The story opens shortly after the fatal car crash of a wife and mother to three boys.  The father deals with his grief by selling their house and buying a 30-foot sailboat.  He announces to his boys that they’re going to sail around the Bahamas for a year.  The protagonist is 15-year old Ben, the oldest, who is grief-stricken and angry with his dad for pulling him away from his friends at a time he needs them the most.  In close quarters with no where to go pout, this sea adventure becomes a story of survival when their father disappears (whether intentional or accidental) and a great storm has the young boys fighting for their lives as they’re forced to battle the waves alone.  Stranded on an island for 3 months, the boys learn to live off the land, encounter sharks and a life or death situation which binds the brothers together in a way that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Slow moving at first, readers need to stick with this book to the page-turning end.