Journal of the thirtyeighth day on board

9th June, 1999

Time: 7,12. The bad weather has not gone away. Nevertheless we decide to head on. We pass along the island of Correnti: a small speck of land no bigger than a town square, a place a couple of miles from Porto Palo, the extreme southern tip of Sicily.
We have a new dinghy. The old one, a few days ago, left us in the lurch just as we were following the grampi.

Time: 14,20. We lower the sea anchor at Hurd Bank off Malta. It is shallow water around 40 metres in depth. Fishermen, tankers and cargo vessels all stop here. Unfortunately many ships take the opportunity to empty and clean their bilges in the sea. A small saving for the ship owners, a great loss for the sea and all of us.

Ore: 15,45 Simona Clo’, the on/board biologist, is pasturing the sea in industrial quantities.