Just about everyone has a best friend. Some best friend friendships are made in our youth and some are made later in life. I met mine in junior high, I'll call her R.L.
Like most best friends, we spent hours talking, laughing and dreaming of what our lives would be like. One of our dreams was about doing something really special when we got older, we wanted to take a trip together.
Our initial idea was to travel to New York City. As all too often happens, things got in the way of that idea. We had families, jobs and all the other cards that come into play during life. R.L. had to move but we still tried to keep in touch as much as possible.
One day my phone rang and R.L. was on the other end. "Let's take a trip!" she said. Since we had both been to New York City, one without the other, I figured that wouldn't be our destination, and I asked her where we were going. "How about a 3 day cruise?" she answered. It sounded good to me plus, neither of us had been on one before.
We met in Miami to start our dream come true journey. We were as excited as we had been the day we skipped school, so many years before, and couldn't wait to get started.
Cruise ships are an awesome creation, their size alone is breathtaking, they are like a floating city. We boarded with great enthusiasm and I suggested we stand on the bow, just like I'd seen in the movies, as the ship left port. I figured we could wave to all the well wishers as we sailed by.
We positioned ourselves as high in the bow as we could possibly get. The sun in our face, the wind in our hair, ready to set sail. Little did we know, we had also positioned ourselves directly in front of the ships' horn. They are loud. REALLY LOUD. Not only are they loud, when you are standing right in front of one and the captain blows the horn, the sound waves go completely through your body. I have yet to this day to understand why we were not reduced to piles of bubbling muck from the vibrations of that horn, but we survived, laughed like idiots and made a mental note not to stand there again.
Our first stop from Miami was Key West. Cruise ship vacations usually offer a variety of things to do and see at each stop and you can choose what ever strikes your fancy. On the list for Key West was snorkeling and that was our choice.
In the South, when the weather turns unseasonably cool, the locals usually refer to it as "a Northerner has blown in". One had blown in on this particular day, but it wasn't going to stop us from snorkeling the deep blue sea.
We loaded up on a catamaran that took us seven miles out into the ocean. The crew of this vessel explained that we were going to a coral reef and assured us there would be lots of colorful fish to see. During our seven mile trek out into the sea they explained how to use all the gear to have a successful snorkeling experience. The gear consisted of a face mask and snorkel, life jacket and flippers. The life jacket also had a small tube attached to the front, if you needed more buoyancy, all you had to do was blow in the tube. They also explained that the distress signal was to wave your arms over your head.
Land is not visible seven miles out in the ocean and R.L. made that observation rather quickly. The Northerner had also brought with it winds that had created some nice two to three foot swells. As the crew dropped anchor, R.L. asked where the coral reef was. One crew member pointed to the water and said, "See the dark spots on the water?" R.L. answered that she did. "That's the coral reef." R.L. then asked if she could walk on the coral reef, the answer was "No." With that new knowledge, R.L. announced she would not be getting off the boat.
Not to be deterred by lack of land or three foot waves, I geared up for snorkeling. The catamaran had a wide long ramp that was lowered into the water so all you had to do was walk down the ramp and step off into the deep. As I had never worn flippers before, walking in them was a new experience, but I plodded my way down and off the end of the ramp.
Instantly I was bobbing like a cork with no direction. I could see all the other people, over where the water was darker, swimming around with their faces in the water. They made it look so easy. I thought that if I put my face in the water and made swimming motions I could surely get to where they were.
Snorkel masks have a unique design. There is a place on them that fits tight up against your nose, naturally to keep the water out. When I put my face in the water, not only could I not see my hand in front of my face, one of the lovely three foot waves came over the top of me and filled my snorkel tube full of tasty sea water. Now the unique design of the mask was keeping water in my nose and since I still had the snorkel tube in my mouth snorting was almost an impossibility.
I finally regained my composure and tried again and once again I was reduced to a sputtering maniac afloat in the sea. I decided I needed more buoyancy, yes, that was surely the problem. Try as I might, I could not get any air to go into my life jacket and then panic set it. I was going to die out there and that wasn't they way I had pictured leaving this world. I knew I was going to have to give the distress signal and since I was still bobbing around like a cork, I figured I could at least get myself turned around to summon help. I was really wondering why no one had not already come to my aid, couldn't they see I was in danger? I managed to get turned around and that's when I realized I was only about ten feet from the boat.
This whole scenario had probably lasted five minutes, but it felt like an hour to me. I decided to keep whatever dignity I had left and made my way back to the ramp. Just as I got to it one of the ever so friendly waves lifted me up and slammed me up on the ramp like a seal onto a floating piece of ice. I crawled the rest of the way up and there set R.L., grinning ear to ear, wrapped snugly in a blanket with a pitcher of beer. She had made the wiser choice so I joined her. I also made a note that if I ever snorkeled again it would be in knee deep water.
From there we sailed to Cozumel and had a great time horseback riding and impressing the locals with our four words of Spanish that we knew. We shopped for souvenirs until after dark and R.L. was sure the cruise ship was going to leave without us. Loaded with all of our bounty, we hopped in a local taxi and sped back to the ship. They literally had to put a plank out for us to get back on board.
The trip ended all to quickly but as we said our goodbyes, we realized we had made a dream come true.
It has been many years since we took that trip. Maybe it's time we skip school again and dream up some new friendly adventure.
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