Day 4 – Nassau, Bahamas

We were pulling into port at the same time we woke up. We took a quick shower and started to take pictures. The color of the water is unbelievably beautiful. No camera ever does it justice. We were going to get breakfast out of the buffet line, but settled on pizza. It was a hearty breakfast. We walked around the ship until the ship was fully docked. We grabbed our stuff and disembarked for a wonderful adventure.

  

  

  

We had almost two hours before our shuttle was to pick us up for the journey to the “Yellow Submarines” at Stewart’s Cove. We just decided to walk around the town to shop and look into a few churches and buildings. We took a quick stroll through the Straw Market. We started buying stuff until we realized we would have to carry it all afternoon.

It was an hour drive to Stewart’s Cove. The drive was making me nervous. Our driver was darting in and out of traffic. There may have only been inches between the car in front of us and our bus. The driver was not afraid to jump “quickly” on the brakes. (I would think that after our driver in Tibet, Jon would be used to anything. On the other hand, I may have been too preoccupied with my thought of the yellow death machines to worry about a little erratic driving.) When we arrived we were given a brief lecture on how to use the sub and how to communicate with the divers. Kim was getting more nervous. There was a couple who decided to cancel. The wife must have been more nervous than Kim. We boarded the boat and headed out to sea. It was a quick ride to the dive spot. We were near the spots where Gilligan’s Island and Flipper were filmed.

Kim was starting to have second or fifteenth thoughts about going into the sub. I wanted her to go first, but they brought out one of the older and bigger subs. They called it a truck model and thought it would be better for me. It was a funky feeling when it was fully dropped into the water. The diver would give the signal to clear you ears at several places on the way to the bottom. They told us that the depth was 30 feet. We only descended 15 feet in the sub. There was a buoy attached to the sub with a length of rope. We could not descend any deeper than the rope.

I really wanted to go down before Jon. I knew it would be better for me not to watch Jon going under, and it was worse than I thought it would be. The top of the death machines were lifted about two feet out of the water. You slipped your head under the bubble and whoosh you were gone. And just like that it was my turn. I spent the first ten minutes simply trying not to panic, not to hyperventilate, keeping my sinuses clear, and did I say trying not to panic. The diver’s must have seen the terror in my eyes as they constantly keep checking to see how I was doing. It took everything I had not to give the signal to return to the surface. The entire experience was being videotaped and I tried as hard as I could not to look too stricken every time that stinkin’ camera came near me.

  

  

  

When you looked outside of the sub, it looked like my feet were going to scrape the ocean floor. You could see a long way because the water was so clear. When we got to our maximum depth, they huddled the subs together. I wanted Kim beside me, but she ended up being one sub away. I got the camera ready and took a few pictures of her. She looked like she was panicking a little. I hoped she would calm down after she got to the bottom and started looking around.

When they let us go on our own, the only instruction was to follow the lead diver. Each sub was started and then directed towards the lead diver. I started looking for Kim. I couldn’t find her at first. I then spotted her heading out away from the group. I remember thinking that she was going to ignore the instructions and explore what she wanted. That girl has an independent streak! I was going to go after her, but I saw a diver go after her. She rejoined our group in a few minutes. They took us over a few reefs. One of the spots they took us was an airplane that was used in the movie Jaws. It was wrecked during the filming and was left on the sea bottom. It was cool to see the wreck.

Kim: When I finally started to relax a little bit I realized that my head was crammed up into the bubble and rubbing against the top. I wasn’t relaxed enough to try to sit down and I decided that I’d just crouch on sub, that it was good exercise for my legs to stay in that position. I think it was at this point that I realized that it was very beautiful down there. There were hundreds of fish and I was in a place that not many people get the opportunity to visit, but I was still ready to get back to the top.

I had a horrible time trying to steer my sub. I kept thinking it must be broken. As hard as I’d try I couldn’t get it to turn. I knew I was going off in the wrong direction but was powerless to stop myself. I keep hoping that someone saw me wondering off and come rescue me. Finally I felt one of the divers grab on to my sub and turn me around. After that one of the divers never left my side. I guess I couldn’t be trusted. Thank goodness!

At one point, they stopped all of the subs and huddled them together. They brought out some fish food and spread it around the sub’s window. The fish would just flock around the subs. You could reach out and touch them. They were slimy! I looked over at Kim and she looked much calmer. When it came time to leave the sub, Kim was the last one up. I think she planned it that way.

There were two groups using the subs, so we went snorkeling while the second group went for their ride. Kim was still coming down from her ride and decided to stay on the ship. This was the first time I had used flippers. Man could I move through the water. I tried to go down to the bottom, but I could never fully clear my ears. I met the subs half way through their trip so I could get some pictures of them. By the time I got back on board, Kim was much calmer.

When we got back to Nassau, we finished shopping at the Straw Market. Tonight was the formal night on the ship. We got dressed up and went to the Captain’s Reception. It was free eats and drinks. It was nice of the Captain to get us all of those whiskey sours! We didn’t want to eat too much, but the meatballs were too good to pass up! Almost everybody was dressed up this night. We saw some really nice bridesmaid’s dresses! It took a little prodding, but I convinced Kim to go up on stage with some other couples to do some slow dancing. We saw ourselves dancing later on the ship’s TV.

  

Because we were so late, we missed our regular seating time. Kim had arranged for us to go to the late seating. The dinner was again good. We had new table mates. One of the wives wanted a recipe for the dessert, Chocolate Melting cake. The server said she wasn’t sure she could get the recipe. The lady said, “If you want a tip, you will get me the recipe”. You could tell that the server wasn’t very happy.

After dinner we walked around and gambled a little more. I again won enough to buy a few more drinks. I started telling Kim that she should keep me because I’m lucky. (Mr. Moneybags gave up $4.00 for me tonight. I was able stretch it out for about 5minutes tonight.)