Free Journey to Atlantis by Philip Roy

land that I’d take the chance of being delayed. But I did sail close enough to Graciosa to take a peek at the island through the binoculars.
    It was completely different from Corvo. It had a mountain in the center but was low-lying on the north side and appeared to have a decent harbour. I picked up several fast vessels on radar, likely recreational boaters enjoying the warm summer afternoon. Sure enough, through the binocularsI caught a glimpse of some water-skiers and jet-skiers. We went by about a mile out with our flags down so as not to draw attention. We were on the surface, that was all the Law of the Sea required of foreign submarines within the twelve-mile zone. It was a lovely, sleepy summer’s afternoon as we passed the beautiful island. Hollie seemed to have forgotten the lady of the lighthouse already and was enjoying the warm breeze sweeping over the portal. Everything was just about perfect, until … I started to get that premonition feeling.
    “It must be my imagination, Hollie. What do you think?”
    Hollie wasn’t sure. He bit his lip and looked up in the sky at Seaweed doing his kite thing. From the portal I could hear the radar beeping inside. What was it that was bugging me?
    I climbed down the ladder and took a look at the screen. In one corner of the bay were three motorboats that showed up as three lights on the radar. Those were the water-skiers. They were taking turns running up a platform; I could see them with the binoculars. On the other side of the bay were two jet-skis crisscrossing the harbour like jousting knights. That looked like a lot of fun. But … the radar showed
three
vessels. I climbed the portal and gazed through the binoculars. There were definitely just two jet-skiers. Hmmm, that was strange. I went back inside. There were three beeps on the radar, though only two were moving. Those were the jet-skiers. What was sitting in the water between them?
    I went back outside. It was such a gorgeous day. We werepassing them now. If any of the boaters and skiers looked out very carefully they might have seen us sailing past, but everyone was too busy having fun to stare out to sea. I scratched my head. Whatever was sitting in the water between the jet-skiers, surely they must have known what it was? But there was that feeling again. And then, I remembered what Sheba had said … “trust those feelings.” Oh boy.
    “What do we do, Hollie, move on … or investigate? Hmmm?”
    Actually, I knew what Hollie would think. He was an investigating kind of dog.
    “Okay … we’ll move a little closer.”
    So, I shut the hatch, submerged to periscope level and quietly entered the bay. I knew we were not supposed to submerge inside the twelve-mile zone but I was only planning to take a quick peek, then leave. Whatever was sitting in the water between the jet-skiers must have been made of metal because it showed up on radar. What if they didn’t know it was there and ran into it? They could get killed!
    Back and forth the jet-skiers raced towards each other, crossed paths, then swung out to the far sides of their figure eight. They reached the corners of their loop at about the same time, paused to wave to each other, then raced together again. They certainly looked like knights on horseback without the long spears. I noticed the submerged object between them had shifted a little bit. It must have been drifting in with the tide. What
was
it?
    Through the periscope there was no way I could tell what it was. And so, at quarter of a mile away I surfaced. I opened the hatch and quickly raised our flags. Now we were clearly visible to the boaters and anyone on shore who might care to look our way. But nobody stopped doing what they were doing; everyone was having such a good time.
    Slowly, cautiously, we came closer. I stood up on top of the portal and stared hard with the binoculars. Now I could definitely see something in the water. It was floating just beneath the surface and creating a round