Seas of South Africa by Philip Roy

Author:Philip Roy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ronsdale Press
Published: 2013-11-09T05:00:00+00:00

Bright and early, we ate our last feed of pancakes and drank a pot of tea. I changed my t-shirt and shorts, brought the sub up near the surface, and took a good look around with the periscope before opening the hatch. Los made it to the bank himself with a big commotion in the water. He refused my help. Hollie swam it. I went back inside and coaxed Little Laura into the tool bag with a slice of peach from a can. Once she was inside, I closed the bag. It was a good carrier for her. She had lots of space, and felt protected. I carried her up the portal and swam her over to Los on the bank. Then I returned to the sub, grabbed the flashlight, pizza, money, and things, tossed them to Los, and asked him to hold the flashlight under the surface and point down. I shut the hatch, let water into the tanks, and submerged slowly, until the sub settled gently on the bottom.

It was sixty feet deep, which meant that the top of the hatch was a little less than fifty feet down. I always felt nervous when I had to open or close the sub under water because the water rushed in so powerfully and it took all of my strength to shut the hatch. I also had to do it while holding my breath. The whole action took only about eight seconds from the moment I started unsealing the hatch from the inside, to the moment I finished sealing it on the outside. The more times I did it, the faster I was. Still, it was unnerving.

Standing on the ladder, I tried to think if I had forgotten anything. No, I didn’t think so. I took a few deep breaths, went through the order of what I had to do, then spun the hatch, pushed it up, and climbed out. Water flooded in with a weight like a house falling on me, except that it was a house that I was able to move inside. Even so, the force of it threatened to knock me down, and I had to hold on and climb out with all my strength. Once I was out, it wasn’t hard to shut and seal the hatch. I turned, raised my head, and swam up towards the light.

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