Journal of the second day on board

11th April, 1999

Who is on board
Alberto Luca Recchi (Head of the expedition "Mission Sharks",)
Giuseppe Gasparroni (owner of the fishing boat Aldebaran),
Nicola Gasparroni (Captain of the fishing boat Aldebaran),
Angelo Mojetta (ichthyologist), Diego Bertolani (instructor and diving operator), Marida Reichenbach (still-photographer), Antonio Fanesi (crew), Graziano Crispini (crew), Efisio Pirarba (crew). Our location shots today are taken by Danilo Madonna and Riccardo Parisi.

Even if we woke up at dawn we are still taking our time on deck because of a biting wind. In the meantime we are listening to Giuseppe, the owner of the Aldebaran who is not holding up much hope for the weather forecast.

8:00 a.m. We decide to put out to sea anyhow to check the situation offshore.
Yesterday in the afternoon we introduced some changes to the ballast and to the emergency exit device of the anti-shark cage which we are going to test today.
10 miles from the coast the weather is better, the wind and the sea abate and we continue sailing for two more hours before turning off the engines.

11:00 a.m. The bottom of the sea is down beneath us, 13 metres deep, and is probably entirely covered with mud. In the distance we can see a platform for extracting fuel. Closer to us we observe seagulls and sheerwaters flying at low altitude. The water is cobalt blue.

While the garlic and pepper are frying, waiting for the spaghetti, we test the automatic device for pasturing the sea. Angelo Moietta sets it up introducing us to a couple of cunning devices. We want to know exactly the consumption per hour "of this soup for sharks".

9:00 p.m. The day has gone quickly. We are sailing into port. Alberto Luca is satisfied. We are almost ready for the encounter we have been anticipating for months but we know that it will not be easy and that we shall have to be very patient.