Swimming With Sharks

Over this past weekend we got together with 5 other couples from our ward and set sail on a cruise ship, no kids allowed.  We were gone for 5 days and were able to visit Nassau in the Bahamas.  We were also supposed to visit Freeport, Bahamas but another passenger on our ship did the ultimate GDFD (got drunk, fell down).  He actually fell 2 stories and landed on his head and died.  That required a criminal investigation so our ship spent another day in Nassau and we missed Freeport.  It didn't really matter since we all had fun together whether it was on the beach at Nassau or in Freeport. 

 Tom got friendly with a grouper in this shot.

Looking for shark teeth in the sand.

That's me on the far left.

While we were in Nassau, Tom and I went scuba diving with a dive shop the specializes in shark dives.  Nothing like diving with sharks to get your adrenaline pumping.  It was actually really neat.  The sharks are the very mild reef sharks and they don't really like the taste of people.  No shark cages needed.  The dive master got all dressed up in chain mail and brought down some fish inside a box.  He would put the fish on a spear and then hold it out for the sharks to eat.  Everyone else sat in a circle around the feeder.  We did have to sit on the bottom with our hands folded into our arms.  We were told that our hands look like small fish to the sharks, better to keep them hidden lest a shark become confused.  The sharks were big, some around 14 feet long, most around 6 feet.  They are amazingly graceful.  They would swim very close but never actually touch you except occassionally bump you with their tailfins..  It was an incredible experience.  We ended up with some cool pictures and a great dive story.