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Shrill Announcement
Lisa Paisola had spent almost two weeks aboard a cruise ship in Antarctica's freezing temperatures, but she'd never felt cold like this. Huddled with 32 others in a metal lifeboat tossed by a fierce wind, she held her breath each time the craft dipped into the ocean and was splashed by heaving waves. The icy spray gave her an instant headache and numbed her cheeks. Dressed in long underwear, a thick sweater and waterproof pants and parka, Paisola still shivered uncontrollably and realized that she could no longer feel her toes.She turned to her 63-year-old aunt, Kay Van Horne, who was pressed next to her. "This could be the last sunrise we'll ever see," she said, pointing to an orange glow in the distance. In a way, the scene was oddly beautiful, the towering icebergs cast in pastels by the dawning light.
Van Horne squeezed her niece's hand. "Let's not worry about something we can't control," she said quietly. "If it's our time to go, it's our time." For the next five hours, the women, floating in a freezing sea, relied on each other to keep hope alive.
A substitute teacher from Denver, Van Horne lived to travel. She and her equally adventurous niece had once trekked across Morocco on camelback. Paisola, 38, a real estate investor from North Salt Lake, Utah, had taken cruises to six different continents. The women each paid $15,000 for the Antarctica trip that, following the trail of the Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton, would take them to the bottom of the world.
But in Ushuaia, Argentina, where they were to board ship, Paisola laid eyes on the 39-year-old MS Explorer -- purposely compact to traverse the Southern Ocean's fjords -- and had second thoughts. As much as she wanted to make it to that seventh continent, she suddenly questioned the idea of spending 19 days on what looked like a fishing boat.
The laid-back Van Horne convinced her to put aside her concern, and the two settled into life on board, getting to know their 89 fellow passengers over leisurely dinners, taking wildlife tours led by seasoned experts to surrounding islands and enjoying the unspoiled frozen landscape around them.
After 12 days at sea, Paisola and Van Horne were getting ready for bed in their cozy cabin when they felt a sharp, jarring jolt. They had become accustomed to the sound the ship made as it cut through icy waters, but this was a loud thud that, to Paisola, signaled trouble. "Hurry -- dry your hair," she told her aunt, who'd just showered. "If anything happens, you don't want your hair wet."
"I feel like I should be watching Titanic," Van Horne responded sarcastically. "Since this could be a long night, maybe I'd better put on long johns." Sitting casually on the edge of her bed, she turned her hair dryer on high.
Minutes later, at around midnight, an alarm sounded, and the Explorer's captain, Bengt Wiman, made a shrill announcement over the intercom: "This is not a drill. Get on your arctic gear and come immediately to the muster station!" The passengers had been briefed before leaving port that, in an emergency, they would be called to the muster station, or lounge, the designated gathering place.
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