Caution to the Wind

Jack Slack makes one instant heart-pounding decision after another in this true story about his decisions to rely on his gut impulse to survive danger. If he's wrong, he dies. He stays one step ahead of killer sharks, diseases of the deep, underwater pirates, a murdering associate, a deadly fire at sea, and a lonely fall overboard far from shore. Along the way, he must negotiate with the elites of power, the wealthy leaders of industry, the law, a personal emotional crisis, and the discovery of a sunken treasure.

He has decades of experience as a professional skin diver, instructor, and coach in world record setting events that go back to the years following Cousteau's invention of the aqualung. The author's previous book, "Finders Losers," the story of his discovery of the Lucayan treasure, originally available only as a hardcover book, is now available for eBook readers in a revised version.

"Caution to the Wind" is his personal story about the adventurous and dramatic events of his life. This enthralling true account includes living with a double murderer and his dangerous existence as a chief witness for the state while the murderer is at large. However, this is also a story about the author's love of animals in and out of the water. His love of cats leads to the nationwide sale of his cat jewelry figures. His underwater meeting of a dolphin named Clown at the Miami Seaquarium foreshadows Clown's name change as "Flipper" when television makes the famous series about a remarkable, but not quite fictional, dolphin. He rides Clown, plays hide and seek with her, and feeds her crumbs from the top of his head. Yes, this version of Flipper was a female, despite the gender bending of show business depicting her as a male.

In addition to his finding a sunken treasure and negotiations with the Bahamian government, the treasure led to his presentation to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, as well as his personal relationship with James H. Rand, the legendary founder of the Rand Corporation and a conflict ridden relationship with a member of the Eisenhower family.

The book starts when he is attacked by a White Shark in the middle of the Gulf Stream while diving and filming Pilot whales. It is a harrowing attack with physical contact and a narrow escape for Jack and his diving buddy Bissell Shaver. Such narrow escapes from death are part of his professional diving experience, and helped him understand the fight or flight mechanisms of both man and beast.

However, facing danger ashore proves as daunting as his frequent navigation in the Devil's Triangle. Nothing prepares him for the conflicts of romance or dealing with murder. The lure of the tropics takes him on a wild ride of discovery and danger.

When he returns to Florida, he meets Ken MacDonald, who becomes his agent and then a fugitive. Ken is a handsome womanizer and extraordinary con man. When Jack's boat is stolen, he tracks the thief to the Bahamas, discovering Ken stole it and used the boat to kidnap his estranged wife and kids. Jack takes his apparently sabotaged boat away from Ken and sails it back to Florida, experiencing a harrowing fire at sea at night. Ken flies back to Florida, still holding his family hostage. With the help of Cher, Jack's fiancée, Ken's estranged wife Sharon goes into hiding and Ken disappears as a fugitive. Jack accompanies Sharon to the police in an effort to make them understand that Sharon is in danger, but the police see it as a domestic dispute and take no action.

Jack realizes that survival in the animal world is not very different from man's survival in the world of globalization. The Internet not only permits him to computerize his company and apply his artistic skills to graphics, but also to communicate with people in countries all over the world and makes him realize the commonalties man faces in the dangers and conflicts all over the planet.

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