Or: shall we swim in the ocean or in the swimming pool? The guy who bends spoons arrives; Prof is angry because he would rather not have any magicians as members of the expedition. But that gives a touch of folklore. Anyway Uri Geller earns 1000 “green sheets” a day. More than Prof, and he is a scientist. The pen starts reporting anomalies. I dive…and here I am, face to face with the Wall! The adventure begins.
February 13th
It is 8 o’clock, good morning Island of Bimini. We are unable to land at the moment so we climb on the rigging, like monkeys, doing our best to see the island. But an endless row of yachts make it impossible to see the landscape… among all those masts and sails stuck like toothpicks into a wonderful blue sky, we are unable to see very much. A little further away there are lovely palm trees, sweetly dozing, loaded with fruit, and languidly bending with their reflections in the lagoon.
At last, at 11 o'clock, Customs papers are completed and we can set foot on land. Prof, the Maiorca family and I happily head to the hotel, the organisation has booked rooms for us at the "Bimini Big Game Fishing Club Hotel".
You can see it is a luxury place from the fact that there are some American women playing tennis and, at a respectful distance, statuesque white coated islanders waiting for their orders. The Prof and I are together again of course, we share an enormous room with bathroom, where I feel sure we will be treated like Kings. The others sleep on the boat. There is air conditioning and a bucket of ice too. Prof happily takes many small ice cubes. This room is terribly cold, I say, will you please switch that damned thing off? A nice bath to remove all the memories of the voyage, a quick snap of the Prof, then we agree to go and eat on board. Look at that lovely swimming pool, Prof says to me as we leave the hotel. I’ll eat and then come back for a swim. But you are joking I say; we have this wonderful sea with its crystal clear water; why do you want to go swimming in the hotel swimming pool?
I can't understand you! He is rather angry and accuses me of always wanting to pick arguments. He insists that he will have a bathe in the hotel pool. But he won't, because we go on talking to our friends on the boat till 5 pm. We discuss the timetable for the following day; we must look for the Bimini Wall and so we must come to an agreement on how we should proceed, especially with Enzo, who is the boss of the sub aqua troupe. We eventually go back to our hotel, but after a couple of hours return to the boat, where we are introduced to Uri Geller who has just flown in from New York. Somebody tells us that he too is a member of the expedition, and he will try some exercises involving paranormal activity under water and by the Wall. I want to laugh out loud, but I restrain myself. The Prof becomes a little angry, he doesn't like the idea of working with a magician…he is a scientist after all.
But what on earth will Uri Geller do by the Wall, and anyway, what has a magician and magic got to do with geophysics or archaeology?
Questions without answers! They are paying him (and he is very expensive, I am told), they seem to be in awe of him, they look at him, they touch him, they don't miss a single word he says. Apparently he is a nice chap, but I’m sure he is a very good actor.
He travels with his secretary and suffers from seasickness; we have something in common …well, he suffers from seasickness too!
While we are on the boat he entertains us by bending some spoons; but with a certain look, you know what I mean. So what’s the trick? We surround him, trying to get an explanation, and then the cameramen arrive and start fighting among themselves to get the best shots, all pushing and shoving. Finally he shouts at them to stop and, managing to escape, he goes into the Pilothouse and stands in front of the compass. He politely asks for silence before putting one hand on his forehead, possibly to warm it up, he then concentrates intensely, he places his left hand near the compass, closes his fist, makes a great effort, now he is super concentrated, his eyes glued to the instrument, a tremendous effort together with a cry coming from his throat…he looks like a madman…here we are at last; this strange strength coming from his brain makes the needle of the compass move ten degrees. Extraordinary! We all are quite shocked. He rests. I don’t like circuses or variety shows; I don’t know why, but they both bring out certain sadness in my mind. I imagine them being so hungry, that they are forced to suffer and do the strangest things imaginable just to survive. Prof takes his watch and passes it to Uri. Uri says he will make it move back one and a half hours, just by holding it upside down in his hand. He concentrates. It’s 8 pm; he turns the watch over and it now reads 6.30. Fantastic. Silvio Biagini arrives to take Geller for dinner.
We all are all talking about this extraordinary Uri, everyone has something to say, even that this good chap earns one thousand green backs a day just to spend some time with us. Lucky him! I think about my meagre Italian salary and sigh. Well, now I can say that I have met Uri Geller! We eat on the boat, Malinverni brings some tins of something and someone prepares a salad. Now it’s late for me so I say goodbye to everyone and walk to the hotel. Prof will come later. Goodnight.
14th February
Wake up my friend, it’s six o’clock. At seven thirty we are leaving to discover the mystery of the Wall! We get up. We have breakfast and at ten past seven we are on the boat. We are all present. We set the instrument so we can start using it as soon as we are outside the harbour. It’s seven thirty; we undo the ropes and cast off. The current takes us away from the pier, and then the engine takes us slowly forward. Off we go. I look at the sky; it is cloudy and dark…maybe it’s going to rain. We sail all around the island, it is just a stripe of land a few miles long and about two hundred metres wide, I think. We go to the opposite side of the island, not far from where we started.
The Wall should be about half a mile from the shore. The instrument is working and the pen is drawing a straight red line. Meanwhile we prepare marker buoys which we will throw into the sea if we register any anomalies. The sea is slightly rough. The Captain tells us that we are above the Wall, and in fact, the instrument confirms it! The red line is no longer straight, it seems to be doodling, a sort of ornamental sketch, so I instantly throw a buoy into the sea. There was an anomaly, the instrument clearly revealed it. Now the pen draws a straight line again. Prof tells the Captain to reverse course and go back, we cross the Wall at another point…same signal…down goes another buoy.
We throw down three buoys, then the Captain stops the boat and drops anchor. Maiorca and Camilli get ready. After a while they dive and swim towards the buoys. Camilli takes the spear gun with him. Here the sea is treacherous and you never know what lurks below. We read the lead-line: the depth is six metres. Now we eagerly wait for the results. The Captain keeps watch from the bow, looking to see if there are any fins approaching. Eventually Maiorca comes to the surface saying he found nothing relevant near the buoys, so we tell him to swim in larger and larger circles around the markers. He diver again and Mangiali and Patrizia follow him with a video camera. They tell us that there is a world of wonderful colours below, just waiting to be filmed. Maiorca comes up again and from far away shouts that he has found the Wall. I take my mask and flippers and, with two lead weights attached to my belt, I jump in too. As I put my head under the surface of the water I see something far more beautiful than I could ever have imagined, and I have dived in many seas throughout my life! Nonetheless, this vision fills my heart with immense joy, I don’t have time now to see the Wall, and I’m in ecstasy. I am mesmerised, no aquarium could ever reproduce such richness of colour or such perfect nature. Hundreds of wonderfully coloured fish lazily swim by, slightly moving their fins, colourful parrot fish come near me and play hide-and-seek, unaware that man might be a danger, some lobsters climb onto white rocks, gorgonias (sea-fans) with their net-like purple fans gently moving with the current, yellow sea anemones, pink actinians, red starfish, colonies of elavenides with their strange yellow hue, light blue Portuguese caravels with their strange tentacles and from which you should keep a respectfully distance, and so many other types of fish. Good God, I wake from my dream, I see Maiorca fifty meters ahead and swim towards him; I dive while holding my breath, and swimming near the bottom of the sea I can see some enormous blocks of rocks placed side by side, roughly rectangular and laid out geometrically. I calculate that those blocks must be about four metres wide and two metres long. I go to the surface to take some air and I dive again, I want to see how high the Wall is. It is more or less forty centimetres, maybe in other places it might be a little higher. I look around and I see Mangiali trying to catch some fish. He abandoned the video camera, and with a sort of native’s arrow and a piece of elastic he found in the boat (You are not allowed to use real spear guns for fishing) he amazingly and quickly spears dozens of lobsters. Sport and cooking take over from science. I surface, climb on the boat and speak to the Prof. Meanwhile Maiorca has checked all the other markers, and there is no doubt, where there is a buoy, the Wall is to be found nearby. Enzo comes back on board together with Camilli. We dry off and discuss what we have seen; The Prof is very interested, he listens to us and says he would like to do more experiments. Obviously the Wall is artificial, he says. But he still has some doubts in his scientific head. I must explain to the reader that the Wall is actually like a road; it is as wide as a main road, and raised a little off the sea bed. We’ll have to dig next to one of these rocks to see how high the Wall is and we’ll have to repeat this exercise at different positions to be sure. That is what the Prof and Maiorca say, even though Enzo, having seen this paved thing from close quarters, is sure that it is a man made wall, he is happy to do it. Now it’s late, it’s 5 pm and we are hungry. The Captain boiled the lobsters caught by Gianni, and now he’s cutting them in two, lengthways, with a huge knife, offering them to us with some slices of lemon. We stuff ourselves. It’s raining, rain as light as a veil.
The sea is slightly rough, a little more than this morning.
We all are in the pilothouse planning tomorrow’s work. Prof says that in order to be sure of the position of the Wall, we should throw the buoy immediately the anomaly is registered by the sensor which we are towing across the surface. To do this, and because the sensor is sixty metres away from the boat, we have to follow the sensor in the dinghy. Maiorca volunteers to carry out this job in the dinghy. We will do it tomorrow because the Captain, who is a very patient man, raises the anchor. Now it’s almost evening. We go back quickly; while sailing, we hide the instruments and all the professional stuff in the false bottom of the boat. The Captain is worried because he says that, in Bimini, they don’t like people who are interested in archaeology; the authority is fearful that we might take something interesting away and he is worried that the local police will come aboard.
So we enter the harbour as clean as tourists just looking at the wonderful sights the Bahamas sea offers. With precise manoeuvring, Captain Kuk hits the bow against a cement pole and grazes the boat along the small pier.
I don’t know if Kuk usually swears, but by the look on his face, I would say he does!
It is now 7 pm and it is raining. I’m fed up. We say goodbye and go back to the hotel.
February 13th
It is 8 o’clock, good morning Island of Bimini. We are unable to land at the moment so we climb on the rigging, like monkeys, doing our best to see the island. But an endless row of yachts make it impossible to see the landscape… among all those masts and sails stuck like toothpicks into a wonderful blue sky, we are unable to see very much. A little further away there are lovely palm trees, sweetly dozing, loaded with fruit, and languidly bending with their reflections in the lagoon.
At last, at 11 o'clock, Customs papers are completed and we can set foot on land. Prof, the Maiorca family and I happily head to the hotel, the organisation has booked rooms for us at the "Bimini Big Game Fishing Club Hotel".
You can see it is a luxury place from the fact that there are some American women playing tennis and, at a respectful distance, statuesque white coated islanders waiting for their orders. The Prof and I are together again of course, we share an enormous room with bathroom, where I feel sure we will be treated like Kings. The others sleep on the boat. There is air conditioning and a bucket of ice too. Prof happily takes many small ice cubes. This room is terribly cold, I say, will you please switch that damned thing off? A nice bath to remove all the memories of the voyage, a quick snap of the Prof, then we agree to go and eat on board. Look at that lovely swimming pool, Prof says to me as we leave the hotel. I’ll eat and then come back for a swim. But you are joking I say; we have this wonderful sea with its crystal clear water; why do you want to go swimming in the hotel swimming pool?
I can't understand you! He is rather angry and accuses me of always wanting to pick arguments. He insists that he will have a bathe in the hotel pool. But he won't, because we go on talking to our friends on the boat till 5 pm. We discuss the timetable for the following day; we must look for the Bimini Wall and so we must come to an agreement on how we should proceed, especially with Enzo, who is the boss of the sub aqua troupe. We eventually go back to our hotel, but after a couple of hours return to the boat, where we are introduced to Uri Geller who has just flown in from New York. Somebody tells us that he too is a member of the expedition, and he will try some exercises involving paranormal activity under water and by the Wall. I want to laugh out loud, but I restrain myself. The Prof becomes a little angry, he doesn't like the idea of working with a magician…he is a scientist after all.
But what on earth will Uri Geller do by the Wall, and anyway, what has a magician and magic got to do with geophysics or archaeology?
Questions without answers! They are paying him (and he is very expensive, I am told), they seem to be in awe of him, they look at him, they touch him, they don't miss a single word he says. Apparently he is a nice chap, but I’m sure he is a very good actor.
He travels with his secretary and suffers from seasickness; we have something in common …well, he suffers from seasickness too!
While we are on the boat he entertains us by bending some spoons; but with a certain look, you know what I mean. So what’s the trick? We surround him, trying to get an explanation, and then the cameramen arrive and start fighting among themselves to get the best shots, all pushing and shoving. Finally he shouts at them to stop and, managing to escape, he goes into the Pilothouse and stands in front of the compass. He politely asks for silence before putting one hand on his forehead, possibly to warm it up, he then concentrates intensely, he places his left hand near the compass, closes his fist, makes a great effort, now he is super concentrated, his eyes glued to the instrument, a tremendous effort together with a cry coming from his throat…he looks like a madman…here we are at last; this strange strength coming from his brain makes the needle of the compass move ten degrees. Extraordinary! We all are quite shocked. He rests. I don’t like circuses or variety shows; I don’t know why, but they both bring out certain sadness in my mind. I imagine them being so hungry, that they are forced to suffer and do the strangest things imaginable just to survive. Prof takes his watch and passes it to Uri. Uri says he will make it move back one and a half hours, just by holding it upside down in his hand. He concentrates. It’s 8 pm; he turns the watch over and it now reads 6.30. Fantastic. Silvio Biagini arrives to take Geller for dinner.
We all are all talking about this extraordinary Uri, everyone has something to say, even that this good chap earns one thousand green backs a day just to spend some time with us. Lucky him! I think about my meagre Italian salary and sigh. Well, now I can say that I have met Uri Geller! We eat on the boat, Malinverni brings some tins of something and someone prepares a salad. Now it’s late for me so I say goodbye to everyone and walk to the hotel. Prof will come later. Goodnight.
14th February
Wake up my friend, it’s six o’clock. At seven thirty we are leaving to discover the mystery of the Wall! We get up. We have breakfast and at ten past seven we are on the boat. We are all present. We set the instrument so we can start using it as soon as we are outside the harbour. It’s seven thirty; we undo the ropes and cast off. The current takes us away from the pier, and then the engine takes us slowly forward. Off we go. I look at the sky; it is cloudy and dark…maybe it’s going to rain. We sail all around the island, it is just a stripe of land a few miles long and about two hundred metres wide, I think. We go to the opposite side of the island, not far from where we started.
The Wall should be about half a mile from the shore. The instrument is working and the pen is drawing a straight red line. Meanwhile we prepare marker buoys which we will throw into the sea if we register any anomalies. The sea is slightly rough. The Captain tells us that we are above the Wall, and in fact, the instrument confirms it! The red line is no longer straight, it seems to be doodling, a sort of ornamental sketch, so I instantly throw a buoy into the sea. There was an anomaly, the instrument clearly revealed it. Now the pen draws a straight line again. Prof tells the Captain to reverse course and go back, we cross the Wall at another point…same signal…down goes another buoy.
We throw down three buoys, then the Captain stops the boat and drops anchor. Maiorca and Camilli get ready. After a while they dive and swim towards the buoys. Camilli takes the spear gun with him. Here the sea is treacherous and you never know what lurks below. We read the lead-line: the depth is six metres. Now we eagerly wait for the results. The Captain keeps watch from the bow, looking to see if there are any fins approaching. Eventually Maiorca comes to the surface saying he found nothing relevant near the buoys, so we tell him to swim in larger and larger circles around the markers. He diver again and Mangiali and Patrizia follow him with a video camera. They tell us that there is a world of wonderful colours below, just waiting to be filmed. Maiorca comes up again and from far away shouts that he has found the Wall. I take my mask and flippers and, with two lead weights attached to my belt, I jump in too. As I put my head under the surface of the water I see something far more beautiful than I could ever have imagined, and I have dived in many seas throughout my life! Nonetheless, this vision fills my heart with immense joy, I don’t have time now to see the Wall, and I’m in ecstasy. I am mesmerised, no aquarium could ever reproduce such richness of colour or such perfect nature. Hundreds of wonderfully coloured fish lazily swim by, slightly moving their fins, colourful parrot fish come near me and play hide-and-seek, unaware that man might be a danger, some lobsters climb onto white rocks, gorgonias (sea-fans) with their net-like purple fans gently moving with the current, yellow sea anemones, pink actinians, red starfish, colonies of elavenides with their strange yellow hue, light blue Portuguese caravels with their strange tentacles and from which you should keep a respectfully distance, and so many other types of fish. Good God, I wake from my dream, I see Maiorca fifty meters ahead and swim towards him; I dive while holding my breath, and swimming near the bottom of the sea I can see some enormous blocks of rocks placed side by side, roughly rectangular and laid out geometrically. I calculate that those blocks must be about four metres wide and two metres long. I go to the surface to take some air and I dive again, I want to see how high the Wall is. It is more or less forty centimetres, maybe in other places it might be a little higher. I look around and I see Mangiali trying to catch some fish. He abandoned the video camera, and with a sort of native’s arrow and a piece of elastic he found in the boat (You are not allowed to use real spear guns for fishing) he amazingly and quickly spears dozens of lobsters. Sport and cooking take over from science. I surface, climb on the boat and speak to the Prof. Meanwhile Maiorca has checked all the other markers, and there is no doubt, where there is a buoy, the Wall is to be found nearby. Enzo comes back on board together with Camilli. We dry off and discuss what we have seen; The Prof is very interested, he listens to us and says he would like to do more experiments. Obviously the Wall is artificial, he says. But he still has some doubts in his scientific head. I must explain to the reader that the Wall is actually like a road; it is as wide as a main road, and raised a little off the sea bed. We’ll have to dig next to one of these rocks to see how high the Wall is and we’ll have to repeat this exercise at different positions to be sure. That is what the Prof and Maiorca say, even though Enzo, having seen this paved thing from close quarters, is sure that it is a man made wall, he is happy to do it. Now it’s late, it’s 5 pm and we are hungry. The Captain boiled the lobsters caught by Gianni, and now he’s cutting them in two, lengthways, with a huge knife, offering them to us with some slices of lemon. We stuff ourselves. It’s raining, rain as light as a veil.
The sea is slightly rough, a little more than this morning.
We all are in the pilothouse planning tomorrow’s work. Prof says that in order to be sure of the position of the Wall, we should throw the buoy immediately the anomaly is registered by the sensor which we are towing across the surface. To do this, and because the sensor is sixty metres away from the boat, we have to follow the sensor in the dinghy. Maiorca volunteers to carry out this job in the dinghy. We will do it tomorrow because the Captain, who is a very patient man, raises the anchor. Now it’s almost evening. We go back quickly; while sailing, we hide the instruments and all the professional stuff in the false bottom of the boat. The Captain is worried because he says that, in Bimini, they don’t like people who are interested in archaeology; the authority is fearful that we might take something interesting away and he is worried that the local police will come aboard.
So we enter the harbour as clean as tourists just looking at the wonderful sights the Bahamas sea offers. With precise manoeuvring, Captain Kuk hits the bow against a cement pole and grazes the boat along the small pier.
I don’t know if Kuk usually swears, but by the look on his face, I would say he does!
It is now 7 pm and it is raining. I’m fed up. We say goodbye and go back to the hotel.
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