Wander Water

It’s 2a.m. Monday morning, my flight leaves in a little over 9 hours, the dive gear is packed, camera and housing are in their cases, and I can’t sleep… at all. I woke from a dead sleep at about 1a.m. not knowing why, the dogs were quiet, Maria was lying next to me, still breathing soft and slowly, lost in slumber, but I was wide awake. Not anticipation, I don’t get like that, I haven’t had an anticipation filled night since I was a kid and decided that I didn’t care if I saw Santa or not, I just wanted to sleep. See, when my body tells me It’s ready for bed, well, it’s ready for bed, there’s nothing, nope, not even that, that can keep me awake and I crash. Of course, once I’ve crashed I become the lightest sleeper in the world, I can hear a dump truck three blocks over!

Anyways, figured since I can’t sleep I might as well catch up with my writing. Actually went underwater last weekend with a few new students. Did one dive at Redondo, which was fun as always, tiny surf, though surgy and almost no vis. The students did great, handled it all in stride, but they were glad to be out of the water and ready for the easy dives at Casino Point the next day.

We were joined out there by Kyrie and Yoshi, two friends who happen to be sisters and great divers. The class was uneventful, everyone rocked through the skills, the water was warm, at least by California standards, the vis decent at 30 feet, though I did get the standard “Dude, you should’ve been here last week, it was over 70 feet in vis!” from the guys at the air station.

After the last dive with the students, I took Yoshi and Kyrie down to the little wrecks in 65′ of water and we hung out there as we were surrounded by a huge school of minnow. We all just hovered there as the school circled us, the light dancing off their scales, flashing blue, silver and white. I glanced over at the girls and both of them were smilinmg, their eyes shining just as bright as the fish around us. I was in my place, home, just listening to my breathing, feeling the water holding me in place, and I was at peace.