Across the boundless sky drifted endless white clouds. Upon the limitless sea floated endless seaweed. Above and below were two mirroring fields of blue: one filled with sacred whiteness, the other covered in the yellow-green of the netherworld, like heaven reflected against the Abyss.
This was the sea of the Sargasso Sea, a rare gathering place of life amid the great blue desert of the ocean! Countless swimming fish wove and roamed through the seaweed, and even in the sky, seabirds circled and hunted. Gray-brown boobies were especially numerous, settling on the sea in flocks and diving to hunt the fish. From time to time, boobies rose and landed, perching atop the masts, yet they were not the least bit afraid of people.
Three Castilian sea ships were lying quietly at anchor on the surface. There was little wind today, and for some unknown reason the fleet had stopped, drifting on the sea covered with Sargasso Sea weed. At this very moment, the three ships had gathered together like sea turtles craning their heads close. All the crew crowded onto the decks, staring together at the pilot on the flagship, Pedro Alonso Nino, watching the sounding line in his hands fall into the sea, sinking deeper and deeper...
"Ten fathoms! Twenty fathoms! Thirty fathoms!... One hundred fathoms! One hundred and ten fathoms! One hundred and twenty fathoms!..."
As Pilot Pedro paid out the sounding line with its hanging weight, he shouted the count. In nautical measurement, one "fathom" was the length of two outstretched arms, roughly 1.8 meters. One hundred fathoms was 180 meters, and two hundred fathoms was 360 meters...
"One hundred and ninety fathoms! Two hundred fathoms!... Lord above! The rope's run out, and it still hasn't touched bottom!"
Seeing this result, the sailors on the three ships