It was my first trip to the keys, and what an experience it was. We dove wrecks and reefs; the Spiegel Grove, the Duane, the Eagle; we dove “Christ of the Abyss”, Pickle Barrel Reef, and the Bentwood.There were deep dives, shallow dives, day dives and night dives. Being a new experience for me, I found something spectacular on every dive. However, I must confess I did have a favorite.My favorite was a shallow dive on the wreck of the Bentwood. I went down with George as my buddy and decided to work on my navigation skills, since that was one area of diving that I had not yet become comfortable with. I set my compass and we were off.
As I came upon the wreck I marveled at all the beautiful fish. I tooled around checking out the coral, tropical fish, and other inhabitants of the wreck, occasionally checking my compass, as well as the location of my buddy. At about the halfway point on the wreck I came upon a lonely little Trunk Fish. He seemed to be curious about us, so I stayed and watched him for a while and then continued on. I played with the Christmas Tree Worms and even chased down a beautiful Parrot Fish in an effort to capture him on film, but apparently they are a bit camera shy. After a few minutes I looked over my shoulder to make sure my buddy was still with me, and there he was, not my buddy, but my new friend the Trunk Fish. I turned to play with him some more, seeing just how close he would let me get before he would dash away. About that time Bob came along with his camera and lucky for me he is a much better photographer. He snapped some pictures of my new found friend, and was even able to capture one with the Trunk Fish close to my hand.After playing a while longer, I continued on my way. I took a couple of photos of some squirrel fish; and checked out the ships resident moray eel. Realizing I hadn’t checked for my buddy in a while, I looked back over my shoulder and there he was, not my buddy, but once again my new found friend the Trunk Fish. It was then that I realized he had followed me the entire dive, just as curious about me as I was about him. I have to confess as sappy as it seems it brought such joy to my heart to turn and play with him one final time before I headed back to the boat. To coin a phrase… “I hope I never lose that sense of wonder.” For those of you who were wondering, I did find my way back to the line all on my own, with the use of my trusty compass. BJB
