He cautiously looked around, but there was no sign of anyone in any direction. He walked around the boat and was glad when he saw what bumped into the boat. Beside his sailboat was a rather large piece of driftwood. It had floated against the hull. Arflin pushed the piece of driftwood away from the boat and went below to eat a breakfast, which consisted of two oatmeal cookies and a glass of water.
Things were pretty much normal that day at sea. The sea was calm with a brisk wind blowing about twelve knots. Arflin saw a couple of tankers that appeared to be about four miles off his starboard bow. Another interesting thing happened that morning that startled him. He was enjoying the freedom of the wind, when just off his port bow about a hundred yards away, a submarine appeared. It was frightening at first because he thought it was some kind of giant fish (or maybe some mythical sea monster), as the nose of the sub emerged first.
It stayed to his starboard bow keeping its distance for about an hour before submerging. He never saw it again although it probably knew where he was all the time.
Arflin thought it was probably from the Argentine Navy as they frequented these waters, but he also knew it could be from any country in the world. Since he was in International waters anyone had as much right as he did in being there When Arflin finished sailing for the day and reefed the sails, he set the sea anchor. This is when his luck started changing for the worse. He had just dozed off when he felt the sailboat being violently tossed to and fro in the raging sea. A storm had suddenly come up. All Arflin could do was hang on for dear life. After three hours the storm finally passed.
The next morning when it got daylight Arflin went on deck to assess the damage. The halyard on the main mast had come loose and smashed the compass. He had no way of knowing where he was. Now he was alone in the middle of a great big ocean.
He decided his best chance for survival would be to sail east in the direction of the rising sun and with a little luck he might spot land. That was really the only choice he had. When the sun was directly overhead he would stop for lunch. After lunch he would sail with the sun directly to his back. When the sun started setting in the late afternoon he would rig a sea anchor for the night. At least he would keep sailing in an easterly direction and not be sailing around in circles.