Life at Sea

I learned early on my Caribbean adventure that boats were work and they can wear you out. Sea Dancer was a great boat to be working on. There were long days and weeks on end without a break but we had a lot of fun with the passengers and especially diving each day. We were very comfortable in the water and enjoyed our status as seasoned, experts aboard the boat. Steve had much more experience than I but there was a lot that I was getting used to. Neither of us logged our dives any more. I think I only logged about a dozen then just saw no point in writing each one down since we did the same ones repeatedly.



The guests on the boat always enjoyed the chalk board I put up on the door to the galley and I enjoyed being creative with it each day. The first day it usually read: Today's schedule: eat, dive, dive, eat, dive, dive, eat, dive, sleep and it was absolutely true. Before each dive we would introduce the passengers to the dive site by giving a briefing. We drew interesting pictures on a whilte board for each site and told them what to look for and where to go to find it. One crew member usually accompanied the guests on each dive. We took turns. Sometimes it was great to go diving just to get off of the boat and it wasn't really like work except for being the one watching over everyone.



In the later days aboard the boat I had not been diving much due to an injury so I did a lot more snorkeling and free diving. I became quite good at it and could dive to 40 or 50 feet and take photos. On a few occasions I know I went as deep as 70 or maybe 90 but never knew for sure. Once I dove just off the wall and fell into formation with three giant eagle rays. I flapped my arms like they flap their wings and flew right above and behind them until they spotted me and took off deeper. Another time, we had a visiting group onboard who were teaching Zen diving and getting closer to the fish. I swam down to the top of the wall where this Zen instructor was setting up a photo with an angel fish. He didn't see me until I settled right down next to that fish in his photo. He got the shot and gave me thumbs up and big smile but I never saw the photo. I sure wish I could get a copy of it. I do have one of me and a turtle. It was great fun breathold diving and getting so close to the wildlife!



Once, I went snorkeling while the divers were between dives and I had a reef shark come swimming up to me and check me out. It was invigorating, to say the least! I kept my eye on him and he swam a couple circles around me as I started back peddling toward the boat, then he headed down to the reef. I looked down and saw two more sharks on the reef below me that were just circling in one area but as I headed back to the boat, scanning all around me, I noticed a huge shark over toward the shore. It looked like 12 feet or more! Luckily, he didn't seem to nitice more or inclined to check me out and didn't move. When I got back to the boat I was so loaded on adrenaline! It took me more than an hour to calm down.



Each week I gave a reef conservation presentaion with a slide show. We did this on the first night after our first day of diving and observing our passengers and their skills/comfort levels. Many divers have no clue about their impact on the coral reef or any awareness that they do. Our presentation was eye opening for many, annoying for some, but very informative and I was always proud of the job I did with it. It was considered necessary educational material for our guests. Diving is a complicated sport. There is always something to learn.