The entity that has grabbed Robie's hand is Max, who has swum back to the raft, despite having lost his life jacket. He asks Robie how long he was unconscious for and she tells him that it was a long time. He lifts himself into the raft and agrees with her concern about how much water the vessel is taking on. He tells her that there is a patch kit in his bag, but also that they must flip the raft to drain it before they fix it, just as Robie herself had earlier assessed. 

Max convinces her to get out of the raft, but it doesn't go very well. After attaching the ditty bag to her wrist, Robie gets ready to get in the water, a process she describes as follows: "I put my foot over the side and started to slide out of the raft, and into the water. But then I locked my elbows on the edge, refusing to go farther. My weight on the side of the empty raft made it flip over, trapping me underneath" (90).

Robie shoves the raft with all her strength, which successfully gets it off of herbut also causes the ditty bag to fall off her wrist.