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

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After repeating this process a couple of times, I felt myself lift slightly as I breathed in, and sink slightly as I breathed out. I had achieved neutral buoyancy and it was time to head off on the dive.

Colin had a wrist mounted dive compass and had taken a bearing for our route from the shore. Whilst sorting out my buoyancy I had ignored my underwater bearings and not having acquired a compass as yet, had no idea of which way to go. Colin checked his compass, got our course and gestured for me to follow. We were off.

We swam over to the spur of rocks, which had assumed a totally new perspective. Now there was a wall of rock that ran all the way from the seabed up to the surface. It was an underwater cliff face and I was at once mesmerised by everything that could be found on this cliff face. In the nooks and crannies, crabs and squat lobsters hid. Large fronds of kelp drifted up from their fixings on rocky outcrops. Anemones and sponges competed for space. Large starfish lay on the bottom and fish drifted in and out of my vision. I was completely spellbound and followed Colin as we moved along the seabed beside the wall out into deeper water.