CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN: WHAT A REEF!

CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN: WHAT A REEF!

First, a shout out to my homegirl, Tammy, who is recovering and rehabbing from hip replacement surgery. We’ll all be there someday. Our bodies are just like boats. Everything’s broken. We just don’t know it yet. And as long as we can walk and bike and swim and hike, we better grab at the opportunity to exercise the joints and muscles and tendons and ligaments. I remember when Chuck broke a bone in my foot when he was losing at racquetball (just a coincidence that the bone break happened when he was losing), and I had to wear a cast and use a crutch for a while. I promised, promised myself that when I got rid of the cast and crutch I would walk long distances every day to make up for the time I had to sit and lie around and heal. I still have to remember those days of forced inactivity whenever I slouch through a day without exercise, with a trail of lame excuses dragging behind me: “If I had a walking buddy, I’d go;” “It’s too cold;” “It’s too hot;” “I’m tired;” “Tomorrow I’ll walk AND ride, but not today;” “The best time is at 8:00 a.m. and now it’s too late.” I bet you have some favorites too – oh, here’s another one: “the house cleaning tasks are exercise, so I don’t have to walk today.” But just go back to that time when you couldn’t walk – foot in cast or whatever disability – and suddenly walking seems like the most important thing in the world – the ONLY thing you ever wanted to do. Okay, that takes care of the legs and the cardio system. Anybody got a good daily exercise for the upper arms? Let’s assume you’re not always next to a pool, so daily swimming is out. Any suggestions? Send them my way.

Speaking of swimming, yesterday, March 20, I went swimming in a wet suit for the first time. And while I was swimming, I was snorkeling over the most incredibly fragile reef filled with colorful fishes, a gorgeous brown and white turtle doing dog paddle, and according to other snorkelers, an octopus that changed colors like a chameleon. Yesterday was the first day when conditions were perfect for a snorkeling expedition at the reefs off Key Largo. The Admiral played a key role in getting me to take full advantage of the sunny day with a wind of 1 knot and dead calm waters. I was just lounging around in our stateroom. It was about 9 a.m., and I took a desultory look at my IPhone to check for emails. The Admiral had emailed me sometime early that morning that this was going to be the best day for snorkeling ever – the first day of its kind since we arrived in the Keys on February 24. As I read this email, I jumped out of bed and hustled through breakfast, then headed out to ticket booth for the catamaran Reef Roamer and signed up for their 12:30 p.m. snorkeling cruise. I was stoked! This was a day like no other – not like the day I went out in the Glass Bottom boat on choppy seas and returned chilled to the bone.

Every snorkeling concession is a world of its own. The Reef Roamer concession had a smokin’ (as in “Yecch! Haven’t you got the word about cigarettes and cancer?”) ticket taker, who loved the brevity of my name. It had a First Mate, Alan, who is charming and personable, fortunately, because he works for tips. It had a Captain, John, who had maneuvered his “Cat” through the channel past Crash Corner and out into the ocean just a few thousand times before. And it had us, the paying customers, from Vancouver, B.C. to Westfield and Barnstable, Massachusetts, and south to Argentina. We ranged from the skinny little 8 year old, for whom the 74 degree water was way too cold, to the Argentinian lovebirds, to the cops whose wives checked their breaths for alcohol, to the woman from Cape Cod, who with her husband ran a kayaking rental service on the Bass River on the Cape and came to Florida to snorkel for a vacation away from vacationers. Seventy four degrees sounds warm for water, but it was not. I wore a wet suit and shivered just about as much as the 8 year old boy. But once I was in the water and started looking down through my mask, the sense of coldness was overwhelmed by the magic of entering another world – one of wafting moose ears ( I think they’re called elk ears), lacy-looking leaves that could cut you up, and large schools of fish everywhere. I was so close to the coral reef at our first stop, Sea Garden, that I was afraid I would brush the reef with my legs. So I swam for the canyons between the reefs and ran into that brown and white turtle. The Cape Cod kayaker let me buddy up with her and another woman, so I felt pretty safe, despite the fact that I had not been swimming for months – and I had not been snorkeling for years.

After visiting the Sea Garden, we cruised over to another mooring ball next to a reef called White Bank. The water was colder there, except for a few warm pockets. The sergeant majors, black and yellow striped fish, were in abundance. However, I was getting cold and winded. This is what I mean about daily exercise and staying in shape. The Cape Cod woman was the first to leave the catamaran and the last to return at both stops. She was obviously in good shape. I was not. So she had the distinct pleasure of witnessing an octopus come up from the bottom and swim around in front of her, changing its color and changing its “skin” over and over again. She also saw a sting ray. That’s the fun of snorkeling – you never know who among the ocean dwellers will come out to greet you, if you stick around long enough. This means that I have to go snorkeling again and I have swim around the reef longer, until the exotic denizens of the sea decide to take a look at me. I just saw the Reef Roamer returning today from its 12:30 snorkeling trip. I heard laughter coming from the catamaran. That was me and my world yesterday. Alan earned his tips. He and Captain John made this a memorable experience, sharing what they knew about the two sites we were visiting, warning us about the jelly fish, and expressing their happiness with our “discoveries”. They said they rarely saw turtles and that ours was the first trip where snorkelers saw an octopus. They also said this was the first day in more than a month that the conditions were right for snorkeling. So, thank you very much, Admiral, for watching the weather, winds and currents and spurring me on to a day of adventure on the reefs.

A day of exploration is often followed by a day of mundane chores here at Key Largo. And today was no exception. It was laundry day, which means getting lots of quarters and heading with two bags full of laundry to the machines in the Courtyard Marriott parking garage. Somehow this particular duty has fallen upon my shoulders. I’m not complaining. Who could, when the Admiral himself prepares most of the meals, and keeps Slow Motion shipshape, and rides the bike to the store for supplies? And there are good parts about doing the laundry – like clean towels and underwear. Here in Paradise, it also means that I don’t have to sit or stand in some dingy underground laundry room while the washer is rinsing and spinning. Instead, I can take my murder mystery up to the pool and slather sun screen on, then soak up the sun on a lounge chair. Don’t hate me because I’m living in Paradise. Get the best revenge – come visit, and you too can sit by the pool and read murder mysteries with me. I’ll even throw in a box of bon bons for munching on, while we’re lounging. And we’ll do that, whether it’s laundry day or not. Or we’ll go snorkeling together. I’m sure the next perfect day for snorkeling is waiting for your arrival. So come on down! We’re staying until the third week in April. There’s still plenty of time to visit us in the Keys.