The Undiscovered Land
Jeremy was on a boat that should have reached an undiscovered island days ago. Although his compass showed he was on the right path, there was no land in sight. Jeremy shivered and wrapped his fur coat around his body more tightly. The truth be told, even wearing eleven layers of heavy clothing, Northern Russia was very cold. He had gone from his home in Moscow to some parts of Northern Russia so he could discover the undiscovered land that many had flown over. It was mainly being raised in Devon reading books on intrepid explorers that encouraged him to find this new land that was unlikely to be habitable.
He looked around the raging White Sea. He didn’t know how his flimsy canoe could survive such monstrous waves. Behind him, five other canoes caught up, two of them containing the men he had hired, and the remaining three containing food and supplies. For the twenty third time, he wondered whether the supplies would last the whole trip. No one knew it would take this long to reach the island. He took another good look around the landscape: the raging White Sea, the heavy rolling mist, the monstrous waves and the icebergs here and there. Their bright red canoes were the only touch of colour in the merciless White Sea.
Suddenly a shout came from the front of his canoe. From where Jeremy was standing, at the back of the canoe, he could clearly hear what was being said. Was it true? Had they finally reached their destination? He hurried to the front to find out. “Is it true?” he disbelievingly asked the man who had screamed.
“Soon as the mist clears out you will see,” said the man. Sure enough, the mist cleared out that very moment to reveal miles of snowy white land. Excitement rushed through Jeremy’s veins as he pointed it out to others, but panic quickly overtook it as he saw nearly the whole island was fenced with icebergs!
His brains whirled quickly as he scanned the island for a solution. He saw a small opening just big enough for a canoe, but to get through, they would have to dump some of their supplies. Their canoe had supplies, some of which jutted out of the sides. Deciding they had hadn’t travelled all that way for nothing, Jeremy determinedly threw some supplies off.
The island was even colder than the sea around it. As they took in the humongous ice caps and the towering waves, a band of sailors inspected the supplies. Jeremy was reluctant to leave the island, but his suggestion to set up camp for the night and set off in first light was immediately voted down by the shivering sailors. On top of that, with the amount of extra supplies it had taken to reach the island, they were in great danger of provision shortage!
At the evening of their fifth day, the supplies were finished and Jeremy gazed over the sea to what looked like a despairing end to his life. Suddenly he saw a monstrous wave from his position at the back of the boat. He shouted out a warning but he was too late. The boat was hit by the wave and Jeremy hit the ground.
Jeremy opened his eyes and blearily took in his new environment. He was lying on a wooden surface and he could see fishing boats. Suddenly he realised where he was, on the very docks from where he had started his unfortunate exploration!
As he was thinking this, he saw someone approaching him. He just managed to cry out for help before he passed out. When he woke up a few hours later, he was in a hospital bed. A few people were around his bed. A few days later he was on the newspapers. He learned that the wave had carried him very far out to the sea where he had been found by a fisherman. He had been brought to the docks and had woke up just as the fisherman had left to call for help.
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