Antarctic Affair

by Louise Rose-Innes

  Georgina saw Claude zipping his wife’s jacket up and kissing her tenderly on the cheek. The sight moved her for a reason she couldn’t fathom, and she averted her eyes. She took a life jacket from Don wondering how the hell you put the damn thing on. It had so many criss-crossing straps and zips.

  “Need a hand?” offered Taj appearing beside her. He unzipped the bright orange device and held it open. “Put your one arm through here,” he ordered in a gentle tone. “And now the other one,” she obediently inserted her other arm like a child would do and stared at him as he pulled it closed over her chest and zipped it up.

  “It’s a bit tight,” she said breathlessly, not sure if it was because he was so close to her or because the vest was squeezing all the air out of her lungs. Probably both.

  “It’s supposed to be tight,” he answered curtly, giving it a tug and then turning to help someone else.

  “Fine,” she mumbled annoyed at her school-girl reaction.

  Finally they were all sitting in a semi-circle on the bucking zodiac, brightly attired in their orange life jackets like a flock of colourful birds. Don took the helm and launched the boat over a small wave and out into the open water. Waves bashed over the front of the boat sending spray in all directions. By the time they got back to the Explorer Georgina was thoroughly drenched. Her hair hung in sodden tendrils around her face and she was freezing. She blew on her fingers in an attempt to warm them up.

  “I think I’m suffering from hypothermia,” she complained to Amy who was also rubbing her hands together.

  “I vote we go have a hot shower,” the marine biologist suggested.

  “Brilliant idea,” agreed Georgina.

  Then the strangest thing happened. Taj, who had been helping Don unload the boat took her frigid hands in his big warm ones and began rubbing them gently.

  “That better?” he asked softly.

  She looked up in surprise. A long moment passed where they just stared at each other.

  “Thank you, but I think I’m fine now,” she whispered, hastily withdrawing her hands and putting them in her pockets. She was shaking. What had just happened?

  “How did you enjoy the hike, George?” asked Don, joining them. She groaned. Not him too. Soon everyone on board would be calling her George.

  “It was great. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, apart from the blisters and aching feet, or course, but that was entirely my own fault.”

  She saw him glance at Taj and her realised this was the part where she was supposed to scuttle back to her cabin, tail between her legs.

  “Am I missing something?” she asked innocently.

  Don shook his head. “No, not at all. I’m sure you must be exhausted though. You probably won’t be joining us on the next excursion.”

  That’s what they thought. She pretended to look alarmed.

  “Of course I want to. In fact I’m looking forward to it. Today’s little trek has really opened my eyes to the natural beauty of Antarctica. I’m so glad you guys suggested I come along.”

  Don stared at her, speechless. She couldn’t tell what Taj was thinking.

  “I didn’t really get much time to ask you any questions today, Taj. I’m sorry about that. I’ll make sure I have some for next time.”

  She gave them a sweet smile and excused herself to go and tend to her painful heels.

  “You realise this is entirely your fault,” she heard Taj grumble to Don as she walked away. Luckily Don’s colourful reply was lost in the wind.

  CHAPTER SIX

  “We’re going to do what?” asked Georgina, incredulously.

  “If you’re not up for it you can always stay behind,” Taj told her. She didn’t miss the hopeful edge to his voice. Did he honestly think she was going to give up that easily?

  “If you go, I go,” she said firmly.

  He shrugged, “Suit yourself.”

  They made their way to the lower deck and Georgina saw six bright yellow double-kayaks lying side by side.

  “They don’t look very stable, do they?” she said nervously to Amy, who was pulling on a life vest over her windbreaker.

  “It takes a bit of practice, but you’ll get used to it,” the diminutive marine biologist said kindly. “You can ride with me.”

  “Sorry, not a good idea,” said Don, who’d joined them on deck and was also getting kitted up. “It’s better to pair up with a guy. If the wind changes and you run into trouble, you’ll need the extra strength – no offense.”

  “None taken,” Georgina assured him with a smile. “I want to be as safe as possible.”

  “In that case,” Don instructed, “I’ll pair you up with Taj here. You don’t mind, do you Taj? Amy, you go with Claude.”

  “Okay, you’re the boss,” Amy grinned. Taj didn’t look too happy. He glared at his friend but didn’t reply.

  Georgina decided to rub it in.

  “Great, at least it will make asking questions a lot easier,” she said brightly.

  “Yeah, great,” he replied, hauling the kayak to the launching strip.

  “Love your style,” Don whispered as he carried his kayak past her towards the water.

  Georgina was more nervous than she cared to admit. She fumbled with her life vest, her hands shaking, at which point Taj appeared and helped her fasten it. “Ever been kayaking before?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “No, never.”

  He sighed. “The trick to staying upright is to keep your centre of gravity low. In other words keep your butt firmly in the seat. Try not to lean to any one side, and let me do the steering. If we fall in we’ll die of hyperthermia in, I’d say, roughly two minutes. So we want to avoid that at all costs, okay?”

  “Okay,” she whispered, not at all sure this was such a good idea. Eric, her editor, better appreciate what she was going through for this cover story. If this carried on she’d have to start demanding danger pay.

  He slapped her on the shoulder. “Relax. Being tense is not going to help any.”

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. They climbed down on to the launching pad. “Let me get in first to stabilise it, once I’m sitting down you climb in. Got that?”

  “Yes,” she whispered hoarsely.

  She watched as he straddled the kayak and lowered himself down into a sitting position. He tucked his legs into the small space provided and his feet disappeared from view into the body of the kayak.

  “Your turn,” he told her.

  She put her hands on his shoulders and climbed slowly into the kayak. Once seated he turned around, “You okay?”

  “Yup,” she breathed, feeling the kayak wobble with the gentle motion of sea.

  “Okay, I’m going to push away from the ship now, and start paddling. You paddle in time with me, or not at all. If you paddle out of time we’re going over.”

  He pushed away and they were off. The kayak glided seamlessly through the glassy water.

  “Paddle with me, George,” Taj urged softly, as he dipped his oars one side then the other in a rhythmic fashion.

  “I don’t want to capsize us,” Georgina whispered.

  “It’ll be okay, just paddle with me. Left – right – left – right…” he counted. “That’s it. You got it. Now keep the rhythm going.”

  Georgina was concentrating so hard she almost forgot too look at the surrounding scenery. They rounded a perfect set of imposing cliffs and paddled along the starkly beautiful coastline. There were six kayaks in total slicing through the calm water.

  The highlight of the trip was when a couple of Humpbacks broke the glassy surface with their soft breathing only meters away from them. Everybody gasped in awe at the massive yet graceful creatures. Taj quickly stopped paddling and grabbed his camera which hung round his neck. The kayak lurched to the side.

  “Keep dipping your paddles on either side,” he instructed her. “Try and keep it stable, I want to take a shot.”

  Georgina carefully patted the water along the right side of the kayak wh
ich gently righted itself, then she pressed down on the left, and the kayak stilled.

  “Good work,” Taj muttered, staring through his lens at the whales, who were now squirting jets of water through their blowholes and frolicking about to the delight of the group. Praise from the austere Taj Andrews, Georgina could hardly believe it, but she felt proud of herself too. She could do this.

  “Won’t your camera get wet?” she asked, once he’d finished and resumed paddling.

  “I’ve got waterproof casing,” he told her. If I fell in it would probably still survive.”

  “Let’s hope we never put that to the test,” she murmured.

  After paddling around the coast line for about half an hour they came to two icebergs connected by a low arch. They paddled under the dripping ceiling and stared in fascination at the blue, green and white striations in the ice.

  “I want to get some shots of this,” Taj told her. “Let’s land on that ice pack over there - it’s the best vantage point.”

  “You want to land. Here?” They were in the middle of the sea, about a kilometre from the ship and the rest of the group were paddling off into the distance.

  “Just for a minute,” he said, steering the kayak onto the flat surface of packed ice. He hopped off and pulled the craft up a few metres.

  “Sit tight, I’ll be right back,” he told her and much to her dismay he headed for the opposite side of the ice pack, camera in hand.

  “Fabulous,” she muttered to herself. The solitude was overwhelming. She could hear her own breathing, and the gentle tinkle of the ice knocking into each other with the incoming tide. She stared at the smooth ice pack and Taj in the distance, crouching down, aiming his camera and its long lens at the unique ice formations.

  Suddenly there was a loud cracking sound and she could have sworn she felt the ice move.

  “Taj?” she called worriedly.

  “Hang on, I’ll be right there,” he shouted back, taking a few last shots.

  “Taj, I felt something move!” she yelled. More cracking. Taj stood up and stared at the ice pack. “It’s a pressure ridge. The ice is cracking.”

  There was a low, grinding sound and long angular cracks popped up scarring the smooth ice pack. It looked like an earthquake on a miniature scale, but just as scary.

  “Taj, I can’t paddle this thing without you,” she yelled, as a large crevice opened up in front of her effectively cutting off Taj’s route back to the kayak.

  Taj was running towards her, but ground to a halt before the crevice. “You’re going to have to!” he shouted at her. “Quickly, climb into the front and take my oar. Then push off and paddle round to this side. You’ll have to come and get me, I can’t reach you there.”

  “I can’t do it,” she sobbed. “I’ll capsize.”

  “You won’t. I’ll talk you through it. Climb over now!”

  The whole ice pack suddenly came alive, creaking and groaning like a living creature. Taj had to jump back as ridges opened up all around him.

  “Hurry!” he yelled, clambering over cracks that exposed the frigid ocean below.

  “Oh God,” she gasped, as she anxiously climbed into the front of the kayak. She took up Taj’s oar, and began sliding the craft back off the ice sheet and into the water. For a scary moment she almost went over, but then remembered Taj’s advice and dipped the oar on the opposite side to stabilise herself.

  “That’s it, good girl,” Taj called. “Now start paddling. You can do it.”

  Tentatively she tried to paddle around the rupturing ice sheet. Plates of ice were splintering and tearing away from the main pack, bobbing in the water. She paddled past one, scraping the side of the kayak causing her to wobble dangerous.

  “Steady yourself,” Taj called in a calm voice. She did as he said and after a painstaking ten minutes she glided to a stop a metre from where he was stranded. The only firm piece of ice, which Taj had managed to get to, was now sinking. It was half submerged already, soaking his boots and the bottom of his jeans, tilted drunkenly to one side.

  “What must I do now?” she screamed, seeing the angle of the ice underneath him reach almost forty-five degrees. He slipped forward.

  “I’m going to have to jump for it,” he told her.

  To her horror he leapt forward, throwing his upper body across the back of the kayak. There was a loud splash as his legs hit the water, spraying Georgina across her face. She frantically tried to steady the craft which lurched from side to side like a buoy on rough seas.

  “Steady,” yelled Taj. “Keep her steady.”

  “I’m trying,” she was sobbing now, desperately dipping the oars to maintain some kind of equilibrium. Taj threw his leg over the back of the kayak and sat up, straddling it. Then he slid into the seat depression and lifted his feet into the correct position. He grabbed Georgina’s oar which she’d left in the hull when she’d climbed to the front and began paddling. The kayak stopped rocking and stabilised. Slowly he managed to get them out of the hissing and spluttering ice pack which was now almost totally underwater and away into calmer waters.

  “Wow, that was close!” he breathed, as they paddled slowly back towards the ship. Georgina was silent and it was only when he saw her shoulders shaking that he realised she was crying.

  “We’re safe now,” he said softly, leaning forward to squeeze her shoulder. She sniffed in response.

  He said sincerely, “You saved my life, you know.”

  His hand was still on her shoulder and began to massage it softly. She was really tense. She began to relax under his gentle pressure and arched her head back. He felt the soft, silky tendrils around her neck tickle his skin. As if with a mind of its own, his hand started to slide up into her hair but he caught himself just in time. He placed it firmly back on the paddle.

  Georgina gave a small sigh. “I was so scared,” she said weakly. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought we were going to die.”

  “You did great,” he told her. “You kept calm and you held it together. If it wasn’t for you I’d be sinking like that iceberg out there right about now.”

  She made a sound that was half sob, half laugh. “Don’t joke.”

  “I’m not. I’m being serious.”

  She rolled her head back to release the tension, “I’m just glad we’re both okay. I don’t ever want to have to do that again.”

  “Kayaking is not normally dangerous. I was stupid to take a chance on that ice sheet. I tend to do these crazy things when I’m working, but I should never have endangered you.”

  “Occupational hazard, I guess,” she said, staring out at the flat sea ahead of them.

  “Still it was really selfish of me. I’m sorry about that.”

  She half turned, “Apology accepted.”

  He grinned at her. “Now lets get back to the Explorer shall we, and get into some dry clothes.”

  “I’ll second that.”

  Taj set the pace and together they paddled in sync towards to comforting bright red hull of the Explorer.

  The others were already back when they arrived and Don rushed up to greet them. “Thank God, I was about to send out a search party. Where the hell have you been?”

  “Don’t ask,” Georgina said her knees almost buckling as she climbed out of the kayak. Don gripped her arm to steady her.

  “You okay?” he asked worriedly.

  “I am now,” she replied.

  “Taj?” asked Don, hauling the kayak up onto the deck for his friend.

  “Damn close call,” Taj said as he grabbed a towel and dried himself off. “George was a star. She saved my life, quite literally.” He smiled at Don’s incredulous look. Georgina shook her head. “I only did what he told me to do,” she replied modestly. “I was terrified.”

  “You landed on an ice pack, didn’t you?” guessed Don.

  At Taj’s nod he exclaimed, “You’re insane. I can’t believe you took her with you. You know how unstable those sheets are, especially with an incoming t
ide.”

  “I certainly know now,” he acknowledged.

  “Don’t be flippant, Taj,” Don said without humour. “You could have both been killed.”

  “Spare the lecture, okay buddy,” Taj said. “I know it was a risk. You forget, it’s my job to take risks. I do it all the time. It’s second nature. I will admit I shouldn’t have taken George with me, but the opportunity presented itself and I got some excellent shots.”

  “Bloody good they would have done you at the bottom of the Scotia Sea,” Don said dryly.

  “He didn’t technically take me with him,” Georgina cut in, “he left me in the kayak.”

  “I can’t believe you’re defending him, George,” said Don.

  Georgina looked offended.

  Taj cut in, “Lucky I did too, or else she wouldn’t have been able to rescue me.”

  “I had to paddle around to get him,” she told Don earnestly. “The ice was splitting up all over the place.”

  Don shook his head. “Remind me never to pair you two up again. Perhaps you’re right Taj, it is better you work alone. At least that way you won’t kill anyone,” he shouted.

  Taj didn’t miss Georgina’s quick glance in his direction but then she surprised him by saying, “That’s a pity. I think I’m getting the hang of this adventure stuff.”

  Taj burst out laughing, he couldn’t help himself. She was priceless.

  Don rolled his eyes and shook his head at the two of them. “Okay, I’ll let this one slide, but please try to be more responsible next time.”

  “Yeah, I get the message,” said Taj.

  “At least it makes for exciting reading,” Georgina rationalised.

  Taj said excitedly, “See, at least she understands.”

  Georgina started shivering violently. “You’d better go and get warm,” said Don concerned. “It’s freezing out here.”

  “Okay,” she said through chattering teeth and made her way back to her cabin leaving the two men on deck to rinse off the kayaks and pack away the equipment.

  Don busied himself stacking the kayaks. “I see you two are getting on better now?” he commented idly.

  Taj’s answer was heavily laced with sarcasm. “Yes, thanks to your brilliant little scheme, which as you can see, worked so well. The harder I pushed her, the more determined she was not to quit. I never thought she had the guts.”