughing, splashing kids towards her. Mia grabbed it with both hands. She dropped it onto her lap, and started to paddle as hard as she could towards the far end.

The whistle blew.

“Mia! That counts as carrying.”

The Reds cheered, and Mia’s jaw dropped.

“I’m not carrying! I’m not using my hands!”

“Mia, you can only touch or move the ball with one hand, unless you’re the goalie. I did say! Free throw to the Reds.”

“Oh, that is so unfair …” Mia muttered.

But the Reds got their throw, and it soon led to the first goal of the game. Mia felt she was getting dirty looks from the other Yellows.

“How should I know it counted as carrying?” she moaned. But no one was listening.

Mia spent the next couple of minutes in a sulk. The ball flew back and forth between the teams and the sides of the pool.

Then suddenly it splashed down in front of her.

Mia scooped it up with one hand and looked around for a Yellow to pass it to. But she was surrounded by Reds, all paddle-charging towards her like a fleet of battleships.

Suddenly Mia felt herself sinking. Her tube was leaking. She could hear the hiss and see the bubbles as air squirted out of the valve. In a moment she was up to her waist in water.

“Sinking!” she shouted. “Not fair …”

All the Reds arrived at the same time. Someone snatched the ball away. Mia kicked herself away from her deflated tube, but the other tubes all around her made it impossible to see anything.

In a moment the umpire would have to blow her whistle for time out. The game couldn’t go on if one of the players was out of action.

Mia got out of the crowd the only way she could – by swimming down, kicking and struggling in a mass of bubbles and legs. She opened her eyes underwater and they immediately started stinging. The light was strangely blue. She turned and kicked her way to the surface and gasped for air. Water sluiced over her head and she palmed it away from her eyes. Some of it dripped into her open mouth.

Yuck! It was salty.

Mia blinked her eyes open against the stinging.

She was submerged up to her neck, treading water.

But she wasn’t in the swimming pool.

“What?”

Hot sun beat down on her. There was nothing but blue, choppy water under a cloudless sky, all the way to the horizon.

3

URSULA

Mia’s heart pounded. Her eyes swept the horizon. She was all alone! She could drown here! There was nothing – no land at all. Could she keep swimming long enough to survive?

Then she saw the boat.

It was wooden, about as long as a bus, with one mast and a pair of patched red sails. It was heading away from her and Mia could make out a man at the back end, standing over a spoked steering wheel. The name Ursula was painted on the back.

“Hey!” Mia shouted. “Help! Over here! Help!”

The man’s head whipped around. He grabbed a U-shaped lifebuoy from the boat’s rail and threw it towards Mia with all his strength. Even before it splashed into the water, he was spinning on the wheel and pulling on ropes. The boat began to turn.

Mia swam towards the lifebuoy. Its U-shape meant she could just pull it around her and float in the water. The boat was coming towards her. The man fiddled with more ropes and the sails collapsed down. The boat coasted to a stop.

Mia swam the last few strokes towards it, and the man leaned over the rail to help her up.

“Welcome on board Ursula!” he said, smiling. “How are you?”

Mia stood barefoot on the sun-warmed wooden deck while a small puddle of dripping water gathered around her.

“I’m okay, thank you!” she gasped. “But I don’t know how long I could have kept going.”

“You’re a strong swimmer, but it’s tough out there.” The man was tall and tanned, in light, loose clothing and a fleece. He had a hat with a brim that shaded his face as he smiled. “Between the sun, thirst, and the sharks, something would have got you sooner or later.”

Mia looked at the sea and shuddered. She was glad to be standing on something solid, where sharks couldn’t get.

“Um – where are we, exactly?” Mia asked. She looked around but there was still absolutely no sign of anyone. Just a thousand miles of empty ocean in every direction. “It looks like the middle of nowhere.”

The man laughed.

“I’d say that’s exactly where we are. But I’m going to be your guide out of here.” He held out his hand. “I’m Bear. Are you ready for some real adventure?”

Mia shook, cautiously.

“I’m Mia. Uh, what do you mean, real adventure?”

“Real, as in, a couple of hundred miles in a badly damaged boat?”

Mia quickly looked around.

“We’re sinking?”

“Not quite, but Ursula got a bit beaten up by a storm a couple of days ago.”

Now Mia she looked closer, she thought she could see the storm damage. She had already noticed the patched sails. The woodwork was all stained, like it had been soaked through and hadn’t completely dried out yet.

“A lot of our supplies got swept away,” Bear went on, “plus the dinghy, the radio antenna and self-steering gear. Some water got into the fuel so the engine’s useless. The one thing we can still do is float, which fortunately doesn’t take any effort on our part. We’re heading for an island a couple of days away, where I’ll make repairs.”

“Are you sure the boat will make it?” Mia asked.

“Oh yes. We’ll make it together,” the man promised, with a smile. “The great thing about being at sea is that as long as you can stay alive, you know you’ll make land eventually. The record for that’s a guy called José Salvador Alvarenga, who managed to drift for thirteen months before hitting land. We’ll be quicker than that, I promise.”

Mia shivered suddenly. Despite the sun beating down, the sea breeze cut right through her in her wet swimsuit.

“Mia, you’d better get out of those wet things,” Bear said quickly. “You’ll find spare clothes in the locker down below, at the front of the cabin. Get something like mine, light enough to be cool but covering as much bare skin as you can. Sunburn can get you in a couple of hours.”

“Thanks.”

Mia made her way down a wooden ladder into the cabin. It was snug and cosy, with a bunk on each side and a little kitchen in one corner. But it smelled damp and she could see more damage wherever she looked. The walls were lined with wooden locker doors, and some were splintered and broken. A couple of windows had cracked. Everything looked like it had been thrown about.

She picked out some gear like Bear had described. Suddenly the boat began to tilt slowly over to one side. Mia yelped in alarm and staggered to the ladder. If this boat was going to tip over, she didn’t want to be trapped in the cabin.

“It’s okay,” Bear called from above. “We’re just getting under way again.”

Sure enough, Ursula found an angle to lean over at, and stuck to it. Mia quickly got dressed. She felt a lot better wrapped in warm, dry gear. She hadn’t realised how much she was cooling down, even standing in the sunshine up on deck. She picked her way back across the leaning-over cabin, and took hold of the ladder to climb back onto deck.

Suddenly the whole boat shook and shuddered, as if it had run into a rock.

But there are no rocks in the ocean, Mia thought indignantly.

Another, harder shock ran through the boat. This time she heard the sound of splintering wood and running water. The blow knocked Mia to her knees. That was impossible! The boat had been lifted up!

“Hey, Mia!” Bear called urgently. “Get up here, quick!”

Mia quickly clambered onto deck. Bear’s expression was taut and concentrating as he gripped the wheel. He nodded his head at the sea. Mia followed his gaze, and gasped.

All around them, huge, grey shapes, two or three times as big as Ursula, were breaking out of the sea. Mia recognised them from television and videos but she had never known they were so huge in real life. One of them must have hit the boat just now.

“Whales!” she gasped.

4

WHALE OF A TIME

“Are they attacking us?” Mia asked nervously. She had no idea what she and Bear could do if one of those mighty shapes took a real dislike to Ursula. But they didn’t look aggressive.

“I think one of them just came up beneath us without looking up.” Bear gripped the wheel and scanned the sea ahead. “When you weigh thirty thousand kilos you’re probably going to be okay whatever you bump into, and a thirty-ton wooden boat is always going to come off worse.”

Mia remembered the water sound in the cabin.

“Um, Bear,” she gasped nervously. “It might have knocked a hole in us.”

Bear pulled a face.

“Ursula is handling differently. I’ll check properly once our friends are out of the way. Meanwhile, we both need to keep a sharp lookout. If it looks like another one of them is heading for us, point and yell.”

“Point and yell,” Mia agreed. “Right.” That was one instruction that Mia was happy to follow.

Her gaze leapt from whale to whale. The whole herd was just cruising peacefully past. All she could see was their backs – ugly and bumpy and covered with tiny little shellfish. But they were still beautiful, and it was impossible to be angry with them. The whale hadn’t attacked Ursula. It just hadn’t noticed that there was anything there.

One of the whales blew out, with a sound like a steam engine letting off pressure. A cloud of white mist drifted over the boat. It stank of fish and the worst bad breath ever.

“Whew!” Mia waved her hand in front of her face. Okay, they were beautiful but they were definitely outstaying their welcome.

Suddenly a huge tail shaped like a giant letter Y began to rise out of the water, dead ahead. Water cascaded off its two halves, which were the size of aircraft wings.

There was a whale right in front of them. Bear spun the wheel to turn. The tail rose up, and up, and up. The whale must have been standing on its nose. Then it began to slide down into the sea. The tail slapped down with a mighty crash, and water sluiced over the front deck. The whole boat rocked, from end to end and side to side.

Ursula had turned away from the whale in front – but now Mia saw another danger. A massive grey bumpy back was surfacing like a submarine just a few metres away.

“Whale coming up behind!” she shouted. Bear started to turn the wheel again, but too late. The enormous back slid closer and closer, and then there was a crunch and Ursula shook again. The boat span around in the water, with its two humans clinging on for dear life.

Bear pointed at a rope connected to a kind of winch next to the wheel.

“Release that!” he said. “Just let it go.”

Mia fumbled with the rope, while Bear did the same to a similar rope the other side of the wheel. Mia’s rope suddenly came loose and whizzed through her fingers. At the same time the sail at the front dropped down to the deck. The main sail dropped down a moment later as Bear released his rope.

The loose canvas waggled about in the wind.

Bear passed Mia a handful of bungee cords.

“See if you can tie the main sail to the boom, and the foresail to the rail, to stop them flapping. I need to inspect the damage.”

It wasn’t easy, but Mia worked out how to do what Bear had asked. She could bunch up a bundle of sail canvas in her arms, and press it to the boom, and then wrap the bungee cord around it. She did the same with the front sail – what Bear called the foresail – tying it to Ursula’s rail.

The whales had all passed by and Mia and Bear were alone in the sea again. Suddenly a hatch in the deck at Mia’s feet flew open.

Bear was down below, pushing up a large canvas bag with both hands.

“Can you take this, please?”

Mia helped drag the heavy bag up onto deck. Bear clambered up after it.

“That first knock split some planks just behind the bow,” he said. “Water’s coming in below.”

Mia stared.

“You mean – we’re sinking?”

“Only very slowly. Let’s make it even slower.”

Bear opened the bag and tipped its contents out onto the deck. Mia realised it was another sail, all folded up tight. Bear unfurled it to its full length, and then with Mia’s help he folded it double, then double again, until it was its full length, but only a quarter of its width.

“Now,” Bear said, “we’re going to pass this under the boat, and fasten it in place.”

They each took one end of the folded sail and lowered it into the sea on either side of Ursula’s pointy front end. They let it sink down and then they slowly walked backwards on opposite sides of the deck, taking their ends of the sail with them.

“This is the place,” Bear said when they were about three metres back from the front end. “Now, hold onto both ends. You’ll have to grip tight.”

Mia held onto her end with one hand, and reached across to take Bear’s end of the folded sail with the other. The sail tugged and jerked. It was heavy and hard to get a grip on. Her fingers ached and she just wanted to let go.

And she almost did, before she remembered one thing that was kind of important. This sail was meant to stop Ursula from sinking.

So Mia held on.

Bear whipped a length of rope through metal eyelets set into the ends of the sail, tying the two ends together. At last Mia could let go. She worked out that the sail was now wrapped completely around the hull, pressed tight against the damaged planks and held in place by the rope. Bear dropped down through the hatch for a moment, and emerged again looking pleased.

“That did the trick, just like it did two hundred years ago for Admiral Nelson. He had to patch up cannon-ball damage but the idea’s the same.”

“Is it waterproof?” Mia asked.

Bear smiled.

“No, but water pressure is pushing it against the hull to seal the hole – the water will still come through, slowly. We’re going to have to pump, regularly and often.”

Mia felt mostly relieved. Bear sounded more relaxed so she guessed that much of the danger was over. They weren’t going to sink. She didn’t really listen to Bear’s comment about pumping.

Bear puffed his cheeks out.

“We’d better have some water and some rations before we do the next bit. That last knock caused even more damage.”

Mia’s brief feeling of being okay suddenly vanished.

“Another hole?” she asked in alarm. Bear had already said that Ursula’s dinghy was swept away in the storm. If the boat went down now, then there was nowhere for them to go.

“Fortunately, no. But it took away the rudder. We’ve got no way to steer. Right now, we’re just drifting out of control.”

5

MIXED MESSAGES

“Eighty-five …” Mia gasped. “Eighty-six …”

The Story Continues on BooksBarbecue!

Enjoyed this preview? ❤️ Do not stop here!

Read the complete book free online → 🔗

Continue reading now on BooksBarbecue and discover every page!

Love reading? Bookmark BooksBarbecue.com for more amazing books!

Happy Reading!