Carefully we sail between the gap between the mountains

The scientists on the ship note that the earthquake has permanently changed the sea bed. This entry point should stay open for at least the rest of the summer. So we navigate through the ice and reach open water! This is tremendous luck! Some warm undersea current must prevent ice from forming here: we might be able to sail all the way to the north pole!

The next few days are uneventful, and so our excitement increases! We are steaming closer and closer to the pole! Then the ship's scientists note something terrifying. The sun and stars are too high in the sky. They test every possibility and there is only one explanation. Impossible as it seems, the sea is sloping downwards! Some enormous earthquake must be tilting the ocean floor, and we don't notice because the water around us is moving forward at the same speed we are!

We must be falling toward the molten rocks under the Earth's crust! Should we put the ship into reverse at maximum speed? Or keep steaming forwards and pray that the scientists are wrong? Or do something else?