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Student earns A-plus
in sea ordeal

First, the 55-foot wave hit the "Semester at Sea" ship Explorer, knocking the passenger boat dead in the water and scaring the bejesus out of everybody on board. Then the more than 600 students were ordered into hallways to wait out the storm. And then came the most unnerving sound of all: the sound of a student singing "Under the Sea," from the movie "The Little Mermaid."

Was she mad? No. She was Rachel Olsson, who has a curious way of dealing with stress.

"I was dancing around in my life vest and singing, so I was in good spirits. I actually wasn't even really scared, or perhaps too scared to be scared. I don't know."

That's what the University of Iowa student e-mailed to friends on the mainland after the Explorer limped, or at least dog-paddled, into Honolulu Harbor after its victory at sea.

Former Star-Bulletin food editor Jeannie Ambrose, now an editor at Better Homes & Gardens magazine, sent me Rachel's e-mail report (Rachel is Jeannie's daughter's best friend) of the near tragedy -- when the Explorer was pummeled by gigantic waves and howling wind south of Adak, Alaska, last week. The dispatch shows that Rachel kept her sense of humor throughout the ordeal, to the point that it was probably lucky she was not chucked over the side by fellow students who didn't appreciate her choice of mood music.

Video of the ship, aired by network news programs, was shot after the dramatic moment when a giant rogue wave crashed into the ship, breaking out the window of the control room and rendering the ship, well, out of control.

"What the footage didn't get was people screaming and crying hysterically, kids with rosary beads out and others just wandering with blank looks on their faces," Rachel noted. "I hate to be dramatic, but it was seriously reminiscent of the Titanic."

Rachel then began to belt out "My Heart Will Go On" while perched on the bow of the ship like Leonardo DiCaprio. No, she didn't. But she did survey the destruction.

"The grand piano flipped, there was shattered glass all over, tables and chairs strewn everywhere, TVs and computers smashed, books and papers covering the floor ... it was nuts," she wrote.

"The video released to the press was a joke," she said. "We were watching it and laughing because it makes the whole ordeal look fun, almost. If you do see any of that footage, take the fear, anxiety and craziness and multiply it by, oh, 10,000."

Rachel said she is disappointed that she will not be going to Japan and Korea, where they were headed when the storm hit. But things could be worse. "Now I'm in Hawaii. Not the worst place to be shipwrecked!" she told her friends. "Oahu is beautiful. Land is beautiful. Life is beautiful again!"

Even more beautiful is the fact that she might make a few bucks off of her ordeal.

"I talked to the executive producer of 'Inside Edition' today (don't ask how), and I think he's going to buy some of my footage, so watch out for it," she wrote.

Who says students don't learn anything on these college semesters at sea?

She hopes the students will at least be flown to China because it doesn't look like a lot of them want to get back on the ship.

"Here's the thing, though," she concludes. "That day actually never happened. We crossed over the international dateline the day before, having no Jan. 26. Then (the wave hit) on the 27th, and we went back over the dateline, thus gaining another Jan. 27th, meaning the first one didn't even really happen. It was lost in time! Ahhhh. Hahahahah!"

She completes her report with an introspective piece of poetry, a haiku:

Flood then avalanche
Now a hurricane at sea
What the hell is next?

I'm no waterlogged college professor, matey, but I think Rachel should get an A-plus for the report and the semester at sea.