I Think I'll Turn Around...

Sometimes I'll just do stuff because I feel that I can stand up to the physical challenge. I don't consider myself a daredevil by any means. But sometimes I'll take a calculated chance to see something out of the ordinary.

On one of our best family trips we found ourselves at the Dry Tortugas National Park near the Florida Keys. The swimming and snorkeling was great. But I knew that there were supposed to be some top-notch coral reefs around the main island but I wasn't sure exactly where they were located. I asked one of the rangers and she pointed out some buoys offshore and indicated that the finest corals were to be found between two of them.

I looked out at sea. It was quite a distance but I figured it would be a relatively easy swim, so I decided to go.

Me and Andy on the beach. You can see the buoys where I needed to go out in the distance.

The only problem for me was that no one else was out there. Now, generally, I like solitude. But for something like this I'd rather have company. But as I didn't foresee getting back to the Dry Tortugas for many years (if ever), I decided again to bite the bullet and swim out.

So I set out. The water all around the main island is relatively shallow. The deepest points I saw were maybe twenty feet deep. The farther out I swam the more fish I saw. The more distance I put between myself and the island the more coral I encountered. I was really looking forward to getting out to the buoys.

Corals growing on parts of collapsed brick walls of the old fort.

And then I paused to look below me to see what new critters there were to spy. And right under me was a shark. Now, I immediately recognized it as a harmless Nurse shark. But it was big. Well, to me it was big. About six feet long. I was hovering over it and it was as long as I am tall. And it seemed to be frightened of me, trying to push its head under a bit of coral.

I looked down at the great big fish. The great big fish looked up at me.

I looked at the shark. The shark looked at me.

And then I looked back toward shore, at the fort, at the tiny dots that were the people I'd left behind. I suddenly felt very far away from safety. I began to wonder what other great big fish were out there with me. Maybe stuff even bigger than the Nurse shark and not quite so timid.

I could see that the buoys that were my goal were still some distance out in the Gulf and I decided to turn back. I have no regrets.

Swimming the Shark

A while back, Carole and Andy and I took a long vacation to the Florida Keys. We had a blast. One of our best vacations. One of the side trips we took while in Key West was a day-long excursion to the Dry Tortugas National Park. I had heard that some of the best coral in the continental USA was just offshore of the main island, and I was keen to see that particular reef.

Once we got there and we'd been swimming around the fort for a while, I found a ranger and asked her where the best reefs were located. So she pointed out into the ocean and said, "See those buoys out there? Between buoy #4 and #5...that's where the most impressive parts of the coral reef are found."

Shit. It was about a third of a mile out. Maybe farther. But the water was clear and calm and I'm a decent swimming so I figured, "Fuck it. I've got nothin' better to do."

I told Carole where I was headed and neither she nor Andy wanted any part of it.

That meant I was swimming out on my own. No one else seemed inclined to head out there, either, with all of the action going on at the fort and the beach around it. I have to admit I was a little queasy as I waded out and began swimming out toward Buoy #4 and Buoy #5.

The farther out I swam the more fish I began to see. Not that there was any shortage of colorful fish in closer to the fort, but suddenly the water was packed with colorful fish of many types and sizes. I continued out. Faster than I would have supposed I was more than halfway to my destination. And then I looked down directly below me.

I found myself looking right at a shark that was easily six feet in length. Right away I recognized it as a harmless species, but still...it was longer than I am tall. I hovered there for a moment looking at the shark. The shark was nervous and kept trying to hide its head under a small chunk of coral. It was, apparently, more frightened of me than I was of him. Still...

I looked around. That fort and the main island suddenly looked a very long way off. The ocean around me was packed with fish. Right under me was a six-foot shark. I began to wonder what else was in the water waiting for my ass to come closer.

I snapped a couple of shots of the shark:



And then I turned around and swam back to the fort.

Fuck it. Better safe than sorry.

Swimming With the Rest of the Bait.

There's nothing so humbling as thinking that you could soon be nothing more than something to be eaten by another creature. A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to go snorkeling in the Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys. After having explored the area adjacent to the walls of Fort Jefferson, I asked a park ranger where the best examples of coral reef were located. She informed me that if I swam out to the area between buoys three and five, I would be well rewarded for the trip out.











The distance to these buoys seemed to be about 1/3 mile,so I set out. My wife had bought a cheap underwater film camera for our day in the park and I took this with me, pausing from time to time to snap a shot. Along the way I encountered quite a lot of fish and some nice coral formations. Pretty soon I was approaching the first of the buoys indicated by the ranger. However, looking down, I realized that I was swimming just above a shark that was longer than I was tall.

I'm marginally familiar with shark species, and I seemed to recall that this individual was a member of a rather innocuous breed of shark. However, because he was so large and because I was swimming so far from shore and alone (no other swimmers had ventured out so far), I began to feel like not so much more than something to be eaten by a big fish.



Stopping just long enough to take a couple of photos of this shark (a nurse shark, I've been told), I decided to head back to shallower waters closer to the foundation of Fort Jefferson, where I was only too happy to continue my snorkeling adventure. The better part of valor and all that.