Wood's Quest: Action and Adventure in the Florida Keys (Early Adventures of Mac and Wood Book 3) by Steven Becker

Author:Steven Becker [Becker, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The White Marlin Press LLC
Published: 2024-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

18

The Florida Keys

Wood finned for the surface to find Travis staring back at him, much as Wood should have been doing earlier.

“Stop lookin’ at me and throw the damned buoy!” Either through the words or his frantic signaling, Travis understood and dropped the weight over the side. A line around an empty bleach bottle had been tied at thirty feet. The second Wood saw the splash, he took a deep breath and slid below the surface, finning toward the weight as he descended. He waved his arms out in front as he swam, trying to find the line.

Wood snagged the line and used it to guide himself to the bottom. He scanned the area but didn’t see the wreck. That wasn’t unusual. He knew that between the time it had taken him to reach the surface, sort out Travis, and descend, he would have drifted off the spot. After a quick glance, he made an okay sign around the line and kicked up.

On the surface, Wood gasped for air. Usually, between free dives, he would perform a few minutes of deep breathing to slow his heart and calm his body. Enriching the cells with oxygen helped, but unlike what most thought, freedivers suffered more from the buildup of carbon dioxide rather than a shortage of oxygen. Even knowing this, he gasped for breath. In Wood’s case, age had become the greater enemy.

He could tell from the slack in the marker line that they were in about twenty feet of water. At that depth, he was better off with scuba gear, but he wanted to get the buoy set before they left. Marking the wreck was a risk. Any fishermen or diver seeing it would be curious. People didn’t leave buoys for no reason. They almost always meant some kind of structure was below. Whether simply because of curiosity or knowing that fish would be attracted to it also, many would likely stop to check it out.

The benefit far outweighed the risk. They’d already found that single grain of sand on the beach. The chances of doing it again were slim.

Wood breathed up and dropped again. He followed the line to the bottom and grabbed the five-pound dive weight tied to the end. If he was wearing his scuba gear, he would have had a compass. Free diving, he had to use dead reckoning to locate the wreck. Wood used the reflection of the sun through the clear water to judge which direction was west. He knew the current was running south, so he headed into it.

Judging distance underwater is difficult, but the visibility was in his favor. Wrecks reached the bottom in a variety of ways. The least likely spot was where they had initially grounded or swamped. In most cases, the wreck foundered and drifted until it finally sank. Wood had heard the story of the Isaac Allerton. The actual details of the event were sketchy. The surviving documents were from the maritime court and dealt with the distribution of the salvage rather than the method of its sinking.

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