An inside view of the Drake

The wind howls through rigging that creaks and groans under the strain of full sails. The boat heels steeply, footsteps thud across the deck, sails flap, a shackle bangs on the deck like a jackhammer just above my head. It's so loud I need to put my hand over my ear - in my top bunk my head is only a foot from the deck so I am intimate with all of the noises going on outside.

I am lying halfway up the wall - we are well heeled over on this tack and wedged between the wall and bunk is the most comfortable position. The boat thuds into something with a resounding bang, and stops for a microsecond. My eyes snap open, muscles tense, and my first thought is 'shit, an iceberg!'. Water pouring over the hatch above my head reminds me that we are no longer in iceberg territory and it is a big wave we have hit - water seems very solid at the speed we are traveling at.

The boat surges forward again as the wave sloshes on down the boat and out through the scuppers. Footsteps down the hatch and there are voices in the galley, resuming the conversation where it left off prior to the call for action. I close my eyes again and drift back into my state of semi-comatoseness induced by seasickness. Somehow, amidst all the noise and chaos I fall asleep...my dreams contain images of being in a house attacked by armies of people with battering rams...

Christine