Читать книгу Into the Abyss. Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World онлайн

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Either Derek had made it to shore or else someone ashore had seen what had happened and called for help. As it was, the boat sped over nearer the shore and I realised that they were getting Derek out of the water. Before long the boat was charging over to me and slowing down beside me to let me clamber aboard. We then went over and picked up the water skis, which were floating not that far away from me.

The skipper of the boat Hamish McDonald then had me go through what had happened and asked some searching questions about the set up on my boat. He wanted to know how much petrol was left in it – if it was low then he would simply wait until it ran out of fuel and stopped of its own accord.

“It’s got a full tank,” I said. “We’ve only been out on the water for about an hour – the engine will run all day.”

He then asked about my engine - did it have a long shaft or a short shaft – did it have a shear pin. I replied that it had a long shaft but that I didn’t know if it was fitted with a shear pin or not. He decided to try and lay a rope across the track my boat would take. Hopefully we would foul the propeller and the engine would stall – or else the shear pin would disable the engine.