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Ali slowed down, but once he saw they were all right, he gunned his engines, throwing caution to the winds He wanted to finish as far ahead of Austin as possible Ignoring the advice of his veteran throttle iant rooster tail arced high in the air for hundreds of feet, and the twin propellers plowed a wide and double-furroake for hundreds more

“Sorry about that,” Zavala called out “Caught a wave”

“Great save Let’s go for second place”

Austin pushed the throttles forward, and with a screaines they were off in hot pursuit

• • •

High above the race course the Italian TV cameraman had spotted the dramatic reversal of the lead boats The chopper swooped out in a wide circle and came back over the flotilla to hover atpast the spectators to the turn buoy for the final approach to San Diego The cas and saavelets outlining a large, shiny, grayish object ht No, there was definitely soht the attention of the pilot and pointed straight down

“What the hell is that?” the pilot said

Pozzi aimed the camera at the object and zoomed in with the touch of a button

“It’s a balena,” he said as the object came into focus

“For God’s sake, speak English”

“How you say? A whale”

“Oh, yeah,” the pilot replied “You see the Don’t worry, he’ll dive when he hears the boats”

“No,” Carlo said with a shake of his head “I think he’s dead He’s not ”

The pilot put the chopper at a slight angle for a better view “Hell, you’re right There’s another one I’ up all over the place”

He switched to the hailing channel “Coo Coast Guard This is the TV helicopter over the race course Eency!”