chapter 7: to the south sea islands

Chapter seven opens up with the climax of the story when the crew sees the island called Puka Puka. "Land! An island! We devoured it greedily with our eyes and woke the others, who tumbled out drowsily and stared in all directions as if they thought our bow was about to run on to a beach." There was a reef in front of the land so they had to be careful when sailing inland. They traveled around the island untill they saw two natives in a canoe. They tried paddling their way in but they could not gain any ground. Knut suggested he go to land with the natives to bring more back. Knut did not come back for a long time which made the crew very worried. Apparently, Knut just had communication problems with the natives but eventually made it back to the raft. That night for the first time in about 100 days they slept on land. "We left the sail down and the oar inboard, and all six of us crept into the bamboo cabin and slept like boulders on the beach at Angatua."