This is a short post. Yesterday Paul and I met the new neighbor.
We were at anchor in Simpson bay and after our daily swim, we decided to scrub the hull. Paul took the starboard hull and I took the port and got to work.
About 45 minutes in to our scrub and barnacle removal process, I was only about 1/3 of the way through my hull and noticed that my hair had come loose. I felt around behind my head but couldn’t locate my hair tie, so I turned around to see if it had floated free.
The water was pretty murky, both from the late afternoon sun’s shadows, and the dirt being removed from Tintas. I peered around trying to locate the shiny white telephone cord style ring that I use to hold my hair back, but instead I found someone else.
Watching me from the murk was our new neighbor. A barracuda thicker than my waist, and with the teeth of true hunter who never wore his retainer.
Unfortunately, he had already spotted my shiny hair tie in the water, and making quick eye contact with me, darted at it as it sank to the bottom. Instead of trying to beat him to the punch, I turned tail and swam back to the boat as fast as possible. If he had made quick work of eating it, I didn’t care to wait and find out.
Later, after I’d made Paul cover my back while we took turns free diving in the vicinity of my one true swimming hair tie, and we had the item firmly back on my head, I couldn’t shake the heeby jeebies of swimming around through the shadows with an apparent barracuda snack on my crown, so I called it a day and dried off.
It’s really best to be respectful to your neighbors.
TIBURON MARINO 