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.