Through the course of a school year, the novel follows a senior, Jason Prosper, class of ’88. After he finds his best friend and sailing partner, Cal, hanging from a hot-water pipe in their dorm* room, he transfers to Bellingham, a seaside boarding school specializing in second chances.

    But any hope of a fresh start is destroyed when, on his first day out with the sailing team, Prosper accidentally causes his new partner to become caught underwater in a tangle* of rope.

    Prosper saves him, but instead of making him a hero, the near disaster* only isolates* him from the big men on campus. Fine with him — he doesn’t want to sail anymore, anyway. Not without Cal.

    Instead, Prosper takes up a quiet friendship with Aidan, a mysterious* girl who is even more lonely than he is.

    Gradually both teenagers reveal their not-so-innocent* secrets to each other, trying to heal their broken hearts.

    “The Starboard Sea” is a novel about the freedom of being young and in love with the world, in harmony with nature and with an irreplaceable* friend. Near the end of the book, out on the water with the sailing partner he nearly drowned, Prosper and his friend finally dismiss* their accident and share a connection about being young and lucky. (SD-Agencies)