Sunday 14th June – a day of rest?
Sunday was a free day in Figueira da Foz so we decided to do some jobs around the boat. John went up the mast to see if he could spot the problem with the roller furling gear and bring down the Tricolour light fitting to replace the bulb. The first trip up the mast was successful, he fitted the new LED assembly and went back up, taking his camera. Once back down on the deck he put his camera on the coaming, wriggled out of the bosun’s chair and flicked the camera into the water!
Fortunately this did not prove to be a major disaster. The camera was especially chosen because it was supposed to be waterproof to 10 metres and the water was only 5 metres deep; it was an expensive camera so worth searching for; we have full scuba gear on board. I dropped down a weight on a line so indicate the supposed location, John descended but pulled the line a long way aft. About 30 minutes later, having swum in large circles but often nowhere near where the camera had entered, surfacing several times to get his bearings, he surfaced again and we hatched another plan. This time I lowered the anchor chum, a lump of iron so heavy I can barely lift it. I attached a length of rope about 5 foot long to it and John swam in more controlled circles, first of all with the rope at arm’s length then with it close to his chin. SUCCESS! He handed the camera up to me, I tuned it on and took a photo of him to prove it wasn’t all in vain.
What made the dive difficult was the very poor visibility because fin action disturbed the bottom as did his fingertip search. We must thank Gillian and Graham on Gilly B and Terry from Renegade who carefully watched for John’s bubbles throughout the dive.
Joyce
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