Rain lashes the raft, and the wind howls. Worst of all, huge waves send the raft plummeting down into deep troughs of water, then carry it back up again in a terrible roller-coaster ride. In fact, it's a hundred times worse than the most stomach-turning theme-park ride you've ever been on.
Every time you feel the raft climbing an impossibly tall wave, you think it's going to overturn and sink on the way down - but it doesn't. The raft always rights itself. You brace yourself, clinging onto the raft's handholds as the storm hurls you around.
Go to page 44.
The text doesn't say anything about eating the pills, but yes, the section is correct, and the PC is presumably coping with his current situation with the help of the pills.
No options on this page, but there's still an infodump page opposite.
Pacific Storms:
- Storms in which the winds reach speeds of more than 73 miles (118 km) per hour are classified as typhoons.
- Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are all the same type of weather, but different names are used in different areas: in the Atlantic and northeast Pacific, it's a hurricane; in the northwest Pacific, it's a typhoon; and in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, it's a cyclone.
- These violent storms are caused by warm air rising quickly and getting pushed aside as it cools, causing it to spin.
- Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons are identified by names. The first storm of the year is given a name beginning with the letter A, the next beginning with B, and so on. If a storm does a lot of damage, that name is never used again.
- The tropical cyclone season in the South Pacific runs from November to April.
Moving on to 44...
The storm dies down. The rain has stopped hammering on the raft's canopy, and you are not being thrown around nearly as much, although the waves are still big.
You are thirsty, and you look in the Emergency Grab Bag for something to drink. There's a bottle of water, and you take a grateful swig. There is also a desalinator - a machine that removes salt from seawater to make it drinkable.
You follow the instructions on the desalinator, and use its hand pump to pump seawater through a special filter, which removes almost all the salt. It's quite hard work, and you make a mental note not to use it when it's very hot out. The effort will only make you sweat and lose more water. You're relieved the desalinator was inside the Grab Bag - you won't have to worry about finding enough fresh water to survive.
Go to page 34.
More infodump on the page opposite...
Finding Water at Sea:
You need water to live. Without it, you'll die in a few days. Luckily, you have your desalinator to provide drinkable water. If you didn't have it onboard your raft, there are other ways of obtaining drinkable water:
- Collect rainwater in containers. Some life rafts collect rainwater and funnel it into a pouch on the inside of the raft's canopy. Drink rainwater first, because any water you have in bottles will stay drinkable for longer periods.
- Inflatable solar stills are sometimes included with life rafts. You can also make your own solar still. A still is a device that evaporates seawater, then collects water that forms as pure water droplets, o condensation. You fill the bottom of the still with seawater and attach it to the side of the raft. The salt water evaporates in the sun and drinkable water condenses on the inside and runs into a bottle. Solar stills are not very useful in rough seas, because the salt water sloshes around and gets into the condensed water.
- Whatever you do, don't drink seawater. You might die more quickly than if you drink nothing at all. During World War II, some of the survivors from the USS Indianopolis drank seawater, began to hallucinate, and drowned as a result.
Another section with no options, so moving on again:
With the storm finally over, the sea calms down until the raft is rocking gently in the waves. It's an enormous relief not to feel yourself being hurled around the ocean, and gradually you stop feeling sick.
You're drifting, enjoying the peace and comfort, when something bumps the bottom of the raft. Quickly, you unzip the canopy and look out. You can't see anything. Maybe it was a piece of driftwood. You feel another bump, quite strong this time. Watery sunlight is making its way through the gray clouds. You can make out a round shape emerging from underneath the raft. It's a turtle! The creature surfaces.
It's quite big - almost 3 feet (1 m) long, you reckon - with a reddish-brown shell covered in barnacles. Uh oh. That means it could rip the life raft if it carries on bumping you from underneath. Maybe you should try to frighten it away.
If you decide to frighten off the turtle, go to page 13.
If you decide to leave the turtle alone, go to page 17.
And finally there's a choice! And of course, the accompanying infodump on the opposite page is about...
Sea Turtles:
- Several types of turtle live in the Pacific Ocean: green sea, Pacific black sea, hawksbill, leatherback and loggerhead.
- Green sea turtles, which you've just encountered, are the largest hard-shelled turtles. Their shells can reach five feet (1.5 m) in diameter. The turtles are named for the colour of their skin, not their shell. Loggerhead turtles' shells measure up to about 3 feet (1 m).
- The largest turtles of all are leatherbacks. They have soft shells that can measure six feet (2 m) long. The largest one ever recorded measured 8.5 feet (2.6 m) long and weighed over 1984 pounds (900 kg).
- Turtles hatch from eggs on sandy beaches, then travel hundreds of miles out to sea. Female turtles often return to lay their own eggs on the beach where they were hatched.
- Turtles are carnivores. They eat sea jellies (which they sometimes confuse with plastic bags), crabs and other shellfish, and fish. Occasionally, they eat seaweed, too.
- Turtles are often featured in the myths and legends of Pacific Island people. They used to be a sacred food that only noble people were allowed to eat.
Do we want to chase the turtle off?
