Another Great Day at Sea. Geoff Dyer
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Published in Great Britain in 2014 by
Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
Copyright © Geoff Dyer, 2014
Copyright photography © Chris Steele-Perkins
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Illustration by Nathalie Lees
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
eISBN 978 1 78211 335 5
Contents
In loving memory Phyllis ‘Mary’ Dyer 27 July 1925–29 June 2011 Arthur ‘John’ Dyer 30 November 1919–30 November 2011
1
We were going to be flying to the carrier from the US Navy base in Bahrain on a Grumman C-2A Greyhound: an ungainly propeller plane, more war- or work-horse than greyhound. There was nothing sleek or speedy about it. The sky was doing what it always did at this time: waiting for the sun to show up. The sun is the only thing that happens to the sky in this part of the world—that and the stars which were nowhere to be seen. The temperature was pleasant; a few hours from now it would be infernal. Sixteen passengers, all Navy except for me and the snapper, gathered round the back of the Greyhound—also known as a COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery)—listening to the safety briefing. Our luggage had been weighed and taken away for loading. Despite my protests, I had to hand over my computer bag as well, something I’d never let happen before. It had to be stowed because when we landed on the carrier, when the plane