Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
rope and opened the slip knot wide and began paying it down to the anchor hook. One
point of this fluke was pointing up and beyond the confines of the boulders. Theoretically,
it should be possible to slip this knot over the fluke, but we saw that the current at the en-
trance played havoc with the descending rope. Craig had a good idea with tying two smal-
ler lines opposite each other and at the slip knot. These two guide lines would be manned
by Gavin and I, who would be monitoring their descent underwater. This idea paid off, and
the mouth of the knot was eventually guided over the fluke.
I surfaced and suggested to Craig to move his dinghy position to form a more acute angle
for the rope. This cinched the salvage, as the knot now tightened on the side of the trapped
fluke and snugged up hard against the sharp and shapely silver barb. Once it was secured,
Craig began hauling up on it, and after few trials, the fluke shot out from between the
boulders and was smartly hauled up. Hooray! We had a fisherman anchor again. All in all
a good day's dive and a great excuse for a few cold green ones!
No more was mentioned about the “feast” that the wily chief had invited us to. By sun-
down, there had been no visiting dug-outs; in fact, there were very little signs of life from
the beach. I was very tired and rather sunburnt by the day's dive. The warm water from the
solar shower had actually hurt more but had removed the sting from my shoulders and bald
head. This was one area I could not protect when diving, unless I wore a hood, and I re-
fused to wear a diving hood in this heat. I promised myself I would put on strong sunscreen
the next time I went diving.
Penny decided to spend the night with her family, and I thankfully turned in early after a
light meal. Gavin and Craig had been hammering away at the last of a pile of green ales
and were becoming quite rowdy. I really did not mind, as I felt badly for both of them in
light of my burgeoning relationship with Penny.
It was around midnight, perhaps a little later, that I was awoken from a deep sleep and fant-
astic dream. I dreamt that I was diving somewhere down deep, and there were beautiful,
giant fish, octopi, and weird sea creatures I had never even heard of. Spectacular shells
adorned the sea bed, waiting only to be picked off the floor and gently placed in a huge
collection sack.
Suddenly there was a commotion above decks, loud thumping and raised voices cut
through my dreams and had me sitting up suddenly in my bunk, bumping my head on a
deck beam. “Jesus Christ, what the fuck!” I yelled as dream gave way to chilling conscious-
ness. I heard Gavin's nervous voice raise in anger, almost hysteria, a sure sign that he was
scared of something. “Fuck you bastards! We were just coming over for a friendly visit for
Christ sake!”
