Flattop The Barracuda

St. Thomas has reefs, it has it's beaches , it's sandy bottoms, dive boats dive masters, and as we found out one day on a 2 tank dive... it has a barracuda named Flattop.

As we headed out the door with our personal gear in hand my wife said to me" if you don't come back with our daughter..... don't come back" I can only assume she was kidding , but my wife has a very strong personality (one of the traits that drew us together) ,I replied "don't worry she's gonna be ok"

The dive plan was simple enough, .....we were on the small white St Thomas diving club boat on our way to the wreck of the "Cartanza Sr." with about 10 other divers and an ample crew of 3 dive guides . My daughter and I were looking forward to this dive with a peaked anticipation because it was to be our 1st non tech wreck dive . We are certified open water but by no means expert or even advanced divers so the thought of going "into " a sunken ship was to us exotic diving.

Calm seas, bright beautiful blue skies, a light breeze, and shorty wet suits were the setting of the morning when we reached the mooring buoy. All geared up and regs in mouths we filed into the crystal azure water one by one. Venting the BC we descended over the wreck, the plan was to descend to the aft ,dive into the open cargo hold and come back up and out through the open hatch at the top of the hold ,simple,......... until I caught a glimpse of a humongous moray eel thrusting in and out of a small space below the ship. My curiosity and excitement grabbed a hold of me and I soon was inverted looking at, and taking a picture of this magnificent creature in his natural habitat ( that's what its all about after all isn't it ?) My daughter /dive buddy who was evidently keenly aware of the original dive plan as laid out earlier grabbed the currently upward pointing end of my fin and signalled me that we were getting separated from the group. We headed into the now evacuated hold of the ship when we stopped neutrally buoyant , she was facing me with open water behind me , I was facing her with the expanse of the hold behind her when I noticed her eyes through her mask as wide as I've ever seen them. I signalled to her "are you OK ? she shook her head no and I signalled "air OK ?" she nodded yes , I shrugged my shoulders and held my palms upward with bent elbows to signal "Whats wrong" , She looked past me as if longing to head out that way. I gestured "do you want to go out the way we came in or up through the hatch where all the others had gone" She looked at me as if to say " hey stupid look behind you" and she grabbed the shoulder of my BC to turn me around just in time to see a huge silvery streamlined fish, seemingly 30-40 feet long and as thick as a telephone pole, about 5 feet from our position heading for us, effectively cornering us inside this now too tight for comfort ship of doom we were in. My heart jumped into my throat racing for comprehension of the clear and present danger of this long, jagged toothed black eyed harbinger of dread sizing us up as if deciding which of us was on the menu tonight . The fish slowly ,very confidently swam past us into the hold , my daughter in no time shot past me towards open water and upwards , just then the fish swam back towards my daughter and the thought of her being consumed by this ravenous beast of the deep flashed through my mind as did the haunting words my wife spoke only hours before" Don't come back without her" . Without hesitating to ponder the wisdom of my next move or the fishes demeanor and nasty reputation I smacked the fish on his side as he was a mere 18 inches from me bearing down on my child . With the speed unlike any thing I've seen before or since that moment he spun around staring me in the face with his mouth open just enough to see those needle sharp twisted teeth running along the edges of his long and slender silvery mouth dead black eyes resembling nothing more than bottomless holes in the sides of his head staring at me for what seemed like an eternity, the only sound was my heart pounding in my ears and the regulator feeding me exaggerated amounts of air. I found out that day that you can perspire underwater and I also realised that God Almighty can hear the water muffled prayers of a good Christian scuba diver in his moment of need and answers his prayers with a " Yes " when the question put forth was "am I gonna make it through this one Lord?" The fish was dissuaded from munching on me or my daughter that day and was gone out to open water like a torpedo from view. We rejoined the group, as one of the dive masters came looking for us to Shepard us back to the fold and dived the plan as prescribed ,all together this ordeal took all of 3-4 minutes I later realised when looking at my watch . Siting on the dive boat topside , my girl said "dad I saw what you did , hitting that fish....you saved my life ". "Well you know" I said to her "that's just what dads do."

It turns out that the monster in question was only about 5 feet long and slightly thicker than a baseball bat ,his name is Flattop and he makes his home down there amongst the wreck and hapless human intruders diving into his home ......... I feel kinda bad for smacking him now ,he probably thought "what kinda nerve do you have coming into my house uninvited and laying hands on me with no apparent provocation, ...stupid human"

So if you find yourself in a wreck some 35-40 feet under and this fish comes up to you, don't be suprised or overlyrude Just go about the dive and he'll go about his routine.

Scuba ..... Flying in a different medium

Whether in Curacao or St.Thomas I have found the underwater world to be one of beauty and exitement .

St Thomas USVI

Touching down in St. Thomas I found myself warmed by the fiery tropical sun and caressed by the humid welcoming breeze . Just hours earlier my skin was accosted by frigid biting snow filled air blown horizontally by a brutal northwesterly storm in Northern Virginia . I knew this Scuba trip was going to be just what my inner doctor ordered. My wife , 14 year old daughter, 3 year old son and I were going to spend a week of quality time in a small place called Bolongo BayBolongo Bay , sunning , funning , diving , and building sand castles .

Anticipation was the feeling of the first morning on the island for me , the same hopeful, joyous anticipation I felt and shared many years before with my brother and sisters when we were kids on Christmas morning , the expectation of adventure and curiosity wrapped within the colorful packages under the tree. I now felt the same expectation here with my wife and 2 children looking out at the colorful surface of that sea dreaming of what was hidden within the coral recesses below.

I think most divers would understand , The moment I surface from a dive , with empty tank bound to my Back by an inflated BC, waiting my turn to ascend the bobbing ladder to the dive boat , I am looking to get back under the surface a few atmospheres where the world is alive with a silent reality playing out, knowing that for millions of years this has been going on without human intervention or aid .Only the bubbles from my regulator remind me that I’m not actually from down here but merely a voyeur looking into a primal landscape and its finned or webbed inhabitants going about what is their reality

Parguera Puerto Rico

When confronted with the decision to certify in a cold, dark, murky, quarry in Manassas Va. (complete with a school bus and an old Bobs big boy head at the bottom) , OR certify in the warm clear waters of PR with Reefs and colorful curious reef dwelling fish, My daughter and I decided to go south that November where we met Angel Of Parguera Divers and his assistant Matt. The trip was not an expensive one from Va. but the choice of location and dive outfit turned out to be priceless.

• Rincon

My first impression of the Hotel we chose was of relief to see the place was real and it looked like the Internet photo.

When we decided to certify in warmer waters, the dive instructor in Virginia at the Dive Shop in Fairfax suggested we try Parguera Divers . But they didn’t have a hotel name for us so we surfed the net until we found what had the promise of a decent place at a price we found palatable. As I’m sure You can understand , our Internet based decision for a hotel was weighing on us during the flight (3 hrs ) and the drive from San Juan to Rincon ( 1.5 to 2 hrs ) . We rolled our rented Ford Escape through the gate and were comforted to find the hotel was the right choice for our family. Palm trees gently swaying in the tropical breeze framed an adobe styled tri level Jersey cream colored building with the tranquil backdrop of azure carribbean water and clear blue sky just past a well manicured white sandy beach ….