***** Vol.1 Chap.15 Locating the sunken yacht *****

The ridge turns out to be a series of uprisings hiding a deep ravine nearby. She navigated toward that location using her memory of the sonar images indicating the location of the sunken boat. When she finally arrived at the presumed location, the ridge was overgrown with seaweeds and giant kelp.

“Uh, Captain. Please confirm I am at the location. I see nothing but giant kelp here.”

“Location confirmed. Sonar shows there is a shadow hiding among the kelps at 10 o’clock. Search around that area and its vicinity.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

As she skimmed over the dense vegetation below, the silhouette of a sunken boat in the distance came into view. Elated, she headed toward the bump in the vegetation. Upon arrival at the spot and confirming that indeed the vegetation was hiding a sunken boat, she wasted no time to radio back to the ship.

“Jennifer calling Mayflower. Jennifer calling Mayflower. Over.”

“This is Mayflower, go ahead.”

“Sunken yacht spotted on the port bow, proceeding for closer identification. Over.”

Circling and maneuvering the sub closer to the ship, she looked for the name of the yacht for a positive identification. The yacht was not big, a fancy one though. A large deck at the front hiding a spacious quarter beneath. The yacht looked very new and might have been constructed and put to service recently. She wondered what rich folks owned the yacht.

“Sunken yacht bears the name Molly. Request confirmation. Over.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Name confirmed.”

“Okay, I will pull alongside the yacht.”

“Kristin, this is Jonas.”

“Yes?”

“Go around the yacht and report to us what the current situation of the yacht is.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

She crawled around the yacht. The condition was clearly damaged with the bow fully intact, but the stern banged and smashed. The yacht listed precariously, with the bow being higher than the stern. There appeared to be an air bubble trapped in the cabin. After several passes around the yacht, she spotted a faint light inside but detected no motion inside.

“Captain?”

“Go ahead.”

“The yacht fell onto a ledge that was sticking out from the ridge here. The yacht’s bow was pushed up, so the situation was very precarious. Some giant kelps had broken the fall and holding the yacht, preventing it from skidding further into the ravine.”

“Okay.”

“Captain, there was a flicker of light in the cabin, but I could not confirm any motion inside. The stern is damaged, but the cabin and the bow appeared intact.”

“Okay, Kristin. It shows here from the telemetry that you are about 1500 feet below water. We will try to assemble a team of deep-sea divers to go down and raise the yacht. We got your location, so you may come up now.”

And miss all the action and excitement? No way!

“Captain, I still have an hour of oxygen left. I would like to stay a little longer to monitor the situation. The yacht is at the ledge, and its position is very precarious. Only a few strands of seaweed stopped the yacht from plummeting into the ravine. I will try to secure a cable from my sub to the yacht to stop it from sliding.”

“Negative. You may not leave the sub.”

“But captain, I think the occupants who are trapped in the cabin are still alive.”

“After so many hours, no one survived at this depth.”

“With all due respect, sir. You don’t know that.”

“Kristin, you are not allowed to go outside the sub. If you want to stay there for another hour to monitor the situation, fine.”

“Aye, aye, sir. Thank you, sir.” She made another mock salute at his captain on the other end of the screen, away from the camera’s view, of course.

She parked the sub near the sunken yacht and trained her camera to point right at the yacht so that she monitored the situation and any possible movement of the yacht. She radioed Mayflower, reporting the present situation every so often. In the meantime, she had nothing to do but to babysit the yacht. Without doubt she was disappointed that she could not go outside, but delighted that at least she was given the chance to sit in her sub for an extra hour.