The inlet currents often mix, creating dangerous whirlpools. Leif is sleeping in the canoe on top of his salmon to protect it from the ravens when one of the birds pecks his arm and wakes him up. He realizes that his canoe is caught in a whirling current that he is helpless against. When he tries to grab a dead tree, it just pulls him deeper into the vortex. The canoe capsizes, and as Leif is pulled under, he resigns himself to death: “[t]hat his life force must end now” (138). Mercifully, the currents shift, and Leif pops to the surface, gasping for air. With all the strength he has remaining, Leif swims to shore dragging the waterlogged canoe. Safely on the shore, Leif surveys his losses—the spear, wood carving, and dried fish are gone. Thankful just to be alive, Leif collapses in exhaustion.

Leif awakens from a nightmare where monsters drag him into a pit. Famished, Leif sets to fashioning a new fishing spear. Using skills he learned from Old Carl, Leif creates the spear from dried willow sharpened to points. However, his first attempts to fish with the new spear are unsuccessful.