SNORKELING and MANTA RAYS

          I thought about how I should post regarding my cruise and decided to just go with the exciting events first…today, it’s SNORKELING and MANTA RAYS.

          First, the snorkeling. I had never done this before and was fairly nervous about it, especially because I do not swim well. One of the women on the boat said the instructions the crew provided were the best she’d ever heard and another woman who had all of her own equipment provided a number of suggestions based on her experience. I was so grateful to both these women as well as the crew of the boat. This is the boat:

          That’s me in all my gear, and that’s me in the water. The experienced woman’s husband was kind enough to take the photos of me. Don’t I look terrific? Doesn’t it appear as though I definitely know what I’m doing? 

                    Let me tell you, I only tried to breath through my nose once…okay, maybe twice. All that does is suck your facemask closer to your face…you get no air. I quickly learned to breath through the snorkel in my mouth. I was also wearing a vest that contained air as well as one of those pool noodles through the vest. They helped hold me up so I didn’t have to worry about drowning due to my lack of swimming ability.

          Actually, you don’t swim. You use your flippers to move you through the water while you’re gazing down into the beautiful blue depths. I saw a number of fish, one of which might have been Nemo, some sea fans and other stuff I couldn’t identify. Eventually, fish came up, mostly yellow ones, but some blue, and swam around me. It was so astonishing to be in the middle of them. The next time I do this, I’m going to have a camera that will take pictures under the water. And, there will be a next time. I loved, loved, loved it.

          Then, it was back in the boat and off to the manta ray experience. This picture is of the crewman in the water chumming (That may not be the word they use, but it's the only one I know.) for mantas. Those dark shapes under the water are the mantas going to him. At one point, and I didn't get a photo, he was surrounded by manta rays...they almost appeared to be climbing on him. I don't know how he chose which one to use for our experience, but eventually, the others all left and he kept just the one you'll see in the photos.

          I wasn’t the first, but I wasn’t the last either to wade out to the crewman to have my time, and photos taken, with the manta ray. As you can see, I even kissed it. They mantas feel very silky and smooth on your body. The crewman also put it onto my back, but those photos weren’t very good so I didn’t purchase.

          Not only that, but the only time I thought about Steve Irwin was when the crewman held up the manta ray’s tail for us to see the wicked barb. Once we all had our time with the manta ray, it was released and swam off to join the others until the next time, I guess. Not to anthropomorphize the manta ray, but I’ve thought some about what the one we interacted with had to say to his/her fellow mantas when they all met up later. Very amused by my imagination was I.

          This was a wonderful experience, although it wasn’t quite what I expected based on the literature about the event. I thought I would actually be swimming among them, rather than having a crewman hold it and arrange for me to hold it for the picture taking. Perhaps I was a bit naïve to think I would actually swim among them. I’m sure there are huge liability issues when it comes to this type of experience. Still, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. I’d even like to do this again. I believe if you go to Hawaii, you can actually swim with the manta rays after dark. I’ll be looking into that.

          Of course, the majority of the other folks on board the boat were couples. Some seemed to be surprised I was alone; and if asked, I told them my husband had passed away last August and this was my first venture without him. Response comments varied from, “So sorry.”, “You’re so brave.”, to “Good for you.”. Being a widow in instances like this can be very awkward…perhaps I should have just lied, but I’m a horrid liar…will have to share with you the why about this at some point.