Suliere's Blog

Sunday 28th April 2013

Bill recounts to us that he has been trying to teach Phyllis to snorkel for the past 15 years with zero success.  All she was happy to do would be to put on a mask and place her face in the water from the dinghy.  So over drinks one evening we discussed the possibility of Lesley spending some time familiarizing Phyllis with her own techniques.  So a plan was hatched that we meet on a quiet secluded beach for Phyllis to have a play around.

Stage two and shes doing good

Bill and Paul disappeared to fetch something from the boat and returned 15 minutes later finding to their amazement that Phyllis was happily snorkelling around the bay.

Yay! Phyllis is snorkelling!

We were all overjoyed and decided to really push the boundaries by visiting the Thunderball Grotto, it was now low tide and with all haste we made our way over to this popular snorkelling spot.  We tied up to the mooring and waited fro Phyllis who on seeing the entrance got cold feet.  Once inside the opening with a little encouragement she soon became entranced by the sights on offer inside the Grotto and snorkeled her way around happily.

Inside the cave we found a stunning setting with iridescent corals and large numbers of inquisitive fish eagerly taking the bread crumbs from our hands  and we’d come well prepared.  This is where the James Bond film Thunderball was made where Sean Connery hung out after escaping the Barracuda in the script.

Not to be out done Paul decided to make a film of his own here and swam out of the cave exit into the deeper water channel alone.  It was here that Paul was to meet with a little more excitement than he’d bargained for -his first underwater encounter with a shark.  Armed with   video camera he spotted through the view finder the afore mentioned shark swimming directly towards him only turning away with casual disinterest a few feet feet away from him. It was about 9 feet long. Paul recognized it as a mild mannered nurse shark so was never in any danger, none the less there are a few seconds when you’ve identified the shape swimming towards you is a shark but not yet recognized the species!

Lesley has noticed that Paul tends to get bitten by pesky mosquitoes far more frequently than she especially when Paul is around and they declare that Paul appears to be her sacrificial mozzie anode, she now wonders if the same will be true with sharks?

Paul and Lesley flushed and tired after our busy snorkel day.