Excerpt:

Alex gripped the side of the ship willing her upward, at the same time knowing somehow in the pit of his stomach that it wouldn’t work, he could see her legs starting to shake as she struggled to hold herself on to the rope. Glancing quickly down at the deck he saw a small rope coiled at his feet.

“Hey, there’s a rope here,” he called “Hold still for a minute. Can you see me at all?” She was hanging with her back to the ship but the rope was angled a bit so she was turned about 20 degrees inward.

“Yeah, a little,” her voice cracked and she tried to hold herself together. She could feel her legs shaking. “I can see you.”

“OK. I’m going to try and throw you the rope, it’s got a little ball at the end, so you should be able to grip it.” He pulled out what he thought was enough rope to reach her, and threw it hard in her direction. It started falling back towards the ship about three feet short of her, and hit the side of a ship with a small ‘chink’ sound. He hoped the sound was not loud enough to draw attention to them. “Ok, that almost got to you, I’m going to try again. Ready?”

“Oh yeah,” she said. “Anytime.”

“One, two, three…” Another miss. This time, the rope was long enough but just a little to far to the right. He missed one more throw, and on his fourth try, she grabbed the rope. At the same moment, her legs slipped and she fell through the air for what seemed like an eternity, but it wasn’t long enough for Alex to brace himself for the impact when she slammed into the side of the ship and pulled him up against the edge. He felt no slack, so he knew she was still holding on.

“Hey, your gonna be ok,” he cried, “I’m pulling you up now.” He pulled back as hard as he could until he was sitting on the deck, then he kicked the side of the ship with his feed for leverage and pulled back some more inching the rope through his hands so he wouldn’t loose his grip. He could feel the skin rubbing away from his palms. Finally her fingers showed in the chock, the large hole that the ship's lines are threaded through.

“You’re almost there, he shouted,” Sascha let go of the rope with one hand and grabbed the side of the ship. Alex lunged forward and grabbed her arm pulling her over the side. They fell backwards together onto the deck gasping for breath.