interval when he returned to the boarding ladder and asked 

 for a crowbar. 



"There's a lot of loose wood hanging from the worm- 

 shoe," he said, "and some big bolts sticking out." 



He worked beneath the boat for some time, chiseling 

 off splinters of the hull, which bobbed to the surface and 

 floated off. When he had completed the job, he handed 

 up the crowbar and then swam toward the obstacle which 

 we had hit, now a hundred feet off our port bow. 



We were relieved to hear, upon his return, that the 

 damage was apparently superficial. The heavy wood stem 

 had been stripped partially from the bow, and the keel 

 was gouged the whole length of the boat, but the huU it- 

 self seemed to be intact. We might expect some leakage 

 through sprung seams, he said, but otherwise it would be 

 safe for us to go on. 



The obstruction which we had hit was an iron tripod 

 marker which had evidently been jettisoned in these 

 waters when the red nun was installed. Ed stormed at the 

 carelessness of a government agency that would install a 

 new marker without removing or destroying the old one, 

 or at least indicating the location on the official charts as 

 a hazard to navigation. 



We decided then and there that our sturdy shrimp 

 boat, elegant or not, was really built to take it. She had 

 survived her first testing. However, as the days went by, 

 we found that she was taking on more than the normal 

 amount of water in her bilges, and we finally returned to 

 the shipyard in Miami to have her hauled. A new worm- 

 shoe and some paint and calking soon had her as good as 

 ever. 



Wlien we started forth again a few days later, we 

 had two worth-while additions aboard the Sea Diver. The 

 Bendix fathometer which Ed had ordered some time pre- 

 viously had been installed and was now ready to chart the 



The Florida Keys 61 



