Antarctica

I was never one for the open waves, I got seasick very easily. It was Lorna that had persuaded me to board the 2,400 tonne M/S Explorer as part of an ‘adventure’ holiday and to rekindle our flagging, sinking relationship. I couldn’t swim either.
Still, as trips went, it was pretty magnificent. Taking in the daily sights of empty glass blue oceans beneath watercolour skies we dawdled around the iced sculpted landscapes feeling like visitors to a new planet. We were aliens in furs and woolly gloves and it was freezing.
The nights were cosy; however, mixing below decks, as one does, with other travellers and consuming large quantities of vodka and whisky to disguise the seasickness. The days were newer and fresher with each crisp, blinding morning that we took the deck and we glided along for 11 days before wrestling with the roaring Antarctic rollers, pressing ever onwards towards our destination and the warmer welcome of Chile.
The Explorer, a purpose-built expeditionary vessel, was designed to literally go where no passenger ship had gone before, or in my mind where no passenger ship should be going if it had any sense.
I didn’t feel the first bump, it was 1am and I was still intoxicated. Already buried under our fluffy quilt for an hour or so I was busy dreaming of rollercoaster’s and hot dogs. The second bump came shortly afterwards making the ships hull shudder violently like someone kicking a tin bath full of water. I was still woozy but the sound of alarms, yells and panic would have woken Neptune himself, and that was just me.
After Lorna had slapped me we grabbed what clothing we could find and stumbled out of the door getting tangled in the sound of bells and hasty evacuation. The ship was listing like the crazy house of ‘fun’ at a cheap funfair and we were sinking.
Grasping through life vested passengers we finally emerged onto a dimly lit deck where the crew were fighting with the swinging lifeboats. For a moment I imagined Celine Dionne singing from the bow of the ship and I tensed as Lorna squeezed my hand. She knew I hated water yet somehow I felt safe with her near me, we would be safe together.
We formed a queue against the stinging wind as we boarded the lifeboat and I nearly choked as I looked over at the black heaving Antarctic waves boiling and roaring beneath me, each grisly wave smashing against the port side of the Explorers hull like a back handed slap for its impertinence. Only my head was swimming, God I felt sick.
Lorna shivered next to me and I instinctively released my lifejacket to remove my coat and threw it over her shoulders. I hugged her tightly as the lifeboat jerked and was painfully lowered into the dark watery soup below, her terrified eyes holding me with her gaze. I winked at her and she smiled, we were going to be ok.