CHAPTER 20
Test Run

Hearing that phrase, "I have an idea" caused quite a stir from the other four and Analise raised her hand to quieten them, “hear me out, please. The heist will still go ahead, but we’re stuck at the moment with SMC on full alert, the Coastguard on our doorstep and a Namibian corvette 3 kilometres away. This area is hot, so I want us to test out the one part of the heist that we haven’t yet rehearsed. The escape run to St Helena.”
“The run to St Helena?” Kurt was surprised, but then saw the sense and followed up with, “Well, yes, I can see the sense in doing that.”
“Go on then Kurt, explain why I would want to do that.”
“Well, firstly to see just how fast we can do the run, and also to see what happens here when we try to leave.”
“Partly right, but there is another fundamental reason, I want the Sea Witch to be seen and recognised around the island of St Helena, I want us to refuel, take on more provisions and Rafi to see his family and prepare them.”
“Is that wise?”
“Rafi, care to answer Kurt’s question?”
“Sure Annie, Kurt, I will only tell my wife that I have a new job, that we need to leave the island some time in the near future, that I will be back and we will board a boat to take us all away. She will then get rid of all the unnecessary things, pack suitcases ready and we will pick her up when we return. She won’t talk about it, but even if she did, it wouldn’t help anyone.”
“OK, so how long do you reckon we need to be there then?”
“I only need a couple of days.”
“Lisa?”
“Rafi, aside from your family, tell Kurt, us, how long the round trip should take.”
“Eleven, twelve hours to get there, a couple of days to sort out the business, get seen and recognised, twelve hours to get back here – three days.”
“OK, we’ll make it four days, Kurt, can White Lady be asked to tell us if the Sea Vac comes out while we’re away?”
“Sure Lisa, no worries, I’ll ask them, they have nothing to lose just hanging about out there anyway.”

Kurt left to make another call to the White Lady.
Tom grinned and said “I suppose you’re going to send a coded message, carefully including in the right words about porpoises, diving and getting things off the bottom, watching out for a good shovel that can be used on the bottom and so on yeah?”
“No,” replied Kurt as he then sent a short plain message. Tom was bewildered, but the White Lady got the message ok and responded as directed.
Analise addressed Rafi as her ‘chief boatman’, “Rafi, how long will you need to prepare for a high speed dash and get under way?”
“Twenty minutes Annie, no more, when do you want to go?”
“Seven o’clock, just as if we had pulled the heist and were trying to get to St Helena for breakfast.”
“I think we can manage that, the sea’s calm.”
“Manage what?” asked Kurt as he stepped back into the stateroom and only catching Rafi’s last words.
“I asked Rafi to get under way at seven this evening with a view to dropping anchor at St Helena in time for breakfast. He replied, well, you heard the reply.”
“OK I see, yes, I agree, the sea’s calm, Rafi’s right, we can get there for breakfast at the speed this baby goes.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do. Now, what about the White Lady, did you get through to them again?”
“Yes, I suggested he move into the radar zone of the Rock and turn his laptop on connected to the ComSat for internet access and confirm when he had done so. It only took a few minutes and he came back to me with a positive. I then sent him an e-mail with our plans laid out and asking him to keep watch for the SeaVac and if we aren’t back to let us know she’s out.”
“Oh that’s clever, I wondered how you were going to get all that into a coded message.”
“So did Tom, and he was quite creative with his suggestions too.” Kurt laughed, “E-mail is so much easier these days!”
“Well, I’m pleased about that. I know the light is going, but I think we should make another dive, with lights – we have forty minutes or so. You never know, we might find something useful, and in any case, any watchers will see that we are still at work. Our subsequent departure at seven will take them completely by surprise. I suggest we dive out there, to the north of the rock, about 300 metres out.”
“Lisa, that’s where the wreckage of the gunbus went down.”
“I know that.”
“Then let’s get out there!”
Margie had been sitting quietly through all this cross talk. She stood up and broke into the conversation, “So, what would you like me to do while you’re having your little swim?”
Analise turned towards her, there was a slight flush in her cheeks as she chose her words, “Well now, I am sure that you and Tom can find something interesting to do for forty minutes or so…..”
Margie giggled. Spending time entwined with Tom had not crossed her mind, but it sounded like a good idea. Then she thought it through and chose her reply, “Nice, but no, not this early in the evening, I think I will help him with the radio stuff.”
“And what did you think I was suggesting?” Analise grinned, feigning mock surprise that Margie should have thought she meant she and Tom should have sex while they were diving. She laughed and turned towards the door. In two strides she was outside, following Kurt down the ladder to the dinghy below. Margie followed her out onto the deck and stood looking down as they slowly pulled away, Kurt doing the steering as Rafi was engaged in getting the boat under way. She looked across at the Coastguard cutter, there was a small flash from one of the decks, as if something caught one of the final rays of the sun. Someone was using binoculars, no doubt watching the dinghy as it made its way northwards.
“Stop here, and drop the anchor Kurt, it won’t reach the bottom but it will hold the dinghy. See that clear patch over there, well that’s Namibian waters, we do not want to drift there, SMC would take great delight in blowing the dinghy out of the water after today’s events.”
“Agreed, and, we should tie a 100 metre rope to the ring here and attach it to my belt so that we don’t swim into their waters either. Here, tie it off on the ring.” Kurt tied one end to his belt as he passed the other end to Analise who tied it to the ring on the dinghy. “How deep is the water?”

“Here? I don’t know, no more than 22 metres I’m sure, most of this coast is sandy shelf and right here by the rock it’s pretty shallow. Big ships run aground easily here, there are channels and flat areas all over. It takes a skilled experienced pilot to get ships into Walvis Bay. That cutter must be close to the bottom.”
“Yeah, I reckon, must be flat bottomed like the SeaVac, right, let’s go, straight down at first so I can assess the depth and check the distance we have on this rope.”
Kurt dropped of backwards, followed by Analise. They dropped quickly toward the bottom, their flippers propelling them down. To anyone on the surface, just a line of bubbles would show that they were down below.

Margie walked into the comms room and slipped up behind Tom, sliding her arms round his waist and kissing the back of his neck. He swung around within the circle of her arms and kissed her lovely full lips.
“To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”
“The others have gone diving to keep the watchers happy, Rafi is getting the boat ready to go, so what needs doing?”
“Annie said we are to get under way at seven, I need to check the GPS systems and verify our present location. Then I need to upload that information to the bridge computer.”
“How can I help?”
“Take this handset and call me when you’re on the bridge, we can do this together.”
“Ooh, Annie said if she left us alone, we’d do things together….”
“Get going you naughty girl!” Tom ran her hands down her back and patted her bottom, one of the small things he did that really annoyed her. If she didn’t love him, he’d have invoked a violent reaction from her for that, instead she just turned to go, tossing her words over her shoulder, “You watch yourself my man, I’ll get you later….”
“Promises, promises. I can hardly wait! In the meantime, up to the bridge for you, young lady.”
Margie almost leaped up the stairs to the bridge and on entering the room was amazed at the array of technology. Rafi wasn’t in sight, he was at that time checking the fuel levels in the tanks. She was quick to call Tom on the handset to confirm that she was on the bridge.
"Margie, this is Tom, receiving you loud and clear. Are you ready for the radio calibration we discussed?”
“Yes Tom, ready, you tell me what to do and I’ll confirm when I’ve done it.”
“OK, on the console in front of the wheel there are two 10 centimetre square screens labelled NAV1 and NAV2 with push on/push off switches in a bank underneath. Only one push button should be alight, the top left hand one on each screen, which should be red. The two screens should be blank. Find, check and confirm, over.”

“Roger, confirm that, over.”
“Press the lit switch on NAV1, it should go in and remain in, it will stay red, but the screen will light, do it and confirm, over.”
“Roger, confirmed, over.”
“At the bottom of the bank of buttons is a bar like the space bar on a computer keyboard, labelled ‘INTERLOCK’, it should be in depressed position. Press it once and it should come up, you should then see a message appear on the screen, do it now and read back the message to me, over.”
“Switch labelled ‘INTERLOCK’ released, message on screen reads ‘Enter current position’, over.”
“Roger, on the main keyboard in the centre of the console, type the word ‘INTERLOCK’ in block capitals, then accept by pressing the CR/ENTER key, confirm, over.”
“Confirmed, message now reads ‘Locating GPS system, please wait….’ Over.”
“Good, now we wait, I have remotely activated the GPS system, it will take two to four minutes to locate at least four of the satellites positioned over us and confirm its position, our position, relative to them. When the message changes, read it back to me, over.”
“Roger, standby one.”
Margie was enjoying this, she’d dabbled a bit in radio-speak and always wanted to do it live, for real and here was her chance. She watched the screen as a sequence of symbols in the same spot gave the impression of a spoked wheel turning ‘-\|/-\’ repeated over and over, quite effective as simple graphics go. Then suddenly a message displayed on the screen and she called Tom, “bridge to comms, do you read, over.”
“Go ahead Margie.”
“Message on display is ‘GPS INTERLOCK established, select INTERLOCK now’ over.”
“Roger now depress that bar again and confirm the result, over.”
“Roger, INTERLOCK bar depressed, message now reads ‘220 metres east of Condor Rock, Namibia’ over.”

“Nice, better than I thought, so it knows the place, not just the GPS co-ordinates, good. OK, now we need to calibrate the navigational control, NAV2, depress the switch that’s red and confirm that in this case, it changes to green as does the one on NAV1 and the two displays now read the same. Confirm, over.”
“Roger, that is confirmed, over.”
“OK, now depress the ‘INTERLOCK’ bar for NAV2 and when prompted, type in ST HELENA, and depress the ‘INTERLOCK’ bar again to confirm this to the mainframe. Go ahead and confirm, over.”
“OK display reads ‘Navigational control set to best course selection for St Helena from Condor Rock, confirm by selecting ‘MASTER INTERLOCK’’, over”
“Roger, on the centre console is a round switch labelled ‘Master Interlock’. Press this and confirm, over.”
“Roger, message now reads ‘St Helena 1762 kilometres, interlock confirmed, data uploading to master navigational computer, please wait….”
“That’s great! Well done Margie, I had to do that myself, running about like a scalded cat back in Cape Town, glad to have your assistance. Return to comms room, over.”
“On my way. Out.”
Margie closed the bridge as she stepped out onto the deck.

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