Why in the world anyone thought Princess Arianna would make a good ambassador was a great mystery. Some thought that the King was hoping that the seriousness of the situation would force her to act mature, while more cynical people thought he was just trying to get rid of her for awhile and didn't care if she succeeded or not.
Regardless of why, the point was that Arianna was now sailing towards a faraway land that Magica had recently made contact with, in order to establish formal diplomatic and trade relations with them. She didn't want to go, but her father had ordered it, so here she was, hating every minute of the trip - she despised sea travel, but it was the only way to reach the new kingdom, whose name she had already forgotten despite being told it several times. She loudly complained about every time the ship shifted on a wave, about the cramped spaces, about the limited food, about the smell of the crew, and especially about how long it was taking to get to her destination. And if anyone tried to placate her, she just threatened to have them flogged for daring to talk to her.
After several weeks of this, the crew was seriously considering a mutiny just to get rid of her, when fate intervened. A huge storm sprung up overnight, striking the ship so hard and fast that the crew could do nothing to stop it. The ship was capsized, sending everyone onboard into the dark waters, including Arianna. The princess wasn't a very good swimmer, and only avoided drowning due to managing to cling to a piece of wreckage. However, when the storm broke the next day and left her deposited somewhere new, Arianna would probably wish that she hadn't survived, as her situation got far worse.