IT was meant to be a routine one-hour crossing, but for hundreds of passengers on the Ciudad de Mahon this weekend, it turned into a three-hour nightmare at sea.
Terrifying footage has emerged of the Balearia ferry being tossed around ‘like a dinghy’ in the Strait of Gibraltar as Storm Emilia battered the southern coast of Spain.
The vessel, attempting to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Algeciras on Saturday night, was met with waves of up to 4 metres and Force 7 easterly winds.
Viral images captured by local photographer @jr_amon_ceuta show the ship listing heavily to its port side, crashing through white-capped swells that left commentators feeling seasick just by looking at them.
“I shudder to think what the passengers’ toilets were like!” joked one Facebook user, summing up the grim reality for those trapped onboard.
The conditions were so severe that the captain was eventually forced to abort the crossing and return to Algeciras, leaving passengers shaken but safe.
The chaotic scenes in the Strait were just one part of the destruction caused by Storm Emilia, which has hammered Spain since Friday.
While the ferry battled the waves, the mainland was suffering its own deluge.
Murcia was among the hardest hit regions, with the state weather agency Aemet confirming that Totana recorded a staggering 77mm of rain in just a few hours.
Roads turned into rivers in towns like Pliego and Alhama de Murcia, where emergency services were forced to cut off access to the Quipar River due to overflowing banks.
Further north, the Valencia region faced a nervous weekend with red alerts activated for extreme rainfall, dumping nearly 50 litres per square metre in Orihuela and reviving painful memories of previous floods.
In Malaga, the storm brought sudden hailstorms to the interior and heavy downpours to the Guadalhorce Valley, while on the islands, the contrast was even more extreme.
Mount Teide in Tenerife has been left blanketed in over 1.5 metres of snow – the heaviest snowfall seen on the peak since 2016 – creating a stunning but inaccessible winter landscape.
The Guardia Civil has continued to warn motorists to exercise extreme caution as the tail end of the storm moves across the peninsula this week.
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Someone in authority gave the OK for this vessel to set off?