Friday, January 4, 2013

Huge Disaster



This morning was my second deep-water swim of the season - and my final one without an emergency vehicle.

I was out almost a mile from shore when I saw a creature heading directly for me from below. It wasn't a whale and it wasn't swimming like a dolphin. It was a shark. A BIG shark. A big Tiger Shark!

Strangely enough, I did not panic but put into action what I have been told to do. I stopped swimming, I faced the shark and dropped my feet down below me. I spread my legs and arms to appear as large as possible and tried to look threatening. I even threw some jabs with my fists as it got close (I must have looked totally ridiculous). Deciding that I was too obnoxious for words, it turned and headed back the way it had come.


But the biggest disaster, the Huge Disaster, was that I had entirely forgotten to take a photo! I would be worthless as a photojournalist where rule number one is to get the shot first. I grabbed my camera and turned it on and waited and waited and waited until I could get a shot. I finally got a couple of blurry ones as the shark disappeared into the gloom.

Still, I decided that chasing it down to try and get a better photo was not a good idea. Instead I set a personal best speed record for my swim back to shore.

8 comments:

  1. And another reason you shouldn't be swimming alone. Glad you are safe and sound.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad to hear your encounter results. I swim alone quite often and am aware of the risks. Thanks for the info about keeping legs down; I knew about going "big" and will add the legs to my repertoire. So glad you're okay, Don!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe that was Bruce and he decided to return to being vegetarian when he saw you and how little meat is on your svelte bod! Glad you made your personal best back to shore. Hugs Patti and Janet

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Sandy, but I'm glad I was alone. I would not want to have been responsible for somebody else getting munched.
    Thanks Livit, but I don't really know about dropping the legs, I just tried to look as big as possible.
    Yeah Pedro, you missed a fun swim.
    Janet, my body is far from svelte, and it definitely was not Bruce. This fish had big stripes. There has to be a better way to get a good workout though.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll bet jabbing at it with your fingernails did the trick!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fists and fingernails :-)
    Too bad I didn't remember to carry an orange with me

    ReplyDelete