The rope certainly wasn't for tying someone to a stone and sinking them in a pond. It was there in case they needed it.
They hauled in one net during the night and two more after daybreak without seeing any needlefish in the fishing nets, which put both father and son a little more at ease.
Hidden dangers were hard to control, but they could choose not to take chances when the risk was high.
After lunch, Ye Yaodong switched places with Brother A-Sheng as usual, moving onto the same boat as his father.
Last night's weather forecast had finally told the truth. Sure enough, the sky was clear again today, with the sun blazing overhead. Viewed from the middle of the sea, the sky looked washed clean and especially clear, lifting the spirits of anyone who saw it.
Remembering the rope his father had mentioned last night, he made a point of bringing the rope from his own boat over to his father's too. That way, he could take two lengths down with him to tie up the crates. Depending on their size, he might be able to secure one or two extra each trip and get twice the results for half the effort.
That would save him from failing to retrieve them all in one day if there turned out to be a lot of crates. After all, whenever he came back up from a dive, he had to rest a long time before going down again.
It was a lovely, thorough plan!
Father Ye steered straight toward the spot they had visited a few days earlier. There was a submerged reef there that served as a natural marker. They would never lose the location out on the vast sea, and they could find it without even leaving