Feb.21, Friday: I continued working on report ,orders and specs. Spent an hour mounting slides and
had a pleasant tete a tete with Christiane Chait, whose father had been a French Army general of Lebanese descent. He had left her a large sum payable on ther 21st birthday if she had obtained
a degree in medicine or law; she had taken classes for 2 years in the first and three years in the second faculty, but had dropped out of both even though she had excellent grades.What with such interruptions as visits by Val and US friend and later my English friend till 26:00, we had a short night and I had to promise to take her along to "Xhosa Coast" 's departure on Saturday.
Feb.22, Sat.: Got up early and packed for cruise. Long talks and instructions in the office,
and short phone call to Rita. Left for home at 13:00 to pick up taperecorder for John and was intercepted by two of my landlady's sisters showing around a gorgeous friend.They were keen to take me to the beach that very afternoon. We had a few beers, after which I showed Hawaiian stero-slides and much interest in the friend who had long black hair and a red dress and was to leave for Pretoria on Wednesday. I had to tear myself lose to keep my date with Rita, who took me to Muizenberg, the airfield and Rhodes Monument. We had dinner in the Doll's House followed by a post-lude till 20:00 when I had to leave to go to Chris.On the way to her restaurant annex coffeehouse, I first bought her a lobster.She cooked this herself and half of it was served as my second dinner of the day. At 22:30 we left, dropped off the Kombi at Dempsey's, and took a taxi to the harbour to board the "Xhosa Coast". Everyone stood in the dark aboard expressing sweet farewells. I met Collin's geologist, Francois Hoffman, and won the coin flip for the top bunk in our
shared cabin. I was tired and thankful for a quiet night at sea.
Feb.23, Sunday: A beautiful day, sailing on all day long to the survey area. We stowed away the diving gear,I gave some classes on meteorological and oceanographic observations,
and talked with Hoffman, O'Shea and other shipmates,comprising Captain Roy Merhans, Mate Hofman, Joe, Charlie, Joseph, Cook, Bosun, seasick Purser, Deckhand, Joe Wright, Des Hugo, DaveLinneker, Rolly Thompson and the Alpine crew: John Cairnes, Wally Wallace, Jim Tatum and Terry. We did run a few lines and made some current measurements.
Feb.24,Mon: In the morning, we ran some "Sparker" lines and readied for the afternoon dive.This was a bit complex, Joe asking for the use of a dinghy,etc.Finally, at 15:00, we anchored
at a depth of 100 ft near a rockycoast, launched a boat for 4 and skipper and set out a descending line. We dove in pairs, and found the water temperature below to be less than 50 degrees F.
Unfortunately, the compass didnot work. We found gullies similar to those on land, with a relief of 10 - 15 ft, and trending approximately perpendicular to the coast line.There were shelves with lobsters. I struck off a piece of schist and took samples. Rolly proved an excellent diver and Dave collected 4 lobsters before getting seasick. While we dove, Hoffy and Des took current measurements.