Swimming with Fish

     While on vacation in the Abaco Islands, my ex-husband and I had to make a run into town for some fishing gear. While Don picked out weights and lures for our son, I was standing at the glass topped counter. Looking down I noticed a detailed color chart of the island chain under the glass. Upon closer examination, I noticed what looked to be the perfect cove. What made it perfect is that it had something for everyone in our group. We were traveling with 4 adults, 1 senior citizen and 5 kids aged 18 mos to 10 yrs. The cove was a deep U shape, with a gentle slope from the soft, white sand beach into the aquamarine waters of the shallows: Perfect for the 18 mo. old and the senior. The soft, sandy bottom gave way to a grassy bottom teeming with fish and, if you snorkeled down a bit, conch. Perfect for the 10 year old fishing fanatic. On the northern shore of the cove was a beautiful coral reef. Great snorkeling and spear fishing for those old enough to be trusted with weapons. Perfection!

      So we went back to the house, gathered everyone up, loaded the boat and took off. When we reached the cove, it was even better than we imagined. We spent the whole day there swimming, snorkeling, fishing. We had a lovely lunch and napped on the beach. It was ideal. As the afternoon wore on, we decided it was time to weigh anchor. As we were gathering up all the people and gear, I noticed a large Stingray swimming in toward the boat. Then another, and another, and another, and another. Five Stingrays with wingspans of about 4 feet. Beautiful! They were gliding through the water, circling the boat. Don and I had been watching a few minutes when he commented that it looked like someone had been feeding them. They behaved like cats waiting for the food bowl to be filled. Looking at them again through this new perspective, I had to agree. So what are good parents supposed to do? Apparently they grab their kids, give them snorkeling gear and encourage them to get in the water with the wildlife!

      So, that's what we did. They were very large and black, and moved with deft ability. As soon as we were in the water, they swam right toward us, only to gently glide by us, watching us with their big, Labrador Retriever eyes. At first, it was very intimidating, but as they glided by with their barbed tails calmly turning them back toward us, we became more at ease. I swiped some squid that my son was using as bait and fed one of them. If you haven't seen a ray in real life, their mouths are on the bottom. So to feed it, I snorkeled down to the bottom, held the squid up, and the ray swam over my head to get the squid. He knocked it from my hand and it fluttered to the sandy bottom, where the ray swam to retrieve it. It reminded me of a vacuum, gliding over a carpet, picking up a tuft of dog hair.

      This went on for about a half hour, when I lifted my head from the water to see where everyone was. As I stood to take a quick head count of kids, I noticed something in the water just outside the entrance to the cove. I watched for a minute trying to figure out what it was. I thought it might have been a pod of dolphins, heading into the cove to hunt for dinner. Wow, that would be great! Dolphins and Stingrays. That would be one hell of a day! Upon closer observation, I realized they were definitely not dolphins – they were sharks; black tip reef sharks, which are pretty aggressive. Yikes! As adventurous as I may be in some circumstances, I draw the line at sharks. “Hey kids, sharks! GET BACK IN THE BOAT” I said with a total lack of calmness in my voice.

      Sharks?! Okay! Time to go! We got everyone back on the boat in record time and weighed anchor. As we passed out of the mouth of the cove, the sharks were passing in. I guess it's true, timing really is everything!