Dad, sister and I hire a little boat for a few hours to explore the harbour during a holiday in Melbourne, Australia.
The guy at the boat shack shows us the map and where cool stuff is, and explains that we have to cross major shipping lanes for all the freighters that come in before we get anywhere.
Dad is immediately like "wtf shipping lanes" but the guy goes "nah it's fine don't worry"
We get in the boat. It's basically just a little skiff. Like a fucking 3 man canoe with an outboard motor.
It dies.
Guy says "oh." And gets another death canoe.
We explore the harbour for a few hours and then on the way back, the engine dies. While dad tries to get it started I look to the right, and barrelling down on us is a massive MASSIVE freight ship. Like a skyscraper in the water. It's so fucking big and we are so goddamn close to it the crew can't see us at all, and we aren't moving.
None of us panic or scream. We freeze in eternity of cold, oddly vacant terror. Sister and I find oars tucked away round the sides and just start to paddle. I keep thinking about the propellers under the ship and how they'd suck me in and churn me into chunks, and I drown as a bleeding amputated torso underwater. I can hear them in my head. Dad gets the motor puttering. Enough that we are at least moving. We are all still just silent. Paddling. We JUST get far enough away that we don't get hit. Death canoe is rocking like fuck from the sluice of the freighter. I could have touched it with the oar.
"Dad"
My sister says.
"Look"
No joke, another fucking freighter.
We hadn't seen it while dealing with the other one. This time we need to stop. There's no way we will get in front of it, we HAVE to stop and let it go past. Dad turns us around but we are still going so fucking slowly it doesn't do much.
We are a tiny immobile bath toy in the middle of a highway of sea trucks.
Second one goes past just as close as the first, and we manage to putter back to the hire shack.
Dad told us to go straight to the car.
I don't know what he said to the guy, but now I know what the expression on my dads face would be if he ever decided to murder someone.
Tl;dr Stranded on sea highway, nearly got hit by the titanic, twice.