Apparently, she saw him heading the other way, and followed, thinking we would lose him, and did not grab me, thinking I saw it also. I did not panic. She is a strong swimmer, we know where the boat is, small dive group, responsible captain and crew, buoy markers all along the reef, sort of an enclosed circle, so she is not going to be lost at sea. I swam in a little circle, to see if I could catch site of them, then went up to the surface to try and see them.
OK - protocol is to regroup on the surface - but on this particular dive, the surface was full of moon Jellies - so I went back down (fail). This is apparently when they came up. I came back up, got the attention of the people on the boat - and they pointed in the direction that they saw my buddies, I headed out toward them (underwater, to avoid Jellies - again - FAIL). I realized that I was swimming away from the boat, with the current, and I was going to have a very difficult swim back, and I was down more than 2/3rds on air. (Triple Fail)
By the time I got back to the boat (exhausted) they were also heading in - less than 5 minutes behind me. I'm such a loser dive buddy. The little girl did get to see a nurse shark.
The 2nd dive was just the two of us, and it was awesome - visibility was better, she was just as careful about keeping me in sight as I am with her, and we popped up near the boat and rode the current toward it. SPOTTED EAGLE RAY. Huge, breathtakingling beautiful, a giant underwater butterfly floating by. A couple of baracuda, the requisite Christmas Worms, lots of pretty little tropical fishes, cool coral, my favorite dive to date. The third dive out we had our experienced buddy with us again. We suggested swimming into the current, and floating back to the boat, taking pics on the way back (duh - it is what we should have done the first time). This dive, I kept the girl in my sight, she tried to keep him in her sight, and I knew that if we lost anybody it was not going to be each other. I think triple buddy teams only work well if EVERYONE is committed to keeping the group together, visibility was poor again, but I learned the trick of looking for bubbles floating up, it was the only way that we were able to keep track of our third buddy. When it came time to head back toward the boat, our buddy took charge of navigation, and we over shot by several hundred yards. Another brutal surface swim against the current. Oh - another SPOTTED EAGLE RAY! If I don't see an octopus soon, I may revert to rays as my favorite sea creature, at least they are accessible.
Did I mention that I started the day stomach sick and throwing up? even before we got to the boat? under the surface was the only place I felt good all day. 3 hard swimming dives on 1/2 a piece of toast - not good. When we got back I could only manage a little soup. The very concerned girl child tried to talk me out of diving, but the Groupon was paid for, and going to expire before we got back down there - so dive we did!
The rest of the week consisted of time in Key West including the butterfly gardens and a creepy guided ghost tour. We met Robert the Doll, you can "like" him on FaceBook. Every trip to the keys includes a stop at Schnelby's winery, to get wines that we share with our lovely host, Ginger, over dinner. Ginger is an amazing person, great friend, and over achieving work-a-holic, so cooking her dinner is about the only way I actually get to see her when we are down. This year Schnelby's is adding beers to their tastings, and some are really good - looking forward to finding some in local restaurants. We spent a very cool breezy day at Bahai Honda state park flying kites and hanging out. Really do not want to go back to work tomorrow. :-(
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