Chapter 753: Much Easier
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
More than a million Australian dollars was not a problem for Li Du. He had no need to take out a loan, and he paid the full amount directly.
Rooney was overjoyed. It might not be his biggest yacht sale, but it was one of the most enjoyable. Li Du paid the money on the spot, and the company's heavy industry manager did all the paperwork. The deal was a success!
"Do you have a ship driving license?" he asked. "If you don't have one, you have to hire a driver. I can contact one for you."
Upon hearing this, Li Du and others were depressed.
They only wanted to buy a fishing boat at first. Any ordinary person could drive it after having some training. Now that they had bought a ship, they would need a ship diving license. How would any one of them have that?
Fortunately, the quiet Brother Wolf spoke up. "Boss, I have, but it is from Germany. I have to translate it to use it in Australia."
Like a driver's license, Australia recognized ship driving licenses from many countries, but it required translation.
"Leave that to me," Rooney said. "Five hundred dollars and I could settle it for you."
More than a million dollars was already spent, why would Li Du care about another 500 dollars? He paid for it without thinking twice.
Two days later, when they came to sail, Rooney gave them the translated version of the ship driving license.
During those two days, Brother Wolf followed Rooney to learn how to drive the Seastar 60 at Monster Ocean Heavy Industries. At the end of March, they went to Monster Ocean Heavy Industries' shipyard. The Seastar 60 passed by, and they boarded the ship together.
The full displacement of Seastar 60 was 30 tons, the depth of the draft was 1.5 meters, and the load was 10 people. However, Li Du and his group were mostly children, so the number of people allowed had a little wiggle room to go up.
As the new ship creaked, they left Melbourne for King Island.
"We'll eat and live on the sea this time, as long as there is no stormy weather. We will be having a great harvest," Hans said confidently.
After two days of calmness, Li Du no longer felt the excitement and irrational fear that he did the first time he boarded the yacht.
He said gloomily, "We catch the black gold abalone at a maximum of two or three hundred meters from the shore. It's such a short distance, do we need to stay on the sea all the time?"
What he really meant was, was it really necessary for them to buy a yacht for such a short distance?
The answer was no, it was not necessary.
Seastar 60 had a speed of 25 knots, about 40 kilometers an hour. It was slower than a fast ship, and it took four hours to reach the island.
When Li Du arrived at the efflux area, they encountered an efflux of underwater air, like a fountain, and a series of huge water columns flew out from the surface of the sea.
"Wow, that's cool," Sophie exclaimed.
When Li Du was about to explain the geography, a large raft appeared behind their yacht. There was a young man with his oars in his hands, and he could not take his eyes off their ship.
This young man was Cruz, who had previously rescued Li Du underwater.
Seeing Cruz staring at his yacht, Li Du waved and said, "Hey, man, how are you?"
Seeing Li Du standing on the bow, Cruz frowned and asked, "Why are you back? I thought you wouldn't go overboard after your last lesson."
"I can't help it, man. I have to earn money to support my family." Li Du shrugged.
Although this young man's tone was not very kind, Li Du did not care. After all, Cruz saved his life. As long as he was not bullying him, then no matter what the tone of his voice was, Li Du would still smile and answer.
Cruz stared at Seastar 60 in disbelief. "You drive a ship like this and tell me you need to support your family? But you're a rookie, sailing a yacht to harvest black gold abalone? Seriously? Are you afraid no one will notice you?"
Li Du laughed. "It's more comfortable to drive a yacht. By the way, man, how are you getting along?"
"Not so good, d*mn it. You see, there's been a lot of activity around the ocean recently, and I didn't get very far," Cruz said moodily.
Li Du motioned to Brother Wolf to pull the boat up. "Would you like to come up and have a beer?" he asked. "Perhaps we could have a chat and exchange some information about black gold abalone."
Cruz smirked and said, "You drink it yourself. You are so bold! I want to live a few more years, so I never drink!"
Max had told them that freedivers should not smoke or drink. Smoking affected lung function, and drinking affected the nervous system.
However, they were not professional freediving enthusiasts. At most they only needed to dive about a dozen to 20 meters to harvest abalone, so drinking and smoking did not matter.
Cruz, a very individualistic young man, paddled away from the boat and passed by the yacht when he suddenly turned around and shouted, "Don't be proud. I don't have a Seastar, but I have a Faraday! But who drives a yacht to catch abalone? That's stupid!"
Faraday and Seastar were both yacht brands, but Seastar was a second-tier brand. Faraday was the world's top yacht brand.
Li Du laughed. This guy was very funny. When was he proud? He obviously was grateful to this guy.
Besides, he thought that Cruz's words were a bit fishy. It sounded like he was showing off when in fact, he didn't seem to have much money.
However, as far as Li Du knew, these black gold abalone fishermen should be very rich.
There were also black gold abalone fishermen in groups. One of the reasons was the danger of being underwater, and the other was that they had to watch over the black gold abalone that had been harvested. The previous time Cruz came with his dad, and this time he was alone. It seemed weird.
However, it had nothing to do with Li Du.
He set out to find the black gold abalone habitat area. He signaled Brother Wolf to anchor there, and then he and Hans changed into their diving suits.
Brother Wolf had to steer the boat, so Sophie accompanied them into the water.
Jumping into the sea with his webbed feet, Li Du immediately locked onto a big black gold abalone.
The black gold abalone lived more than ten meters underwater, which was a relatively shallow depth. After training, Li Du felt this depth was nothing compared to the ones in freediving.
He landed slowly on alert, with his head held high and his arms outstretched. He felt the water with his arms. If there were any undercurrents, he only needed to lift his chest and use his abdomen strength and his head to change his direction, and then he would be able to leave this place.
This time he encountered an undercurrent. Using the method that Max taught him to estimate undercurrents, he felt that the undercurrent speed was D standard, which was slow and had little impact on diving.
Li Du went back to the water's surface and took a breath. He took three breaths, two small breaths and one big breath.
With the air in his lungs, he went back into the water, took out the prying tool, and pried up the bottom of the black gold abalone. Then he put it into the abalone net and pushed it in gradually.
After a few more pries, he could not hold his breath any longer. Half an abalone had been removed, which was a great improvement over his previous harvesting session.
Breathing again, he went back to work in the water. When he came up, he lifted his arm before he could get out of the water. An abalone came out of the water with him.