The summer mist had a different density but it was beginning to clear. Nicola held fast the tiller and stared at his son who, rocked by the sound of the engine of the small fishing boat, between sea sprays and light breezes, had fallen asleep in the prow near the nets just ten minutes after weighing anchor.
It was not the first time that Salvatore had left the coast with his father but never so early. Nicola had promised him, after his continual insistence every evening before bedtime, that at day light he would be taken to the deep submerged valley known as the Canyon of Cuma between Ischia and Ventotene to observe the sperm whales.