Hi there! I’m Ryan, and I’m Craig. We’re so excited to share a story with you today. If you enjoy our stories, you can find more on our website or Instagram. Now, let’s dive into today’s adventure!
Join us on a journey to a magical place called Serendipity Sound, where boats of all shapes and sizes live. It’s a bright morning as Connor the Cutter arrives at the port. “Hello!” says a cheerful red boat named Faith. “I’m Faith, the fireboat. What’s your name?”
Connor smiles and says, “I’m Connor, Connor the Cutter.” Faith is curious. “What’s a cutter?” she asks. Connor explains, “I’m a fast patrol boat that travels up and down the coast.” Faith nods and asks if Connor has met the harbormaster yet.
Connor is curious about Sarah, a fast racing boat. Faith tells him, “Sarah is the pride of Serendipity Sound!” But when Connor tries to say hello, Sarah sails away without noticing him.
Connor feels a bit worried. “What if no one likes me here?” he wonders. Faith reassures him, “Don’t worry, Connor. It just takes time to make friends.” Just then, a grumpy tugboat named Thaddeus grumbles about the noise. But Faith tells Connor not to worry about Thaddeus.
Meanwhile, Sarah is busy preparing for a big race. Anna the lighthouse warns her about a storm, but Sarah is too focused on winning to listen.
Out at sea, Sarah gets caught in a terrible storm. The waves are huge, and her masts break! She calls for help on her radio, “Harbormaster, I need help!”
Back at the port, Faith hears the call and rushes to help Sarah. Connor wants to help too, but his radio didn’t catch the message clearly. “I have to help my friends!” Connor decides, and he bravely heads out into the storm.
Faith finds Sarah struggling in the storm. “I’ll help you!” Faith says, trying to pull Sarah to safety. But the waves are too strong. Just then, Connor arrives. “Follow me!” he shouts. With Connor leading the way, they safely navigate through the storm.
Anna the lighthouse shines her light to guide them back to the port. Finally, they are safe!
Sarah is sad about her broken masts, but Anna assures her that the harbormaster will fix her up better than ever. Sarah realizes she might have a new adventure ahead.
Back at the port, all the boats cheer for Connor and Faith. Thaddeus, the tugboat, proudly calls Connor “Connor the Courageous Cutter!” Connor feels happy and at home with his new friends.
Connor learns that the harbormaster loves fixing boats, especially when they’re broken. Sarah’s new mast is a sign of new adventures to come.
As the storm clouds drift away, Connor knows he’s found a place where he belongs, surrounded by friends who care about each other.
And that’s the story of Connor the Courageous Cutter and his brave adventure to help Sarah. Remember, even when things seem tough, friends are always there to help!
Create Your Own Boat Adventure: Draw a picture of your own boat and give it a name. Think about what kind of boat it is and what special things it can do. Write a short story about an adventure your boat might have. Share your story with a friend or family member and ask them what they liked about it.
Stormy Sea Experiment: Fill a shallow tray with water to represent the sea. Use a small toy boat or make one from paper. Create waves by gently blowing on the water or using your fingers. Notice how the boat moves with the waves. Discuss with a friend or family member how Connor and Faith might have felt during the storm and what it means to be courageous.
Friendship Circle: Think about a time when you helped a friend or when a friend helped you. Draw a picture of that moment. Share your drawing with the class and talk about why helping friends is important. Discuss how Connor and Faith helped Sarah and what you can learn from their friendship.
Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hey, I’m Ryan LeGod and I’m Craig Tovey, and welcome to Story Time with Ryan McGodd and Craig Tovey! Remember, if you like what you see, follow us on Instagram or visit our website. You can watch all of our read-alouds there or send us a message.
Oh, I have a message! Craig used to work on a cruise ship. Well, that is convenient because today’s book is “The Adventures of Connor the Courageous Cutter: Finding Sarah” by Scott McBride and Roger Thompson, illustrated by Brian Martin. Let’s get started!
*The Adventures of Connor the Courageous Cutter: Finding Sarah*
Journey with me to a place far away, across the seas and beyond the bays, through the big river basins and just past the capes. There’s a place full of boats of all sizes and shapes. Come hear their tales! Come gather around and take a voyage with me to Serendipity Sound.
It was a beautiful morning in Serendipity Sound as Connor the Cutter entered the port. “You must be the new guy!” a bright red boat exclaimed with a toot of her whistle. “I’m Faith, the fireboat. What’s your name?” Connor smiled and honked his horn twice. “My name’s Connor, Connor the Cutter.”
“A cutter, huh? We’ve never had one of those before. What’s a cutter?” Faith asked. “I’m a fast patrol boat that goes up and down the coast,” Connor replied. “Gotcha! Have you checked in with the big guy yet?”
“The big guy?” Connor asked. “The harbormaster. He said he’s the head honcho around here. You’ll hear him through your radio. Is yours tuned to the right frequency?”
“Who’s that?” Connor asked while tuning his radio. “That’s Sarah the schooner. She’s a professional racing boat,” Faith answered. “Wow, she’s the fastest boat that ever was!” Faith said with a grin. “The pride of Serendipity Sound.” Connor tooted his horn to Sarah, but she kept sailing out to sea.
“Maybe she didn’t hear me,” Connor said with a frown. “A lot of the boats around here are uncomfortable with new boats,” Faith replied. “With good reason too,” cried a grumpy voice from the next pier. “If you don’t mind, there are old folks trying to sleep around here,” coughed Thaddeus the tugboat.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Connor said quietly. “What if no one likes me here?” Connor thought. “Never mind him, Thaddeus can be moody, but he means well,” Faith smiled. “Just give it some time.”
“Oh man, that’s tough.”
“Yeah, it’s tough to fit in. I hope Connor finds some friends.”
“Yeah, I wish I had some friends.”
“Ryan, you do have a friend. I’m your friend!”
“No, I mean like boat friends. Like friends with boats.”
“No, like boats that are my friends.”
“Okay, I mean I could be a boat.”
“Craig, you can’t! Boats have sails.”
“Give me a shot at being a boat!”
“It’s impossible!”
“Just watch! Just watch! I’ll be a boat!”
“Okay, I’m suspect I can do it.”
“Good day to you, darling!” Anna the lighthouse called down to Sarah. Anna had watched over the sound since before boats lived there.
“Good morning! Have you met the new cutter? He seems like a nice boat.”
“I don’t have the time right now. I’m training for next week’s race.”
“I wouldn’t go out there today; there’s a bad storm coming. Why don’t you take a day off from training?”
All Sarah could think about was winning her next race. “If the weather starts looking bad, I’ll head back.” Anna didn’t like the idea of a boat on stormy seas and radioed the harbormaster to let him know Sarah had gone out.
Far out at sea, Sarah zoomed across the waves. Her large sails caught the wind and pushed her faster down the coast. After a few minutes, dark storm clouds covered the sky. “Oh no!” Sarah thought. “I’ll never make it back before the storm hits!” Using her radio, she called out, “Harbormaster, this is Sarah. I need help!”
The waves crashed all around her as the sea swallowed her up. No matter how hard she tried to fight the seas, the storm tossed her about. A large wave rose high into the sky and crashed down upon her, breaking both of her masts. “Somebody help!”
Connor, Thaddeus, and Faith were back on their piers enjoying the afternoon. “As long as I stay here, I’ll be safe,” Connor thought. He heard a voice murmur through his radio. “What was that?”
Faith left her pier at full speed, heading towards the sea. “Where are you going?” Connor yelled after her. “Sarah’s stranded in the storm! Didn’t you hear the harbormaster’s call?” she asked.
“It didn’t come in clearly on my radio!”
“Someone has to help Sarah; that’s what the harbormaster would want!” Faith replied. “Be safe out there, Faith!”
“I’ll be fine! You have to have a little faith!”
“Oh man, I have faith that Faith is going to be able to help Sarah. Somebody better help Sarah out soon; it’s dangerous out there!”
“Also, if I hold my breath, dude, I could be really buoyant!”
“You can just hop on, float on me!”
“Craig, you’re not gonna be a boat!”
“Whoa, Craig!”
“Oh great, I passed out for holding my breath too long!”
“You’re not a boat!”
“Believe in me!”
“Why didn’t I listen to Anna?” Sarah cried as she was tossed around by the waves. “I wish I were home with all my friends!”
Sarah saw light approaching through the waves. It was Faith! “Somebody call for rescue?” asked Faith.
“Sarah yelled out, ‘My masts are broken!’”
Faith rigged her tow line and tried to pull Sarah through the rough seas, but the big waves kept smashing against them, turning them in all directions. “We’re never going to make it!” cried Sarah. “The waves are too big!”
No matter how hard Faith pulled, they kept getting tossed and turned by the sea, being swept right towards the rocks. The harbormaster always warned everyone in the sound to stay away from the rocks.
“Harbormaster, this is Faith Fireboat!” she called out on the radio. “We need help! The seas are too rough!”
“Faith, look for Anna’s light!” said the harbormaster. “Let her guide you to safe water!”
“I don’t see it!” Faith cried out. “What are we going to do?” asked Sarah.
“The harbormaster will get us out of this!”
Back in port, all the boats were worried about their friends. “Someone needs to go help Faith and Sarah!” ordered the harbormaster over the radio.
“I’m not risking it!” said Yardley the yacht. “It’s much too dangerous for a yacht!”
“Yardley’s right!” echoed Naomi the news chopper. “The waves are too big and the winds are too strong for a helicopter! None of us can help them!”
Connor refused to listen to the others. Instead, he cast off his lines and headed out to sea. Thaddeus the tugboat woke from his nap just in time to see Connor leaving. “Where are you going?” Thaddeus called.
“I’m going to help my friends!” Connor shouted back as he sped up. “I can do this!”
“I can do this too, Ryan! I’m a boat! This is like a sail! Okay, let it catch the wind and carry us away!”
“I’m a boat!”
“No, I’m a boat friend, just like we talked about!”
“Whoa, the wind has got me!”
“You’re just a friend friend!”
“I can do this!”
The clouds grew darker, the winds blew harder, and Faith could barely see through the pouring rain. The seas pushed her and Sarah closer and closer to the rocks when all of a sudden—crash!
“Connor, over here!” Faith called out. “Follow me!”
He said, “Stay close and I’ll cut a path through the waves.” Faith and Sarah followed so closely behind Connor that they almost ran into him. Wave by wave, the three of them passed through the surf unharmed.
“Harbormaster, come in!” said Connor over the radio. “I’ve got Sarah!”
“Look for my light!” Connor replied.
Anna over the radio, through the dark storm and pouring rain, Connor saw Anna’s light beaming across the sky. He turned towards shore as the rain slowly began to fade away. Soon they were back in the sound, away from the dangerous seas.
“Wow, that was awesome!” Connor, Faith explained. “You saved us both!”
Anna looked down. “What’s wrong, Sarah?”
“Look at my mast! I’ll never race again!”
“Oh, Sarah,” Anna said, “just wait until you get back into port. I bet the harbormaster will make you better than ever!”
“I was the fastest schooner on the sea, and now I’m nothing but a dinghy!”
She powered up her little motor and slowly floated into the sound. “Did I do something wrong?” Connor asked.
“Sometimes,” began Anna, “things happen we can’t control. Sarah doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to race again because she’s broken.”
“Really?” asked Faith.
Anna smiled. “If there’s one thing I know, it’s that there’s nothing the harbormaster loves more than a broken boat.”
Connor’s eyes grew wide. “Really? Why?”
“The harbormaster loves fixing boats! That’s why he’s the harbormaster. He loves boats more than anything else, but he especially loves a broken boat. I bet Sarah’s new mast will be even better than the one she lost when he’s done with her.”
Far off in the distance, Sarah sat on a pier by herself, sniffling. Barry the barge approached her with a crane sitting on his deck. “Hey there, Sarah,” he said with his thick accent. “Good to see you!”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“I’m just going to go—”
“Go where?” interrupted Barry. “I got this crane that can put the mast right there on you!”
“What?” Sarah was confused. “Why is there only one mast? I need more to race!”
“I don’t know. The harbormaster told me to bring just one. Maybe he wants you to do more than just racing!”
“Hey!” he replied.
Sarah looked at the beautiful new mast and knew the harbormaster had a bigger plan for her. “You know what? I have a plan too!”
“What?”
“Install a propeller and a motor on my back! I’m gonna become that boat!”
“Craig, you’re just my friend friend, okay? You will never ever ever be a boat!”
“Jeez!”
Back at the pier, Naomi the news chopper swooped over Faith and Connor, yelling as all the other boats cheered. “It’s Faith the Fearless and the newest member of our family, Connor the Cutter!”
“Hey kid!” Thaddeus the tugboat yelled. “What did you say your name was?”
Connor looked at the old tugboat, expecting to be scorned. “Connor the Cutter, sir!”
“No, no, no! This is Connor the Courageous Cutter!”
As his new friends tooted their horns, Connor felt right at home. From the sound, the harbormaster could see Anna smiling at the dark storm clouds floating away as Barry the barge began installing Sarah’s new mast.
Connor looked at Faith and said, “The harbormaster really loves his boats!”
“Oh wow, the harbormaster loves his boats, and I love my friends!”
“You know what, Craig? You are a boat!”
“What does that mean?”
“I even wrote a song about you! Do you want to hear it?”
“Uh, yeah!”
“He’s huge, he floats, he’s Craig the Boat! Okay, he’s friendly, he’s fun, he weighs two tons!”
“Okay, that just sounds mean!”
“He’s big!”
“So big!”
“What rhymes with big?”
*The Adventures of Connor the Courageous Cutter: Finding Sarah* by Scott McBride and Roger Thompson, illustrated by Brian Martin.
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This version removes any inappropriate language and maintains the essence of the original transcript.
