Adrift: Chapters 1–9

by Paul Griffin
A summer job in a beach town turns into a nightmare for a teenage boy and his friends when they are swept out to sea in a stolen boat.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–9, Chapters 10–18, Chapters 19–29, Chapters 30–43, Chapters 44–53

Here are links to our lists for Burning Blue by Paul Griffin.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. almanac
    an annual publication including weather forecasts
    SAILOR’S ALMANAC, LONG-RANGE FORECAST, NORTH ATLANTIC CORRIDOR: Summer will be lovely with mild winds through August, heading into hurricane season.
  2. stifling
    characterized by oppressive heat and humidity
    The vehicle maintenance shop was stifling.
  3. certify
    guarantee as meeting a certain standard
    I was taking a certified first responder course with the lifeguards.
  4. summon
    ask to come
    We walked along the rows of chaise lounges and waited to be summoned.
  5. assessment
    the act of judging a person or situation or event
    Stef’s assessment might have been right though. Take away the tans, that beach in front of Sully’s was Mayflower, top deck.
  6. advisory
    an announcement that usually warns the public of some threat
    SMALL CRAFT AND SURF ADVISORY: Expect steady rains for the next 48 hours.
  7. unpredictable
    unknown in advance
    After the storm passes, strong winds will continue to make waters unpredictable.
  8. condition
    an illness, disease, or other medical problem
    She has a heart condition. It’s too big. It gets her into trouble sometimes.
  9. alleviate
    provide physical relief, as from pain
    “An endowment. The Gonzaga Foundation for the Application of Scientific Solutions in Alleviating Poverty Throughout South America.”
  10. humility
    a lack of arrogance or false pride
    At ease with her money but not afraid to make fun of herself for it. Being around that balance of confidence and humility lit me up.
  11. impulsive
    characterized by undue haste and lack of thought
    We have to save John from Stef. Do I need to tell you we Gonzaga girls are impulsive?
  12. crest
    the top line of a hill, mountain, or wave
    She ripped the crest of a wave.
  13. hull
    the frame or body of a ship
    He pulled a tarp off a fiberglass boat with a shallow hull, maybe twenty feet long.
  14. verify
    confirm the truth of
    “They have to verify that it’s not a crank call before they send a helicopter, they said.”
  15. throttle
    a valve that regulates the supply of fuel to the engine
    JoJo revved the throttle.
  16. gust
    a strong current of air
    I found out later the wind that night was forty miles an hour with gusts up to fifty. That’s strong enough to knock you over. It’s also a windsurfer’s dream.
  17. peak
    the top or extreme point of something
    The waves were just as big as the breakers closer to shore, but their peaks weren’t sharp.
  18. screech
    make a high-pitched noise
    The engine screeched as the boat fought the waves.
  19. silhouette
    an outline of a solid object as cast by its shadow
    Another silhouette was in the water, but this one was circling the windsurf board.
  20. extend
    stretch out one's limbs or muscles, or the entire body
    She knelt down and leaned out of the boat, extending her hand toward Stef.
  21. surface
    the outermost level of the land or sea
    Her eyes rolled back and her head slipped beneath the surface.
  22. eerie
    inspiring a feeling of fear; strange and frightening
    An eerie sucking noise followed Dri into the water as the surface healed itself where she had ripped a hole into it.
  23. clamp
    fasten with or as with a device that holds things tightly
    I clamped her nose and put my mouth over hers and tried to breathe into her lungs.
  24. artery
    a blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the body
    I applied pressure to the artery with my fingertips, and then more pressure, and it still bled.
  25. tourniquet
    a bandage that stops the flow of blood by applying pressure
    I was supposed to write TK, shorthand for tourniquet, on her forehead in Sharpie ink, along with the time I’d tied off the blood flow to the injured limb.
  26. circulate
    move through a system and return to the starting point
    This way when the medics rushed her into the ER and handed her off to the nurses and then they handed her off to the doctors, who would hand her off to the surgeons, everybody at the hospital would know her arm didn’t have any blood circulating to it for a while.
  27. stabilize
    support and make steadfast
    “I should grab the surfboard,” I said. “For Stef. To stabilize her spine.”
  28. rig
    formation of masts, spars, sails, etc., on a vessel
    The sail was heavy and dragged in the water, but JoJo plucked the rig from the sea—mast, surfboard, and all—like it weighed about as much as an inflatable pool toy.
  29. relieve
    provide physical comfort, as from pain
    The doctors would need to drill her head to relieve the pressure building in her skull.
  30. huddle
    crowd or draw together
    We huddled Stef, one of us on each side, to share body heat.
  31. scalpel
    a thin straight surgical knife
    She traced the scalpel line that ran down my left side from my armpit to my hip.
  32. recreational
    of or relating to an activity that diverts or amuses
    “We still have to be in an area of recreational boat traffic,” I said.
  33. drift
    be in motion due to some air or water current
    “Why’d you bother to fix the engine if all we’re going to do is drift?”
  34. activate
    put in motion
    “That app will burn out the phone fast. We have to save the battery for when we need it. If we see a ship, and we get close enough where it has a shot of picking up the light, that’s when we activate the SOS.”
  35. trauma
    physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident
    I remembered reading about this, how it could happen after a major trauma.
  36. fraud
    a person who makes deceitful pretenses
    I felt like a fraud, acting as the ship’s doctor, but I was the closest thing we had to medically trained personnel.
  37. disaster
    an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
    This disaster with Stef was too much of a crash course.
  38. stern
    the rear part of a ship
    JoJo took the lookout post on the right side of the boat. I took the left side, and John looked off the back. Real sailors would describe the positions as starboard, port, and stern.
  39. desolate
    providing no shelter or sustenance
    The water was desolate, the sky was cloudless, deep blue, and the wind was steady, strong, and dry.
  40. glare
    a light that is brighter than what the eyes are adapted to
    By midmorning the glare blinded us, and I felt like somebody had drilled two-inch screws into my eyes.
Created on Thu Jun 02 10:38:41 EDT 2016 (updated Mon Sep 10 15:58:12 EDT 2018)

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