Well, we are entering into our seventh week tied to a dock at the Ocean Reef Yacht Club, they make it just too dam
n attractive for us. We’ve gotten a little lazy and the girls love being right next to shore. We’ll be moving next month sometime…somewhere, but until then we will enjoy. So, what do we do with ourselves when we have land at hand and nothing but time? Much like Burgess Meredith we enjoy reading.Although we actually get to read a lot and watch reruns of our favorite TV shows online, we also join in the various activities here at ORYC; Bingo, Karaoke, Sing-Alongs, Movie Night, etc…. In addition we, or should I say Vicky, decided to conquer a fear. We decided to take up Scuba Diving and today we completed our third and fourth dives with Grand Bahama SCUBA (http://www.grandbahamascuba.com/) going first to sixty feet onto a wreck and then later to forty feet onto some coral heads.
Our previous Scuba attempts were so called “resort” courses where you receive a few pointers then it’s off to twenty or thirty feet. OK…I made it to twenty or thirty feet and Vicky made it back to the beach! She just couldn’t get comfortable with the breathing. T
his time around we’ve done it right with Fred and Melinda Riger. First, with some pool side instruction followed by a couple of shallow dives to get ourselves accustomed to the equipment as well as just being, and breathing!, underwater.
For those that are wondering, Insurance companies rank SCUBA the 64th most dangerous recreational activity, the 63rd is Bowling. Scuba diving is very safe if you simply watch your air gauge. If you end your dive with plenty of air there is plenty of time to ascend slowly eliminating any of the ill effects such as the bends.
We both still enjoy snorkeling but there is something very special about the weightlessness and the relaxing feeling of simply ‘cruising’ around under water taking your time to observe the marine life. For the most part you are able to simply observe. Fish just swim around without paying much attention to you. That is…unless it is a remora!
A remora is a suckerfish that likes to attach to other fish (mainly sharks). They do this with their slat-like flat portion behind their head. They create a suction and take a firm hold against the skin of larger marine mammals. By sliding backwards they can increase the suction and they release by swimming forward. On our third dive there was a remora that must have mistaken us for a ‘large marine mammal’. He started following us and was actually quite pesky. He was only a few feet long, with no teeth, so he wasn’t scary but pesky none-the-less. Imagine Vicky’s surprise when he snuck up from underneath her belly and decided he wanted to attach himself to her. Yep, it took her a few minutes to get her breathing back in rhythm! When we surfaced after our dive we asked Fred and Melinda about the remora. We found out he hangs out
at this dive spot regularly so they have named him Edward. They couldn’t tell us why they chose the name Edward, could it be the flat head? So, the homework is done, we have completed our training, the dives were spectacular and our certification cards will be in the mail! It was not only fun but we can now say we actually accomplished something while spending our 2 months tied to a dock on the Grand Bahamas Island!
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