Malta Island, June 2^nd, 2004.

Charlie.

Once we had solved the few problems one can’t avoid encountering at the start of such an operation, we soon recovered our technical reflexes, and all went very smoothly.

In the North, our divers needed to increase their numbers. The Algerian trainees were to join them the next day at noon, along with others next Monday.

The wreck was probably more deeply buried in the sand than expected, and kept eluding the divers’ eyes. But the systematic survey they started the day before should allow them to locate it in the end.

In the South, the Madona Ta ‘Pinu cast off as early as 7.30am. Her captain, Charlie, being sixty years old, was to retire the very next day, and this was his last aboard the boat. He kept a rather stiff upper lip, though one could sense his nostalgia not far under the surface.

The shipping forecast had been quite pessimistic the night before, but a splendid, sunny weather welcomed us and permitted us to hot the motors up, thus gaining more than half an hour on the outward journey.

Since we were cruising very near the cliffs, we were able to take a close look at them; we saw sea birds nesting everywhere without being disturbed, apart from the presence of various catching nets and decoys up the cliffs. Many fishermen are unable to climb down to the sea, so they have to lower their creels along weighted guiding ropes they have previously thrown well off the cliffs.

When we reached Gnejna Bay, we resumed the search along the trajectories we traced on the computer, and since the helmsmen were accustomed to the job, they were able to keep the boat right on on track. On the shore we noticed a big hotel being built on a spot which lay in the middle of nowhere only twenty years ago. Tourism is transforming the island quite extensively.

We almost found no ferrous mass in the zone during the whole day. It was in the evening only that a little anomaly blipped on the magnetometer’s screen.