Turtles are a girls best friend!

I'm trying to find something to compare diving to and I can't.  My best friend Lissy is a skydiving queen - over 300 jumps - and I know she feels the same way about flying through the air as I do about  swimming through the sea...and although I tried skydiving with her in New Zealand the ocean provides this extra sense of calm that for me is completely unique to the water.   90 ft below sea level and the only noise I can hear are the bubbles from my tank...it's euphoric.   Something about jumping into the ocean with a tank on my back, slowly descending to the bottom of the ocean and floating effortlessly through the sea - weightless and free.  It's like a jungle below the sea...some things you need to make sure and steer clear of but most animals can be observed at an arms length and for me what I've seen down below is WAY cooler than anything I've seen on land.  I've rode elephants and cuddled the cutest baby tiger in the world, but swimming with whale sharks and turtles (and their babies) is by far the coolest thing I've ever experienced.   

Exploring a completely different form of species - marine life vs. wild life - is magical.  Being able to move through the water upside down, on your back, up and down using nothing but your breath...now I know why astronauts love space so much (I mean there's that and the whole planets/moon thing ;-).  But seriously, there's nothing I don't absolutely love about it!  And if I didn't enjoy wearing a suit and heels so much I'd become a dive instructor in a heartbeat because the thought of seeing such beauty on a regular basis makes my heart happy!

SABA!

My girlfriend Jen, co-worker Matt, and I went to Saba yesterday (it's a country/island about 1.5 hours by boat from St. Martin) and we spent the entire day diving....I had my 15th and 16th dive (Jenn if you're reading this, 600 really isn't that much more than 16 so zip it!).  Jenn just bought an underwater casing for her camera so the three of us went down as deep as we could and 290 pics later I can say we had an absolute blast!! Fresh air is great and all, but if I could do things over I'd have been born with gills :)  I haven't been on a dive that I haven't loved and I can't imagine ever being disappointed.  When I'm down there it's like I'm in another world....daily drama doesn't matter and for once I feel like I'm the visitor.  Like I'm stepping into someone else's life and every fish, rock, and coral deserves to be appreciated.

 

So that's all for now...I had three great dives in St. Martin and another two in Saba, hoping to do St. Barts next weekend :)  Life is great and I have absolutely no complaints!  As always sending my love and lots of kisses - xoxox

mE