We had both finally dozed off just before we were abruptly awakened by a large crash that threw us forward in our bunks as the ship tipped precariously from one side to the other. I was immediately shocked awake and frozen with fear, sure that we were about to die. It was almost 12:30 at night and pitch black in our tiny room that was now beginning to feel more like a coffin. My husband sat up in his bunk and pulled back the drape. Looking out his port hole, he saw the smaller boat below us that we had obviously hit well below us and dead in the water.
I was panicking and did not know what to do. My husband calmly told me to get dressed and put on my life preserver so we could go outside our cabin to see what was going on. Everyone on the boat had the same idea. They all rushed to the rail with their life preservers, wondering if we were going to sink. The motors on our ferry had been shut down and we glided to a stop. After a few minutes the captain came on over the intercom urging passengers to remain calm while they checked out the damage. Easier said than done. After about a half an hour of sitting there dead in the water, the captain came back on the intercom and jovially commented “no problem, just lost a little paint”. We would be back under way in just a few more minutes.
I tried to get back to sleep but understandably had a very hard time. I couldn’t help thinking about the sharks that we had been feeding just a few days before and the bigger ones that we might have been feeding that night. Daylight and the shore line of Mindanao couldn’t come soon enough for me.