(i) honing our seafaring skills: This refers to the efforts made by the author and his wife to perfect or sharpen their seafaring skills.
(ii) ominous silence: the silence here refers to an impending danger.
(iii) Mayday calls: Mayday calls are radio-telephonic words which signal aircraft or ships stuck in a disastrous situation.
(iv) pinpricks in the vast ocean: This phrase expresses the search for two small islands in the vast ocean.They were somewhere in 150,000 kilometer of ocean looking for a 65 kilometer wide island.
(v) a tousled head: this refers to hair in disarray or the disarranged hair of the author‟* son, Jonathan
