Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Thursday, December 11, 2014

Scuba for Seniors

Yes. That's me.
Just before I turned fifty, Husby took me and our two youngest children on a holiday.
To Italy. And, even more exciting, on a tall ship cruise through the blue Mediterranean waters surrounding Italy.
We met our second son there. He was stationed in Bosnia and was quite happy to make the short hop to meet us when he was on leave.
There are lots of stories.
The one I’m going to tell you about could easily be titled “Scuba Diving for the Direction-ally Challenged”.
Ahem . . .
Whilst Husby was topside, exploring such wonders as . . . Malta. Sicily. Corsica. The rest of his party was under the water - air canisters strapped to our backs and flippers and wet suits correctly and prudently donned – exploring the wonders of undersea ship wrecks. Fish schools. Sea life.
We still argue about who had the most fun.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
First we had to get in the water . . .
It was a perfect day.
Perfect as only a bright, sunny day in the Mediterranean can get. The tender, filled to the gunwales with happy, excited tourists all attractively clothed in black wetsuits, made its way out to the center of the bay immediately adjacent to the Island of Malta.
We had been given extensive instruction.
Do this.
Never, ever even attempt to do that.
We were ready.
Our first duty was to attach any and all tubes necessary to continued breathing and/or life, and fall backward into the warm, welcoming depths of the blue, blue water.
I emphasize the word ‘fall’.
It was a simple procedure.
All you had to do was fall.
And this is precisely where I came to grief.
I flipped over backwards, twisted around a bit.
And came up under the boat.
Under the boat.
Uh-oh.
It was about then that I got totally confused.
And forgot which way was up.
I was equally muddled about which way was down.
While I was thrashing around, trying to sort things out, my knowledgeable (and very attractive, but that is a different story) instructor, who fortunately had up and down . . . erm . . . down, reached in and extracted me.
Whew.
We had an amazing time. We swam through great clouds of yellow fish. Past entire undersea gardens. And flew out over a cliff.
The best of all was the WW2 battleship wreck which we covered from stem to stern.
An entire new hemisphere opened to our eyes.
And me? The instructor kept me right by his side the entire time.
His reasoning was simple.
If I could get lost falling out of the boat, just imagine what I could do with a whole ocean.
Sigh. 

17 comments:

  1. Oh, dear, I had to stop breathing while reading this and then gasp for breath at the end ... you are SO BRAVE to go scuba diving! It sounds wonderful but I know better :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was afraid, given my history of claustrophobia, that I'd freak out. But I didn't. It was, in a word, WONDERFUL!!!

      Delete
  2. I was getting a dose of the panics for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was actually amazing - once I got straightened out . . .

      Delete
  3. This is way braver than my swimming with the sharks story! I've always wanted to scuba dive, but I'm a chicken! An attractive instructor might convince me though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This was a very cute story. I must say I admire you for actually wanting to do this one. I would be so afraid. I see it was a perk to have the instructor near by.
    Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like tremendous fun! I'm laughing at you getting lost falling out of the boat!
    I used to want to try scuba diving but never had the chance, now that I'm older and my asthma is worse I'll give it a miss. I'll enjoy it vicariously in movies and TV documentaries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You definitely have enough of a challenge just living with Asthma! Asthma plays havoc with so many things . . .

      Delete
  6. Sounds like a delightful vacation. I fear, I too, would get 'lost at sea'. I love the stories you share. Keep up the great posts!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much, Mary! It is such a pleasure re-living them. And when you enjoy them as well . . . it just makes it that much better!

      Delete
  7. This is my BIGGEST fear ever! There is no way I would go scuba diving! no, no, no, no, no! Now sky diving YES, YES, YES!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll wave at you from the ocean . . .
      No way you'd get me falling out of a plane. I had enough trouble falling out of a boat . . .

      Delete
  8. Remember how you were enquiring as to how one goes about obtaining a pool boy? I think you might have hit the mother lode. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. So glad you got to see more than just the bottom of the boat!

    ReplyDelete

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