Part 3
The waiting ends with a rush: the Wanderer leaves Grand Manan behind and heads out onto the open Atlantic, and suddenly there is nothing around them but water and sky in every direction. Life aboard settles into hard routine. The crew splits the day and night into watches, so someone is always steering and looking out while the others sleep; they cook in the cramped galley, ration the oranges and other provisions, and learn to do everything at a tilt. Sophie, who some doubted, proves quick and useful — she takes to the boat’s radio, learning the codes and the strange spelling alphabet sailors use so their words come through clearly over crackling airwaves. The men talk of insurance and safety, of what to do if something goes wrong so far from help. At night, glowing blips crawl across the radar screen: distant ships out there in the dark, unseen but real. Tempers flare in the tight quarters — Brian and Cody rub each other wrong — but slowly, hour by hour, this odd crew is becoming a true team, and Sophie is finding her place among them.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Open-ocean words: horizon, watch, galley, code, radar… |
| Literary Elements | Characters revealed by work, rising conflict, and Cody’s comic tone |
| Cross-Curricular | Talking at sea — VHF radio, the spelling alphabet, and radar |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Chapters 23–26 | Out to Open Water — the Wanderer leaves the island and heads into the empty Atlantic; the crew keeps watches, cooks in the galley, and Sophie starts learning the radio and its codes. |
| Chapters 27–29 | Voices in the Dark — the men discuss safety and insurance, the crew practices the spelling alphabet and call signs, and blips of distant ships crawl across the radar at night. |
Part 3’s words put the crew to work: each stands a watch at the wheel, cooks in the galley, learns the radio code, and watches radar blips creep across the screen with the horizon empty all around. Out on the open ocean, beyond the reach of phones, a boat’s main link to the world is its VHF radio. The radio has many channels, and sailors agree to reserve certain ones for certain jobs: Channel 16 is kept clear for hailing other boats and for calls of distress. To make sure a word is not lost in the crackle, sailors spell it out with the phonetic (spelling) alphabet, where each letter has a whole word — Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and so on — so that a boat named with the letters C-O-D-Y might be read out as ‘Charlie-Oscar-Delta-Yankee.’ In real trouble, a sailor repeats the word ‘Mayday’ three times, the sea’s oldest cry for help.
This word network turns action into purposeful register.
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
The narrative traces the routine of the open sea: standing watches, cooking in the galley, learning the radio and its codes, watching ships appear as blips, and a doubted girl finding her place in the crew. Chapters 23–26: Out to Open Water — the Wanderer leaves the island and heads into the empty Atlantic; the crew keeps watches, cooks in the galley, and Sophie starts learning the radio and its codes. Chapters 27–29: Voices in the Dark — the men discuss safety and insurance, the crew practices the spelling alphabet and call signs, and blips of distant ships crawl across the radar at night. The waiting ends with a rush: the Wanderer leaves Grand Manan behind and heads out onto the open Atlantic, and suddenly there is nothing around them but water and sky in every direction.
Actions become understandable once readers identify motive.
- The crew sets up rotating watches, day and night.
- The crew practices the spelling alphabet and call signs.
- The Wanderer leaves Grand Manan for open water.
- Sophie begins learning the radio codes.
- Blips of distant ships appear on the radar at night.
Part 3 works with three tools: people revealed by what they do (characterization), a struggle that grows (conflict), and the joking voice that colors Cody’s journal (tone). The two journals do not just tell different facts — they sound different, and that difference is tone. Cody’s entries are quick, funny, and self-mocking; he cracks jokes to keep fear at arm’s length, and his humor lightens the book just when the sea grows heavy. Sophie’s entries are dreamier, full of wonder and half-hidden ache. By setting a light voice beside a haunted one, Creech keeps the story from tipping too far into either comedy or gloom, and she quietly reminds us that the same voyage can feel like an adventure to one person and a reckoning to another.
Opposing details sharpen the episode’s contrast.
This part brings together a rotating watch, a radio code, a screen full of blips, a joking cousin. The episode demonstrates how Creech reveals who these people are through what they DO under way — a technique called characterization by action. On land, talk is cheap; on a small boat crossing an ocean, a person’s true nature shows in how they stand a night watch, handle a rope, or react when things go wrong. Sophie, whom some doubted, turns out to be steady and quick, mastering the radio; Cody hides real worry under jokes; Brian reaches for facts when he is nervous; Dock stays calm and capable. No one has to be described — we simply see them work, and we learn them. The narrative reveals how the ocean strips away pretending.
The outcome makes every decision produce a consequence.
Picture the boat far from any shore, a single speck under a huge sky, the horizon an unbroken circle of gray-blue water. It is three in the morning and it is Sophie’s watch. The others are asleep below; she alone holds the wheel, feeling the boat lean and surge beneath her. On the radio, a far-off voice crackles and spells its name letter by letter — Charlie, Oscar, Delta — and on the small green screen a blip creeps closer, some cargo ship passing in the dark she will never see. She was the one they doubted, the dreamer, the girl. And here she is, wide awake, steady, keeping her family safe while they sleep. Out here there is no room for pretending. You are simply what you do — and Sophie, it turns out, is a sailor.
Far out on the ocean, a boat like the Wanderer is beyond the reach of ordinary phones, so its lifeline to the world is the VHF radio. The radio is divided into many channels, and sailors have agreed to keep certain channels for certain uses. The most important is Channel 16, which is left clear so any boat can call another or send out a cry for help. Because a spoken word can be swallowed by static and the roar of wind, sailors do not simply say a letter; they use a spelling alphabet in which every letter is a whole word. ‘A’ becomes Alpha, ‘B’ becomes Bravo, ‘C’ becomes Charlie, and so on, so that a name spelled C-O-D-Y might be read aloud as Charlie-Oscar-Delta-Yankee, impossible to mishear.
When a boat is in true danger, the crew reaches for the radio and repeats one word three times: ‘Mayday, Mayday, Mayday.’ It is the sea’s oldest signal of distress, understood by sailors everywhere, and it tells anyone listening to drop what they are doing and help. A second tool guards the boat against the dark and the fog: radar. The radar sends out invisible radio pulses and listens for the echoes bouncing back off distant ships; it draws each returning echo as a small glowing dot, or blip, on a screen, so the crew can ‘see’ a vessel miles away even on a night as black as ink. Learning to transmit clearly and to read the radar turns a boatful of relatives into a working crew.
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 3 “Proving Them Wrong”
Some of the crew doubted that Sophie belonged, and she quietly proved them wrong by being good at the work. Write about a time someone doubted you, or you doubted yourself, and you showed what you could really do. What was the doubt, what did you do, and how did it change how you or others saw you? 6–10 sentences. End with what you learned about yourself.
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 3 Complete!
You finished Chapters 23–29 of The Wanderer.
Here are your auto-graded results:
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Sharon Creech. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Sharon Creech’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.