I have a confession to make.

Keep in mind, I write about frightening things for a living.

I haven't read a horror novel yet that's managed to freak me out, and yet I'm deathly afraid

of open water.

There, I said it.

I hate being on boats.

I'm not even sure why to be honest.

Perhaps it's the idea that thousands of feet of cold darkness wait right beneath my

feet.

Maybe it's the mystery of it all, of what creatures, both known and unknown, might be waiting

for me just beyond the reach of what little sunlight passes through the surface of the

waves.

Now, I live near the coast, and I've been on boats before, so my fear comes from experience.

But it's not the cold, deep darkness beneath the ship that worries me the most.

No, what really makes my skin crawl is the thought that, at any moment, the ship could sink.

Maybe we can blame movies like Titanic, or the Poseidon adventure, for showing us how

horrific a shipwreck can be.

But there are far more true stories of tragedy at sea than there are fictional ones.

And it's in these real life experiences, these maritime disasters that dot the map of

history like an ocean full of macabre buoys that become face to face with the real dangers

that await us in open water.

The ocean takes much from us.

...