What lies beneath…
Sharks have been in the news recently. There was an interview with a young man from his hospital bed in North Carolina, describing how it felt to have his arm chewed off. And drone photos of sharks in knee deep water…
Sharks remain one of my biggest fears. If you have ever seen a Great White rise to the top of the water, zero in and attack its prey, you will understand. Mind you, every time I have seen a shark I have been on a boat, and if I was on a boat I was drunk, but I saw what I saw. I was telling a friend of mine the other day I used to snorkel in the Staniel Cay Creek drunk all the time, and there was an occasional rogue shark that swam up the channel. I suppose on top of all the other things that could have happened to me when I was in my cups, getting eaten by a shark was one of them…
I was going through some old posts yesterday and I came upon this one. Timely and per usual a look back to my snarkier, defensive, early days of sobriety. I was kind of a jerk (and I used a lot of capital letters for emphasis). Also, the Jaws trailer still makes me crazy terrified…
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There are Sharks in the Water!
Yesterday I went for one of my marathon beach hikes in the world’s best secret place: Guana State Park. I feel I can tell you, because this Blog is new and not many people are reading it yet… I take pepper spray with me, by the way, and I know you’re supposed to spray it down-wind, so don’t get any ideas.
The photo above is my hand (old hitch-hiking methods die hard) with a cache of shark’s teeth I’ve collected from the beach. Now, this is a stretch of ocean, where Pucci-clad, young moms sit on Izod towels and wave to their children, dressed like seals, as they take surfing lessons. I feel like I should tell somebody, “There are SHARKS IN THE WATER!”
The problem is no one thinks a shark is going to get them – TODAY.
When I was drinking, I swam with sharks all the time (you knew it was going to come back to ME, right?).
I lived in the Bahamas, and it was nothing to jump off a boat into deep water DRUNK, and snorkel face-to-face into a small lemon shark or hammerhead or nurse. There was always a rogue bull shark biting a small boat, or snagging a fish off your line as you reeled it in. I once watched a boyfriend beat a shark to death with a wine bottle. Now, that’s not something you see every day, and if you’ve never seen someone kill a shark with Chardonnay, I can tell you it makes you think twice about that person…
Which brings me to the other kind of shark. When I was drinking, I was a prime target for the brand of man who senses vulnerability – smells it like blood in the water – and takes advantage. Some may say I asked for it. Like a child in a wet suit – splashing like a seal in the ocean…
