After seeing the submersible yacht, Li Du believed Cole and Jacob's words. They were not exaggerating one bit. This is most likely the most suitable boat in Sydney for sightseeing on the sea.
To put it more accurately, it was a submarine.
The Abyssal Dragon looked a little like a narrow raft, and like the long, narrow, wooden boats on the lake of Li Du's hometown. However, it was only its exterior that looked similar. In truth, the Abyssal Dragon looked nothing like a narrow raft and those long, narrow, wooden boats.
The submarine was approximately ten meters long and five meters wide. The first half of the sub was occupied by its cockpit while the other half was occupied by its cabin, which was very small and had only two seats.
Indeed, this sub could only carry two people plus the pilot. Furthermore, there were no extra spaces for the two people to move about, and each of the two people only had a seat that they could remain in.
Like a convertible, a glass bubble could be raised around the two seats. In other words, after a person sat in a seat, the seat could be enclosed in a glass bubble.
The pilot informed Li Du and Sophie, "This boat is a four-propulsion, two-seater submarine. Every seat has been equipped with a glass bubble. Please believe me when I say that the glass bubble is extremely sturdy and will not break when we are underwater."
Indeed, the Abyssal Dragon's strength lay in its ability to dive underwater, and the deepest depth that it could reach was 490 meters.
Despite that, Li Du was not brave enough to have it dive that deep. At 490 meters, if something were to happen to the sub, they would definitely not be able to survive even if they had ten lives.
The pilot explained to them that as they only wanted to view whales, he would at most dive ten meters into the water. Ten meters was a safe depth, and also the most suitable depth for viewing the ocean. Any deeper, and they would not be able to see anything, as the sunlight was unable to penetrate any deeper into the water.
While parked at the harbor, the Abyssal Dragon attracted many people's gazes.
Quite a number of people were taking pictures of it with their phones. When someone tried to get closer to it, the pilot hurriedly stopped him.
With Li Du and Sophie onboard the sub, the pilot operated the sub's steering wheel and LCD panel, and the sub slowly began to move.
Instead of immediately diving into the sea, the pilot first drove Li Du and Sophie around on the surface of the sea. It was only after a whale had been spotted that he took the sub underwater where they could view the whale from under the water.
In Australia, the golden period for viewing whales was from May to November every year. Witnessing the beauty and frightening size of the world's largest sea creature had become one of the unique experiences that many people enjoyed in Australia.
As Australia was surrounded by seas, one could view whales anywhere around Australia. Li Du and the others were at an area of the sea that was located in the southeast where the extremely rare blue whale could be seen. Since June was the last month of the year that the blue whales fed in this area, they could not be seen any later in the year.
The sub moved across the surface of the sea at a very high speed while following behind other whale watching boats, which were traveling along a fixed route in search of whales emerging from the surface.
In order to protect the whales, the Australian government limited the number of public whale watching boats allowed in that area, as well as the distance between the whale watchers and the whales.
However, only large boats were regulated. Subs like the Abyssal Dragon were not regulated and could view the whales up close, provided it was safe to do so.
The explanation that the government gave to the public was that large boats would very easily scare the whales due to their size. Also, once a collision occurred between the two, the whales would most likely die. As such, to protect whales, large boats were not allowed to get close to whales.
In truth, this was not the case. Even though some public whale watching boats were small yachts that were not even as large as some private yachts, they were still not allowed to get close to whales.
On the other hand, private yachts were allowed to get close. Everyone knew the reason behind the regulations. As Australia was a capitalist country, all of its resources were put into the wealthy people and capitalists.
After traveling southeast on the sea for half an hour, a spout of water emerged from the surface of the sea like a water fountain. At the same time, a dull, steam whistle-like sound could be heard.
Seeing this, the tourists aboard the whale watching boats suddenly let out cheers. They were very lucky to be able to encounter a blue whale that had surfaced to breathe.
The pilot turned his head and said, "Attention please, I am going to approach the whale. Following which, I will submerge the sub. Please prepare yourself."
Li Du raised his thumb and said, "Ok."
The Abyssal Dragon sped up and drove past the whale watching boats before approaching the whale that had surfaced.
Looking into the distance, Li Du saw the blue whale displaying half of its enormous body.
As the distance between him and the whale was rather far, around 200 to 300 meters, he was not able to see the whale clearly, so he did not feel awed by it. To him, the whale was like another large piece of matter floating on the surface of the sea.
The pilot continued driving the sub forward before approaching the whale from its side in a very skillful manner and saying, "I am going to submerge, prepare yourself!"
Right after he said those words, the thick glass rose and the oxygen supply began running. With a hoo sound, oxygen was pumped into the enclosed compartment.
Subsequently, after both of them had adapted to the changes in the pressure in the compartment, the sub began its descent into the sea.
What Li Du saw next shocked him.
After the sub had descended into the sea, Li Du first saw a sickle-shaped fin swaying in the water. It was about three to four meters long, and was grey at the top and completely white at the bottom.
Next to the fin was an enormous body, next to the front of the body was a huge, round head, and next to the back of the fin was a gigantic whale tail. All in all, an enormous sea monster was next to them!
Li Du did not expect to encounter a blue whale right after the sub had submerged. Furthermore, as the blue whale was an adult, its size was incredible, so much so that he did not know what to make of it and was only able to use the word "enormous" to describe it.
Like Li Du, the pilot also did not expect something like this to happen. As they had seen earlier, the sub was still upwards of 100 meters away from the whale, which was the safe distance to submerge the sub.
Evidently, there was another blue whale. Li Du did not know if he should feel lucky or unlucky to actually encounter a small pod!
It was very rare for whales to form pods. The majority of them moved alone and were fond of living alone. Even a small pod made up of two to three whales was very rare.
A lot of tourists sailed out to sea with the intention of seeing a pod but were unable to. Now, they were face to face with one.
However, the unfortunate thing was that their sub was descending into the sea while the blue whale that they had encountered was going towards the sea's surface.
When the blue whale's enormous body surfaced, a terrifyingly powerful vertical current was generated. After getting hit by the rising seawater, the sub was unable to maintain its balance and began spinning in the water.
After the pilot hurriedly turned the steering wheel, the sub turned sharply. Despite that, the sub still, very unfortunately, collided with the blue whale.
Even though the sub was not small, being next to an adult blue whale was like a baby facing a burly man. Such a difference would clearly make one despair!
This was not an exaggeration. Looking at the blue whale next to him, Li Du felt that the sub he was in was like a newborn baby while the blue whale was like a burly man...
When comparing their lengths, both parties were similar. However, the sub had a long, narrow, and flat shape, whereas the blue whale was long, wide, and plump. When looking at both parties in three dimensions, the difference in their sizes was huge!