They were the same water spiders as those in the streams of Europe and Asia. On Marie-Thérèse I encountered lots of them in mid-Indian Ocean, very far west of Sumatra. At first I could not believe it, yet there they were, skittering over the sea on their long, curved legs. They do not dive, and are carnivorous, so there must be invisible lives on the surface of the sea. How could they survive, so fragile in appearance, when the waves turn ugly? Yet they managed very well; there were thousands around Marie-Thérèse. It was a day of calms. The night before, we had been hove-to.
