Journal of the sixtyseventh day on board

8th July, 1999

Thanks to the presence on board of Angelo Mojetta, I take the opportunity … to have a day's holiday and hand the keyboard over to him.

“The Mistral wind is playing the role of master and the only thing we have learnt is to be very patient.
Here at Lampedusa it's hard to stay in the lee of the wind and we are forced one more time to admire the beauty of the harbour. Moored along one of the many quays, surrounded by fishing boats of all shapes and sizes, we spend our time chatting with the fishermen who confirmed to us the presence of the sharks in the area. Not all of them agree on the best period but our camera was able to take some interesting shots.

Lampedusa's waters are amongst the best in the Mediterranean and, if the weather was with us, we would be able to see sharks at a depth of 30 metres. They would surely be attracted from a distance by our rich and perfumed bait.

We met Testa, the fisherman who last year captured a young white shark right here in the water off Lampedusa. This shark has now become very famous and is mentioned in all scientific news about the species. Let's hope that having shaken Testa's hand we'll have some better luck. As the advertising slogan goes "luck is not enough, but it certainly helps".

Angelo Mojetta