'I couldn't believe I was still alive,' says Utahn of Antarctic shipwreck

NORTH SALT LAKE — Everything in Lisa Paisola's tastefully decorated living room exudes warmth: the reed vases from Tahiti, the family pictures adorned with Fijian frames, the palm tree throw pillows.

"I hate to be cold," she said. "Being cold is one of my worst things."

Paisola never thought she would see her comfortable home or family again after submerged ice punched a hole in the cruise ship she was on near the coast of Antarctica last week. She and her aunt, Kay Van Horne, of Denver, were among 154 passengers and crew who had to abandon the MS Explorer for lifeboats. They floated in subfreezing temperatures for more than five hours before being rescued.

"It's so surreal," said Paisola, sitting on her couch stroking a stuffed toy penguin she received from a rescuer. "I'm just so grateful to be here. ... By all rights, I shouldn't be here having this conversation with you today."

Paisola, a seasoned traveler and cruiser, knew from the moment passengers were ordered to muster on deck late last Thursday that "we were in deep, deep trouble." Every inch of her body started "shaking from the inside out" as she donned her arctic gear and orange life vest.

"There's not a word in the English language to describe what I felt at that moment," she said.

At the muster station or "penguin room," Paisola couldn't sit still. She sent dozens of goodbye e-mails to family and friends along with a hastily written will. She told them to enjoy a planned African safari without her. She used her camera, which had a flotation device attached, to videotape and photograph everything in sight. She wanted her family to see how she died.

"At that point, the only thing I was thinking about was family and death," she said.

Her e-mails stopped when the MS Explorer's power died. She recorded the drifting ship slam into an iceberg. At that point, she said, the captain called for passengers to abandon ship.

No one panicked. Passengers boarded the lifeboats calmly and in an orderly way, Paisola said. She and her aunt held hands or locked elbows to stay together. There were no other ships in view when they hit the water. The Explorer sank about 20 hours after first taking on water.

"It was like we were the only ones on the planet at that point," she said.