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

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The old hands chatted loudly above the roar of the outboard engine and there was a lot of manly banter. These guys didn’t seem apprehensive at all - but I couldn’t help thinking that this was a dangerous place to be going. It was one thing to do a dive from the shore – it was something totally different to head out into far deeper water offshore.

We surged out of the harbour and throttled up. The boat pushed at its bow wave, driving a mass of water before it - we were heavy in the water with all these divers and their kit and the cox got us to clamber forward over the gear bags towards the bow.

The Zodiac got up to about 9 knots, pushing at its bow wave. Then, it seemed to conquer it - and rode up and over its bow wave. We were on the plane, and immediately our speed leapt up by 10 knots, to between 15-20 knots. The cox then got us to return to our seats on the Zodiac’s side tubes (called sponsons) near the stern and throttled back as far as possible. He skillfully kept the Zodiac up on the plane, conserving fuel – maximum speed for minimum fuel.