At noon I piled onto the Snorkel Express with 60 other folks and settled in for the 45 minute ride out to Loos Key Reef, 3 and a half miles out from the chain of islands. The opportunity came up to discuss politics with my group of snorkelers as we pushed through the water. The conversation started something like, “Did anyone heard about the out come for the Indiana and North Caroline primaries?” In fact it could have been me that posed the question. What ensued was a hearty exchange between me (Obama) and the others (Clinton). God, I love this trip!!
Loos Key Reef is a national marine sanctuary. It had mooring buoys already in place so no anchor damage need to be done. The dive master gave all of us excellent instructions and laid out the boundaries where we could swim marked off by mooring buoys and depth. He stressed that there was to be absolutely no touching or standing on anything and let us leave the ship like penguins leaving an ice floe. Just as I was about to launch he yelled at me, “Swimmer, watch the jellyfish. Do not come near it!! It has tentacles 50 feet long.” It was a Portuguese Man-of-War” I judged the drift of the creature and decided to chance it and dove in and swam hard until I was out of danger. Nice start.
We had an hour and a half in the water and it just flew for me. I felt inadequate in my fish identification but it didn’t stop me from enjoying some of the best snorkeling that I have ever done. Angel fish, barracuda, parrot fish and shark. He just glided by underneath me and I was surprised by my reaction- none. Maybe it was because I was a shade larger than he was. He was one of three that I saw during my snorkeling. It was a great trip with interesting people.
Last night it was so hot I just collapsed onto my sleeping pad and fell asleep with no clothes on. At 2 I was awakened not by the need to go pee but something biting me. Mosquitoes having a midnight snack. I had forgotten to do an insect inspection inside the tent before I had fallen asleep so I immediately remedy the situation.
Not having the mother ship and forcing me to sleep in a tent on the ground and requiring my nightly trek to the toilet, put a whole different slant on my experience. As soon as I emerged from the tent I was stunned by the forgotten clarity of the tropical night sky. The walk in the darkness to the restroom was an experience lost when RVing. Another experience lost if one is inside an RV, is observing “the hunt.” Show me any florescent light in the tropical climate and I will show you a gecko community hard at work harvesting the insect life drawn to the lights. I could have stood there for a good hour watching the drama but I had to pee.
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