Page 8 - Microsoft Word - ADVENTURE 05-06.docx

they had to go by night and hide somewhere during the
day. He had no information about nearby ports. A town of
some use was 4 or 500 km away, and then onwards. With
a good wind you can do that, with little wind you run out
of food and drink. Of course, there are fish in the sea and
there are rivers around, but he couldn't get a map. It was
all like in the old Portuguese days: nautical charts were the
cutting edge of technology, the best kept secrets. Even
then, 'industrial espionage' was popular. But then it was
still the age of Vasco da Gama, who first circumnavigated
Africa on his way south. Today, you can go around the
world with a smartphone, if it's hooked up to a satellite.
Well, it's not easy today either. You can travel thousands
of kilometres and the average smartphone is nothing more
than a piece of good-looking useless gadgetry. The boat
had a navigation console for navigation transmitter and
map management, but the transmitter was not switched on
because the remaining battery power was saved for the
first engine start-up test, and the maps could not be found.
He did manage to reassemble the small solar panel and
windmill and set them up for charging, but so far, he has
seen no change. Much of the boat had been damaged or
soaked in the salt water, so the only sure thing was
uncertainty, but at least the basic equipment was now
available.
In the afternoon he caught sight of the top of the mast of
the boat in the trees. In the mangrove forest, it was difficult
to pass from tree to tree, branch to branch, but Laszlo knew
this already and Nancy followed. She noticed nothing.
When they got all the way to the boat, she stared at it,
petrified. There it was at arm's length, she could feel it with
her hand.