We were sat on the edge of a speed boat on the 7th May 2001. The boat stopped in the middle of no where. The sea was calm as ever. Then all of a sudden there was a massive splash it wet the front seat of the boat. We looked around there was nothing to be seen except a small figure floating around in the blue shiny water - as we got closer it began to move away from us - we jumped back. The thing was goldy and had scales we looked closer at it and saw it was a .... MERMAID ! This time we really jumped back out of our skin. We looked for help but there was no one around we screamed "HELP" "HELP" but all we heard was our own echo. The mermaid shrieked and dived back in.THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN THE SEA BEGAN TO GET ROUGH ! we tried to start the boat again but it would not go.It began to get dark cold and damp. It was half way though the night when a bright light shined in our faces. It was a big boat it read on it 'rescue ship'. As we was geting on the ship we saw the mermaid - it smiled at us as we sat on the boat. We wondered if it was the mermaid that told them we where in trouble or was it not ? BY NATALIE AND ROSIE ~~~~~BASED ON A TRUE STORY ~~~~