In the first months I was here my blogs reflected a deep fascination with snorkeling and marine life. In the two years I have been here, snorkeling and seeing marine life has became a normal everyday type of occurrence that sadly no longer requires reflection.
But I will share a story of snorkeling today, just so that I don't forget how remarkable life is here.
Today I got up to late to make dive two with Smitty. Instead, we spent most of the day cleaning the house and getting a room ready for Tyffany who arrives tomorrow. It has been unbelievably hot here this week and today was no exception. Sweltering.
At 4:30 we went down to swim at Chief Minister's beach. I snorkeled way out. And I mean way out. Not to the wall. But I was far off the beach.
Chief Minister's has a sand bottom and is very clear. It gets deep, to about 20 feet very quickly off the beach. I was in about 15-18 feet of water. Twenty minutes into my swim I dove down to check out a square object on the bottom. It turned out to be a concrete block. When I came back up I caught a shadow out of the corner of my eye. I turned to face a six foot spotted Eagle ray about ten feet from me. My heart started pounding so fast. All I could think about was the story Davis told about coming face to face with a ray which caused him to rapidly remove himself from the water in an exhilarated fashion.
I swam along side the ray for a couple seconds. It was moving very slow. But it sensed my presence and turned and swam swiftly into the blue.
I have seen Eagle rays four times here. This was by far the closest, and the most heart pounding. This was just a few seconds of my day, but it turns out to be what the day was about.
Go bucks.
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