3. All aboard the "unsinkable" ship.
"All aboard," Adam, the able-bodied crewman calls out. "Single file along the gangway, please."
They all crowd on board the boat, down the hatchway and into the enclosed cabin with the glass bottom panels. Benches are against the gunwales along each side of the cabin.
The Captain casts off the rope and Adam applies a reverse gear to take them away from the landing stage.
Adam has his own navigator's cabin with all of the boat's controls in it, separate to the main passengers' cabin. He has the best view of where they are going. Adam has navigated this voyage on so many occasions before, he feels he is an expert at this.
As they set off into deeper waters, the Captain gives a running commentary. Place names, flora and fauna for each island as they pass. "We're heading towards the favourite fish spotting areas now," the Captain says. "We can see the fish best in the shallower waters."
"When does it sink?" Ommera asks the Doctor under her breath.
"When we're between islands. Not long now." The Doctor isn't sure just when the sinking will happen, but he knows that history has recorded this boat as sinking on this voyage.
Ommera feels secure when the Doctor is with her. Surely nothing can go wrong while he is there? She recalls times when things had gone wrong. She had been repairing some equipment in space above the Earth, not long ago (in episode Thermal Runaway in this series) when his Tardis had been called away. It had been providing air for her to breathe and she would have died, but for a regeneration capability her friend Crystelle had given to her, developed from information from the Gallifreyan Library (episode Crystelle Growth in this series). Her regeneration capability is also helping her to remain calm. Without it, she knew, she would be panicking by now. Yet dying was painful.
She knew.
The grim reaper had seen that her number was up more than once before now.
"Stick close to me and do as I say," the Doctor tells her.
The boat sets off for another place to see the marine life through the glass bottom of the boat.
"Is it really glass?" Wayne asks.
"No, it's a polymer," the Captain says. "So, it won't shatter.
A massive shark appears, and they watch as it swims rapidly astern. All the visible fish are heading that way. "That's unusual," the Doctor points out.
The Captain looks at him as if to say what do you know about it? "Not really. I've seen fish swim every which way."
The motor slows to half throttle. The captain looks up to see what Adam is doing. "What's up, Adam?
"There's land ahead," Adam says. "But I don't recall an island here."
"Where are we?" a young lady called Summer asks.
"We're just near where the sea bed shelves off to deeper water," the Captain says. As he looks through the forward facing window he can see what Adam is seeing – it looks like an island. Not very wide and not very high. "Well, I've never seen such an island near here before!"
Ommera digs the Doctor in the ribs with her elbow. "What's happening?"
"I've always wondered," the Doctor replies. "Now we'll see what happens."
"Shall I try to land?" Adam asks. He steers the boat towards the mystery island.
"The boat's tilting forwards towards the island," Adam says.
"What does he mean?" Summer asks.
"He means the bow, the front of the boat is losing buoyancy," the Doctor says.
"Losing buoyancy?" the Captain says. "Not my ship. Good ship this is. No buoyancy loss here!" The Captain has never lost any buoyancy before and he really doesn't see why he should now, or what it might be like.
Suddenly, Adam throws the boat into reverse gear with full throttle.
"What's going on?" the Captain asks.
"Sorry Captain," Adam replies. "The bow is nearly submerged. We must try to get away from here, whatever it is!"
The sea starts to wash over the deck. Some of the passengers start to panic. They can see through small windows beside the hatchway.
"What's happening to the boat?" Wayne asks. He has had nightmares about being aboard a sinking ship since his childhood. "We should get off at once."
Is the boat going down so near to land? What should they do?