The feeling they got in the next few moments was hard to describe in words. A gurgling sound could be heard from behind the drive unit and there was a rush of tiny bubbles to the surface. It was clear that the propeller was turning to drive the boat forward. Yet the yacht was not moving. It felt like being in a dream, or rather, a nightmare, where no matter how hard you try to run away from the monster, your feet can't get traction and only your heart speeds off. All three aboard felt more or less like that. Although the hull and deck of the yacht lay between them and the water below, it was as if their own feet had become entangled in some piece of rope that floated up from the seabed.
Enoyoshi and Ushijima remained absolutely speechless, while Minako nervously kept standing up and sitting down on the bench. She demanded in a strident tone that verged on a scream, 'What's up? Why aren't we moving?'
Ushijima fiddled with the gears and tried putting the engine in reverse. The yacht refused to move in either direction.
'Could you try leaning over port?' asked Ushijima.
As requested, Enoyoshi and Minako leaned overboard the left side of the vessel. As it tipped, Ushijima put the engine into forward gear, to no avail. They tried motoring forward with the weight on starboard, then backwards weighted on starboard, and finally backwards weighted on port, but the yacht refused to budge, as though it'd taken root.
Ushijima switched off the engine. Minako started to say something, but he waved her silent.
'Hold it, will you?' Saying so, he plunged in thought, probably sifting through his limited experience regarding what to do to get an immobilized yacht moving. Enoyoshi had been longing to return to the marina and be rid of the couple, but given the situation, he had no intention of rushing Ushijima. The man's expression was not just serious, but grave. Recruiting for a sales scheme must have been the last thing on his mind just then.
'Right,' Ushijima said as if to rally himself, and stood up. He announced the next step they needed to take. 'Let's take a sounding.'
Ushijima opened a foot locker and pulled out an anchor tied to a piece of rope. He gradually lowered the anchor into the water. When it had sunk a few dozen feet into the water, Ushijima stopped feeding out the rope and was still for about seconds. Then he heaved a big sigh and began pulling the rope back up. There was no problem with the water depth. The yacht hadn't stopped because its long keel was stuck in some sandbank. They had not run aground, it was certain now.
'Weird, isn't it?' expressed Enoyoshi. There was nothing else to be said about the situation. The unease of having such a precarious footing was something he'd never had to experience on land.
Returning the rope and anchor to the locker, Ushijima banged it shut and sat down on top of it. He clearly wasn't in any mood to talk. Minako turned on the cabin and navigating lights and opened the hatch. The light from the cabin made the clean white surface of the cockpit gleam as though it was coated in fluorescent paint.
The sense of crisis that Enoyoshi was beginning to feel was probably mild compared to what the Ushijimas must have been going through. After all, Enoyoshi was not crew, just a guest on the yacht, and as such he was not responsible for what was happening. It would have been another matter entirely if they'd been stranded far out at sea with no land in sight. As it was, they were a mere hundred yards or so east of Wakasu Golf Links, whose lights were clearly visible. On the north and the east, too, land was not far away. The shoreline appeared as a belt of light and a murmur of evening activity blended with the puttering of car exhaust.
Meanwhile, the Ushijimas became more morose with every passing minute. Ushijima looked dumbfounded about the yacht having come to a standstill, while Minako, manifestly resenting her husband for his incompetence, snorted and sighed loudly to pressure him to get the thing moving again. The whole situation was a painful slap in the face for Minako, who'd been raving to Enoyoshi about the joys of having a yacht, who'd been trying to entice him to join her in relishing a clearly superior level of life. Well? Don't you think it's just marvellous? It was like seeing your pet do something totally stupid when you've bragged about its clever tricks and invited people over for a little show.
Quite apart from feeling anxious about his footing, Enoyoshi was getting quite curious as to how Ushijima meant to get them out of the fix.
Clueless though he was, Enoyoshi offered a theory. 'Maybe some rope got tangled around the keel?'
Ushijima raised his face and nodded rather eagerly. 'That's just what I was thinking. It could have caught on a fixed net or something.'
'Is this where they set nets?'
Ushijima shook his head. 'Actually, no. This is a shipping lane.'
'So
'Some clump of rope, from a fixed net or something like that, could've drifted over and caught on the keel.'
It was obvious even to Enoyoshi that if that was the problem, the other end of the rope was still embedded securely on the sea floor. Such a coincidence seemed too far-fetched. He had to force back a smile as he envisaged a piece of rope forming a noose and rising up from the seabed to ensnare the keel of the yacht the way a cowboy would lasso a steer.
'In that case, what are we going to do?' the yacht's namesake broke in. Contorting her thick lips, she glared at her husband. Enoyoshi somehow couldn't get on with that jowly face of hers. Her vanity showed in the contours of her face and her make-up. It was probably she who'd first dabbled in the sales scheme, then sucked in her husband. She probably goaded him on as his sales partner.
'Get the rope off the keel, I suppose.'