As I was steering the boat, I felt as if I had done it before. My hands were tightly gripping the steering wheel, but I wasn’t controlling them. My arms were moving without me putting any effort into it, it felt like the motion was programmed into me, like eating and breathing. I couldn’t move anywhere. At the moment it was only me, the boat and water. I was a boy of 17; I wasn’t a man yet as I was a lot smaller than the others in my age. But that didn’t affect me too much. I had amber eyes, they blended from copper to light brown. My skin was slightly tanned from sailing during the summer with my parents.

I snapped out of my trance as I felt a large hand grab my shoulder and giving it a rough shake. It was my father, of course. My mother stood to the right of him. The two gave me a smile signifying proudness, the smile you give to children doing something new. This was the highlight of my life; I felt at peace. The sound of water hitting against the boat filled the space around me; it was loud and sudden but it had a calming effect. The smell of sea and salt filled my nose. The smell had changed how my brain worked. I felt the feeling that you get when sleeping, but I was fully conscious. Behind us on the shore, there were figures running from the sand to the turquoise water, yelling and waving. They were most likely my friends, but I paid no attention to them. My eyes were fixed to the water. Every little thing about the sea fascinated me; from the tiny fish to the pine coloured seaweed dancing in the waves.

“Aren’t you gonna wave back?” my father laughed. My parents would often tease me and laugh at me because things would very easily capture my attention. I promptly turned around and waved to my friends, slightly embarrassed that I had forgotten that they were there. I quickly returned to steering.

“Mom, dad, can you take over now?” I shouted, not knowing if they could hear me from the front of the boat. We had come far from the light blue water and we were quite deep into the dark blue water, and I wanted to do something else. My mother heard me and came to take over. I took a few steps back to sit down. I sat down on a plain homemade wooden sofa. It wasn’t the most lavish, but it was comfortable. I tapped and dragged my fingers across the armrest, making a rhythm.

We had been sailing for a while now, long enough for the weather to change, the sky was dark and the water looked almost black. There was still some blue to it but not a lot I had gotten this feeling that I just couldn’t describe. For some reason, the atmosphere felt unsettling. The rocking of the boat felt more violent than calming and the sky was turning more and more grey by the minute. I looked over to my parents and they looked fine. I had been far out on sea before but I had never felt this feeling. Was I imagining it? I forced myself to snap out of it but deep down I still had the feeling.

My dad looked at me and nodded towards a box, signalling me to open it.

“This is a good place,” my dad informed us.

“Good place for what?” I asked, not knowing that we were supposed to do anything during the boat ride.

“Fishing,” my dad said. I opened the box and took out a net. When we got to the island we were most likely to sell these fish.  I tied our homemade net to our boat and let it glide through the water. After a while of waiting, I pulled it up. Nothing. I knew that we weren’t often very lucky, we didn’t know much about fishing, but we often got something first try with the net.

“There might have been a storm or something a few days ago.. the fish often escape when there are storms,” my dad blurted out as he saw me pull up nothing; his voice sounded worried, but he tried to stay calm. I didn’t say anything, trying to understand what he was worried for.

The waves had become more and more violent. In the distance, thunder could be heard. It was coming closer and closer. My mind was racing. Will I die today? Now I knew what he was worried about. The deck of the boat was being invaded by the waves, it was getting so wet that I almost slipped a couple times. The thunder was now right above us. My parents were both trying to steer through the waves the best way, trying not to damage the boat or us. The waves were tall. Many times did I fall from the impact of the waves and the boat. My clothes were soaking wet, both because of the rain and the sea water. I wasn’t sure if it was rain because it fell so hard that it hurt, so it might have been hailing. We were now at the point where the waves were the tallest. At least I thought so because they were now almost as tall as the boat. One was somewhere close to ten meters tall. The boat went right into it. It was a breaking wave. This was bad. It flung the boat over. There was nothing we could do now. It felt as if I was falling in slow motion, at least a little slower than normal. I hit the water. But like usually when jumping into water, it didn’t slow me down. The currents were dragging me in the water. I was struggling to get up for air. Every time that I did reach the surface I could see no sign of my parents. Luckily I was able to grab on to something on the boat.

I hauled myself up with all of my strength. My body was still violently swinging from side to side because of the currents. From time to time I would be forced underwater, but I never lost grip from the part of the boat. After a while, the waves calmed down. I looked out for any sign of my parents, but there was no sign of life or a boat. The dark water blended into the sky. It was like looking into the void, waiting for anything to pop up in my vision.