The Correspondent Timeline and Summary

The correspondent sits in the boat and why where he's there.
Someone tries to point out the lighthouse to he correspondent, but he can't see it.
The correspondent thinks about how much he hates rowing.
The correspondent and the oiler take turns rowing all night.
When the correspondent is rowing and the others are asleep, a shark starts circling the boat.
He wishes someone else were awake to be there with him.
Out of nowhere, he recalls a poem he used to know about a French soldier dying in Algiers.
He never cared about the soldier before, but now it seems unbearably sad as he imagines the soldier in his mind.
In the morning as they try to get themselves to shore, the correspondent grabs a piece of a life preserver.
He falls from the boat and floats on the life preserver, like a boogie board.
He gets caught in a riptide but a wave comes and frees him.
He's suddenly no longer scared of dying; he just doesn't want it to hurt.
He sees a man running toward them on the beach.
The captain calls him over to the boat.
The correspondent sees the man on the beach again. He's taking his clothes off, and has a halo around his head.
The correspondent swims toward the boat, but another wave throws him clear over the boat.
He finds himself in shallow water, and the man on the beach comes to help him onto land.