Snorkeling

 Upon the seat of the boat, we placed our feet in our stinger suits, stood up, pulled our suits up, and inserted our arms, then zipped ourselves into the glorious, sleek, muscle-defining suits. The skipper then handed us our masks and snorkels for our big adventure into the rippling waters to explore the fish beneath the surface. Masks fit. Snorkel was on the wrong side, but that doesn’t matter according to these boat operators who were a little on the slack side of operations.

Receiving the OK sign, Erik and I stood up and made our way to the entry point on the side of the boat where a ladder was placed in the water to ease our entry. I, Mom, went in first, with a pool noodle I might add for extra flotation support, then Erik slowly came down the ladder and joined me. We placed our faces in the water and saw some brightly colored fish inches below us, except where was Erik? I popped my head up to see that his face was full of water along with water in his snorkel. Quickly instructing him to tilt the bottom of the mask and spit the mouthpiece out to clear the water he was about to drink. The Ocean was so salty, if you got any water in your mouth you were spitting it out and if you happened to get it in your eyes it stung so bad.

I tightened his mask, and we attempted number two. The problem persisted. Every time Erik would lift his face from the water and try to adjust his mask and snorkel the current would pull him towards the boat and I would grab his pool noodle and pull him away from the boat. He tried again which lasted a few minutes, would smile at all the fish centimeters from his body, and then his mask would fill with water and he would pop up to the surface. After about the fifth time of this happening Erik and I were in stitches laughing at each other upon the surface of the water. He was so happy and excited to be in the water, and see all the fish but couldn't quite sort out his mask and snorkel, laughing every time his face popped out of the water. Shortly after we sorted ourselves out the skipper came by in his zodiac and threw fish food at us and we were swarmed by hundreds of fish. Erik and I screamed and laughed historically at the fish touching us and nibbling at our stinger suits we were trying to swim away from the fish and all the excitement as we were so nervous.

After a few more times with water-filled masks, we made our way back to the boat to take our gear off and enjoy the view of the sandy beach, the crystal-clear water, and the vast ocean around us. Once all the passengers were back on the boat, we escaped to a coral reef for snorkel number two.