Because the water is so clear and the reef so full of life here, I have been trying to conquer my irrational fear of being underwater and out of my depth. This all stems from a bad experience on my first school swimming trip at the age of eleven when I hadn't learnt to swim but was too embarrassed to tell anyone. The teacher lined us up and told everyone to jump in and show them what we could do - one by one. When it came to my turn, I showed her what I could do. I jumped in and didn't come up again. Luckily a friend dragged me up coughing and spluttering. The most humilating thing about this frightening moment was that we were in the shallow end. No-one told me I had to straighten my legs on landing.
So anyway, Greg 'The Fish' Shannon is patiently teaching me snorkelling but I am not the best pupil and am too fearful to do it any distance from the shore. He, on the other hand has been learning to scuba dive and while I sunbathed on the boat, went swimming with turtles and a leopard shark. The whole set-up was all slightly disconcerting though. If you do a discovery dive, they take you out, give you a five minute briefing, show you how to put on the kit and then push you off the side. I can't imagine anything more petrifying but of course, Greg loved it, is now on his second trip and is hatching plans to become a Dive Master. I preferred lying on my back gazing up at the limestone mountains that surrounded me in the bay and wondering what it would be like to be one of the eagles above me. I guess that puts play to my plans to be a marine biologist. I'm sticking to high speed sailing, riding and driving - much safer I'm sure. Although I did go sea kayaking yesterday.
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