~The Misty Blue finds the reef ~<br/><br/><br/>Maddi forced herself to go down and try and sleep for a couple of hours and made the others take turns at resting too.  As darkness fell they shared out a thermos of soup and Kira manged to get out chunks of fruit cake and some chocolate to give them all a boost.  In the shimmering, luminescent darkness, it took all their concentration to meet the waves, the yacht seeming to grow smaller as the waves grew larger.<br/><br/>On her next turn down below Maddi tried once again to get the radio to spark up but unfortunately there wasn't even a crackle.  She wedged herself into her bunk, and clipped up the net, managing to get a few dozes in, the rest of the time aware of every pitch and yaw. She gave up after less than an hour, snapping open her watch and grimacing at the time, nearly 1am and there was no sign of it lessening. She wished she knew what was out there, they were running out into an empty sea, the safest place to be in a storm, but she had no idea how deep the storm front was and she still feared the worst hadn't hit them.<br/><br/>She got out of her bunk, bracing herself while she put her waterproofs, belt with her knife and pouch, life jacket and safety line on.  It took her a moment to get back up to the other two using the right point of the wave to move, gripping tightly and bracing as they hit the trough, lost the wind for a moment and shuddered up again. She felt the air sucked from her mouth as she reached the top, god, it was getting even stronger.  She looked at the height of the waves behind the pale faces of her friends and tried not to let the dismay show in her own face, grinning at the two of them as she hugged the side and made her way round to them. clipping her line on before she started.<br/><br/>She cupped her hand and shouted into Kira's ear, "I thought you said this was going to be a holiday," and was relieved to see her grin back, 'Attagirl' she thought.  Kira and Maddi sent Lizzie down for a break, and the next two hours passed with that achingly slow but also terrifyingly fast way that time has a habit of stop-starting when you have to deal with nature at its worst.  Both the girls were tired, but Maddi knew Kira would soon need a break and where their arms laid together firmly bracing to hold the tiller she could feel her begin to struggle.<br/><br/>She was relieved then when she saw Lizzie appear and clip her safety line on, and she looked across at Kira smiling and ready to say that she could have a break, but that soon changed when she saw the look of terror on the woman's face.  Maddi's head whipped round to see what she was looking at and then swore, as ahead in the darkness was that tell tale white slash that spoke of rocks and a reef, the spume and spray painting it's location clearly for them to see.<br/><br/>She knew that they had no time to try and avoid it, that if they tried to turn they'd breach the ship, capsize, and still get pounded onto the rocks, their only chance was to hit the rocks head on, and pray to God that it was a reef and there was something behind it.  She fought Kira who was starting to try and wrench the tiller to starboard, and shouted in her ear, "No!  We have to meet it head on!"<br/><br/>She beckoned to Lizzie to get to them faster, looped the rope around the tiller and gestured for Kira to do the same.  She stumbled over to Lizzie and then pulled her and Kira into the corner of the stern, right down onto the deck, jamming them as tightly as she could into the corner, and shouted at them both to hold tight just before the ship screeched onto the rocks.<br/><br/>The impact would have thrown all of them out of the back of the boat had they not been down on the floor as the Misty Blue rose up out of the water and ground to a halt that was so complete and so sudden it was as if she had met a brick wall.<br/><br/>The waves dashing over them now, Maddi tried desperately to breathe, peering into the darkness, she thought she could see another faint line of surf and was relieved to see the other two girls were dragging themselves up and like her making their way forrard.  "We have to get off quickly now, in case she breaks up," Yelled Maddi, and pointed out over the reef, "It looks like there might be an island, we have to get shelter there until it is light."<br/><br/>She hoped she was right and it wasn't just another small reef, but whatever happened they couldn't stay here - the yacht was grinding and quivering with every wave, any minute could be their last.