Marissa began to seriously question the rationale for the trip.
Perhaps she should have stayed at home and tried to get her life back in order. She wondered what Robert was doing, and how her leaving affected his behavior. If he were having an affair with Donna, leaving like she did would only give him carte blanche to carry on. If she’d been wrong, she wondered if her abrupt departure would push him into Donna’s arms.
“Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has taken twenty-five million years to form,” Wendy read, “and there are at least three hundred and fifty different species of coral, as well as fifteen hundred species of tropical fish.”
“Wendy,” Marissa said at last, “maybe it would be better for you to read to yourself. Statistics like that 4on’t register in my mind unless I read them.”
“Hold on!” Wendy said, not taking the hint.
“Here’s one you can relate to. The visibility of water can be up to sixty meters.”
Wendy looked at Marissa.
“That’s unbelievable. That’s about two hundred feet. Isn’t that astounding? Can you wait?”
Marissa merely nodded.
Undaunted, Wendy read on. Marissa turned back to the window and looked out at the limitless Pacific Ocean. Again she thought of Robert, nearly half a world away.
Mercifully, Marissa’s thoughts and Wendy’s reading were interrupted by an announcement. The captain said they were nearing
Hamilton Island and would be landing momentarily. In another few minutes their plane touched down.
The island was a tropical paradise. Although Marissa and Wendy were surprised when they saw several high-rise buildings which looked starkly out of place, the rest of the island was in keeping with their expectations. The vegetation was a lush bright green, highlighted by dazzling flowers. The beaches were a sparkling white sand, the water an inviting aqua.
The check-in at the hotel went smoothly. Their seaside room was ready for them. The resort’s lagoon-shaped pool tempted Marissa, but Wendy was not to be denied. She wanted to go directly to the marina to arrange for the next day’s diving. She offered to go by herself, but Marissa felt obligated to go with her.
As the travel agent had said, the marina was large. Several hundred boats of all sizes and descriptions were docked there, with room for more. Advertisements for excursions for both fishing and diving abounded. The large bulletin board on the front wall of the ship chandler’s store was filled. But Wendy wasn’t satisfied with the information they contained. Instead she insisted they wander out on the commercial pier to examine the boats themselves.
Marissa followed along, enjoying the surroundings more than the boats. The day was glorious. A hot, tropical sun blazed in the middle of an azure sky. Large cumulus clouds dotted the horizon particularly over the peaks of the neighboring islands. To the north in the far distance a group of dark clouds clustered, suggesting a thunderstorm on the way.
“Here’s a good one,” Wendy said. She’d stopped at a boat slip where one of the larger boats was moored. The name emblazoned on the transom was “Oz.” It was a cabin cruiser, painted white, with a spacious cockpit. Several swivel deep-sea fishing chairs were mounted there. Against the forward bulkhead a long row of scuba tanks was secured.
“What makes this one better than the others?” Marissa asked.
“This one has a nice dive platform right at the water’s edge,” Wendy said, pointing to a grate like wooden structure that hung from the transom of the boat.
“I can also tell there’s a compressor on board. That means they can fill their own scuba tanks.
Besides, it looks like it’s about fifty feet. That means it will be nice and stable.”
“I see,” Marissa said. She was impressed that Wendy knew so much about it. She felt she was in good hands.
“You ladies interested in fishing or diving?” a bearded man asked.
“Possibly,” Wendy said.
“What’s the charge for a full day’s divine. ” “Come on aboard and we’ll discuss it,” the man told her.
“Name’s Rafe Murray. I’m the captain of this vessel.”
With experienced steps, Wendy marched out on the two-foot wide planks that separated the boat’ slips and swung herself onto the gunwale of the Oz. Then she stepped down onto the deck of the boat.