Page 132 - The Tigris Expedition

Problems Continue

radio transceiver for the dispatch ofexpedition news. Norman tried
to contact Kuwait coastal station which had a twenty-four hour
watch just on the other side of this island. There was no answer.
Nobody could hear us anywhere.
Wc shared double watches for the remainder of the night and
slept fully dressed with lifejackets as pillows. The sea anchor gave
us some peace of mind. Some. Norman seemed to be constantly
fiddling with another small transceiver which a radio amateur
friend had given him because Norman did not trust the one the
consortium had insisted on. He had rolled up his mattress and
pulled up all his gear from the boxes he slept on. Since Norman and
I slept feet to feet I had no room for my legs except on top of his pile.
I had scarcely fallen asleep after my midnight to 2 a. m. watch when I
awoke and crawled out on deck again. This was too risky. At
intervals we again sent light signals to the island. Three short
flashes, three long, and three short again, sos. No response. Most of
the lights ashore had been turned off anyhow, and I crawled to bed
again and left the watch to Toru and Yuri.
I had been out and in again a couple of times to check the direction
of the lighthouse and the wind when Yuri called me and said, ‘They
are answering!’
It was still pitch dark. 5 a.m. I crawled out and, yes! I too saw a
strong light directed straight towards us in long, well-spaced
flashes. It appeared just to the left of one of the few dim house lights
still lit. A very strong electric signal light. From a boat? No, it had to
be ashore. It was quite immobile.
For a long while I kept on morsing sos and each time they
answered T, meaning ‘received’. We rejoiced that someone
would soon come to guide us through the reefs or tow us
around the corner of the island. At last we had contact with other
people.
Shortly before 6 a.m. the signals from ashore stopped. Now we
began to detect the indistinct contours of Failaka. A long, treeless
and very low island with its highest point some forty feet only. I
kept on morsing, ‘sos no anchor we need tugboat sos’. No further
reply. Next we began to see the outlines of three small ships at
anchor. Probably dhows. They lay together just where we had seen
the signal light. There seemed to be a reef between them and us.
One of the boats began to move, carefully, as if manoeuvring out
through a difficult channel. With binoculars we could see that the
men on board were watching us. But they only turned away in the
opposite direction once they reached open water. Without sail they
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