My True Love

I have one true love. No, it is not the love for a man. Yes, I love my son - he has a place in my heart that nobody else will ever have access to - but my one true love isn't even human. My one true love is...the ocean. The deep blue. The briny deep. Most of my life I have held a profound fascination for the great blue ocean. I don't recall how old I was when I first read about or was told about the ocean, but from that moment on I've been mesmerized. Everything about the ocean amazes me. The millions of creatures, the cycle of the tides, the different currents, how absolutely enormous it is...everything.




I have only been to the ocean three times in my 28 (almost 29) years. Only three times?! That is just sad. The ocean is where I am meant to be. Period. I am in love with it and always will be. When I am on, near, or in the ocean I am at peace and I am happy.


Last week when I was on vacation in Florida it was my third time seeing the ocean. I spent a lot of time on the beach near our condo, staring out at the blue expanse, letting the salty breeze blow through my hair, and listening to the waves crash. So peaceful. I even braved the 54-56 degree water one day. My sisters and I drove to Flagler Beach, I slipped into my wetsuit (a shorty - my legs and arms were bare), and waded about chest deep into the water. I didn't go under and actually swim, but by the time I was done frolicking in the water I was wet from head to toe due to the many waves. It felt great. I could have played in the waves all day, but we had other things to do.

I have always wanted to get a picture of the inside of a wave, aka, the curl. It is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Maybe it would be easier at a location where the waves get a little larger. Maybe someday I'll find out. As for now, I'm impatiently awaiting my next encounter with my one true love.






"I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by." ~ John Edward Masefield

Paradise

Well, I've been back from The Bahamas since Saturday and I miss it so much! I fell in love.

I fell in love with the crystal clear water.

I fell in love with the sea life.

I fell in love with sailing (I already loved sailboats, but now I know for sure that sailing is definitely for me).

I fell in love with almost everything about The Bahamas. (The traffic is something to be desired and Nassau is a little dirty, but everything else I saw was amazing.)

I've been obsessed with the Ocean since I can remember and I've always felt that I was meant to be near the Ocean. Now I know for a fact that I want to be near the Ocean. I want to move somewhere warm that offers great diving. Some place that has the crystal clear water, the abundant sea life, and that's oozing with personality.

As for the trip...it was AMAZING! I lived on a sailboat (The Morning Star) for a week and it was great! We headed South from Nassau along The Exumas (some out islands). The furthest South we went was Staniel Cay. Staniel Cay is home to Club Thunderball. For those of you who are James Bond fanatics, you know that Thunderball was filmed in various areas of Staniel Cay. We spent port night at Club Thunderball watching one of the NBA Finals games. While at Staniel Cay we got to snorkel in a cave under an island...it was awesome! We mostly stayed on the West side of the islands, but a few times we went East of the islands to do some wall dives. The first couple times we did this we encountered very rough seas. Only one person got sea sick...and it wasn't me! I got "rocked" to sleep and sunburned my back bad! As long as we were on the West side of the islands everything was smooth.

Here's a map of The Exumas

I made 12 dives the whole trip and saw numerous kinds of sea creatures, including an Eel, Sea Turtle, Sharks, many Grouper, Angel Fish, Flamingo Tongue, Conch, Rays, and the list goes on! I made my first night dive, first wreck dive, first drift dive, and first dive over 60'. All the dives were awesome, but my favorite was when we saw the Sea Turtle. She was beautiful! Some other things we got to do were feed the Iguanas on Allan's Cay and feed the swimming pigs near Staniel Cay. I saw the most beautiful sunsets and the stars were absolutely breathtaking (on the nights it was clear) as was the full moon reflecting off the Ocean.

Pretty much everyone on the trip was cool. There were a couple people who were annoying, but I guess that to be expected. The crew was absolutely amazing! Grayson was our captain, John was the chef, Adam was the master diver, and Jamie and Mike were engineers/mates. They all made the trip very enjoyable and made sure we all had a good time.

Thursday night when we got back to Nassau the crew took some of us to a bar called Crazy Johnny's. Crazy Johnny's plays mostly 70s and 80s rock and we danced our butts off! It was a BLAST! I was sad to leave and if I didn't have the responsibility of a child I think I would've stayed! It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, thus far. I can't wait to go back!

The Morning Star!

Crystal Clear blue waters in the Exumas.

The water was like glass this day!

Beautiful Bahamian Sunset

Captain Grayson doing a trick with an orange. He made it float & spin in mid-air using a SCUBA tank.

Grayson with a Grouper he speared while free diving.

Isn't she majestic

Pretty fish

Shark dive!

This is in the cave at Staniel Cay. The sun was shining through a hole in the ceiling onto the coral. So pretty!

"The reason I love the sea I cannot explain — it’s physical. When you dive you begin to feel like an angel. It’s a liberation of your weight." ~ Jacques-Yves Cousteau

"It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage." ~ George William Curtis