Dark Voyage

SEPTEMBER, NORTH SEA
The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pregnant with violence, dark with menace, the squall slid over the northern horizon like the anger of a Nordic god.
'That looks ugly,' Lauren nodded urgently toward the storm and nearly smiled at the expression on Kenny's face. 'I hope you don't get seasick!'
'Where the hell did that come from?' Kenny clutched at the side of the boat, staring at the black clouds that piled one on another in a multi-layered promise of gales and rain. He saw lightning flicker within the darkness, reflecting from the intervening sea, and he narrowed thoughtful eyes. Around them the waves rose in a sullen swell, ominously smooth, nearly oily but each one larger than its predecessor. 'It wasn't there a moment ago!'
Twenty two foot long and open save for the tiny wheelhouse in the bow, the fishing boat offered little protection against the weather. Already water was slopping inboard, splashing around their ankles in a cold foretaste of what was to come. In the past few minutes the movement increased from a slow, regular rise and fall to an irregular, plunging jerk.
'It looks like a bad one,' Lauren only had to glance at the approaching storm one more time; 'I think we'd best return.'
'You'll get no argument from me,' Kenny agreed quickly, 'and the sooner the better.' He began to pull in the fishing rods, staggering as a rogue wave broke on the stern.
Grinning briefly, Lauren took the two steps forward to the tiny wheelhouse-cum-cabin. 'The North Sea can be like that; one minute all balmy fine, the next it's a force eight and chucking it down.'
'I prefer the balmy bit,' Kenny clattered the long rods to the bottom of the boat. 'Look at that sky! It's going crazy!'
The dark band had expanded across the entire horizon, completely obscuring the secure pencil of the Bell Rock Lighthouse and blotting out anything beyond. It advanced rapidly on them, bringing unseasonably stinging hail and a wind that screamed its hate around their ears. Lauren raised her voice above the increasing wail. 'You'd best come in here, Kenny.'
He crouched in the meagre shelter of the wheelhouse as she pressed the self-starter. The engine coughed once, twice, gunned into life and then died with an apologetic grunt.
'Try again,' Kenny ordered. He glanced over his shoulder, where the darkness was already spreading, advancing visibly toward them. Sleet battered from the fibreglass body of the boat, bounced in the interior and rattled from the roof of the wheelhouse. 'Hurry up, Lauren; it's a monsoon out there!'
'It's something, anyway.' Lauren pressed the starter again, swearing frantically when the engine failed to respond. 'What the hell's wrong with this thing?'
'You're the expert,' Kenny reminded, 'you tell me!' He looked backward again, flinching as the storm clouds visibly increased in size so they rose endlessly upward, black and grey, tinged with an angry red that he had seldom seen before and with those flashes of lightning illuminating an interior that seemed more ominous with each passing minute.
Pushing past him, Lauren opened the access hatch and peered at the engine. 'I can't see anything wrong!' She shouted above the rising scream of the wind. 'Everything's connected and there's nothing broken.'
Peering helplessly over her shoulder, Kenny shrugged. 'It all looks OK to me. Try again!'
She did so, growing more frustrated with every failed attempt. 'It's no use,' she decided, 'it's buggered.' She looked at Kenny for a moment, flicking damp auburn hair from her eyes. 'We can either sit it out or call for help. They might send the Broughty Ferry lifeboat out for us.'
'Do that then,' there was genuine fear in Kenny's voice. He looked around, where the waves were now rising higher than the top of the wheelhouse, spattering spindrift and hissing as they passed. The darkness was advancing at speed, rolling over the sea, blotting out the light, pressing down upon them as if intent to thrust them into the depths of the waves. He heard thunder growling, and then it cracked like Neptune's wrath, calling the horrors of Hades onto the helpless boat. 'Jesus! What's happening here?'
'God knows; I've never seen anything like this before!' Lauren stared at the onrushing storm, wet hair clinging to her head, mouth slightly open and her eyes narrowed against the stinging sleet and spindrift. She knew that at any other time Kenny would have been distracted by the manner in which the sodden tee-shirt clung to her curves, but now the clouds mesmerised him.