Previous: Chapter Twenty-Four: The Marcel Loubens
Using a crane, the crew of the Marcel Loubens lowered Le Garage into the water off the starboard side.
The two divers were ready. Bobbie bit down on the breathing regulator, pitched backwards off the starboard gunwale of the Marcel Loubens, and plunged into the water. Terry followed suit. The two bobbed to the surface, and swam a couple of meters to Le Garage. The two divers placed hands on the floating submersible to steady themselves.
Aboard the boat, Petra untied the spring line from its kevil and tossed the end to Bobbie, who caught the rope before it hit the water. Bobbie clipped the end of the line to a dive belt karabiner, while Terry removed the shackle which still secured Le Garage to the sailboat’s crane hoist. This done, the two divers and the submersible were now on their own.
Petra called out from the deck. “Everything looks good here, just bleed off the BC when you’re ready.” Bobbie gave a thumbs up and opened a valve on the air-filled buoyancy compensator, a bright yellow bag mounted on top of Le Garage, and massaged the bag to help it deflate. Soon the divers, and their strange contraption, disappeared below the surface, in a cloud of bubbles.
“Now what?” asked Merl.
“Now,” said the Captain, “we wait to see if they come back.”
The Gulf water was warm. The two made their way downward along the dive line until they reached its anchor in the seabed. A second line paid out from the first, laid along the sea floor. Brightly colored plastic marker arrows, tied to the dive line every few feet, indicated the way “out”, back to the anchor and the boat.
The Marcel Loubens had set anchor