At the ferry port, two other divers waited, all grins and testosterone, in an open RIB dive-boat. Harry introduced his sons, Elias, in charge of the boat, and Petros who would set a diveline to the Burdigala. Two good-looking boys, although their personalities appeared quite opposite. Petros, the fun-loving younger brother, was clearly having a good time. Elias, wearing a constant frown, didn’t hide the fact that he disapproved of his father bringing her aboard. Her own fault, she thought, after all, she had put him in his place the first time they met. Perhaps he held a grudge. The two guys moved to the bow while Harry guided Shelly to a seat beside the wheel at the stern and handed her a life jacket. After motoring respectfully out of the harbour, he opened the throttle. They crashed up and over the waves, sending spray rocketing into the air. It’s a guy thing, she thought. What’s the point of a speedboat if not speed? She clung on and clenched her jaw, not wanting a chipped tooth as a holiday memento. The three men grinned as they hurtled towards the dive site.

Kitting up and testing gear was the only tedious part of diving, but as Shelly confidently went through her mental list, anticipation thrilled her. Harry went off the side first and waited while she finished her methodical preparation. Finally, she sat on the tyre, smeared a little demister in her mask and wet her face. Ready, she pulled on the mask and stuck the regulator in her mouth. Holding them both in place, she rolled back into the water.

On surfacing, she gave him the OK sign and let a little air into her BCD, which she always thought looked more like a life jacket than a buoyancy control device. She descended beside him. The water, glass clear, and the magic of her surroundings, that feeling of flying, thrilled her as they started to descend seventy metres to the wreck; intoxicated by the freedom of being able to move in any direction, or simply hang, motionless and weightless in surroundings as blue as the sky above. Even birds could not do that. Using a rebreather, instead of an open-circuit breathing system, meant there were no air bubbles to break the silence and frighten the fish.

The deliciously warm water cooled as they descended making her grateful for the dry suit that seemed unnecessary up top. The freshness cooled her second skin, but it was more autumn than winter, and quite welcome, calming her excitement and slowing her down. She glanced up; the glow of the surface dimmed as it became more distant. She could stay all day in this endless, sapphire space, this weightless world restricted only by oxygen reserves.