WTWHTAS
Chap 13, part 1.b

I believed this was rain water, uncontaminated by salt. Too much tipping and rolling would spill it out. When I thought I had our situation in hand I knelt down and tasted thw ater in one of the pockets. It was fresh. i called to the others. For the next few minutes we drank, caught our breathes, and drank again. Until you have been through an ordeal like ours you will never know how good that clear, cold water tasted.We buried our faces in it.

When we could hold no more I staggered up and looked around. We were 30 or 40 feet from the sand and I thought we had better move the boat up to the beach. Johnny and I dragged it along while Jimmy crawled on all fours.

We were without shoes and had to pick our way darefully over the coral, which lay just beneath the surface. It was as sharp in places as broken glass. When we had hauled the raft our of reach of the tide we all gave thanks to God for ourlandfall and for our safe passage among the sharks, through the storm, and across the reef. Even as we prayed I could see anoccasional gray hulk slicking around out beyond the reef. But those sharks would eat no men today.