 |
| Photo Courtesy of Margo Sanchez |
After being surprised by the discovery that I had a seal tugging on my fin, I floated there just staring at the curious little guy. The seal again gave my fin a good bite and tug and looked up at me. We stared at each other a couple more seconds and then the seal ascended toward the surface. I motioned to Lesley, asking if she saw what happend. She indicated she had been right next to me and saw the whole thing. We both had a smile on our face as we turned to continue to swim toward shore.
Less than a minute later I felt something grab and pull at me good. I looked up as the seal came down right in front of my mask. Instead of taking off, like they usually do when they are playing, it moved within a foot of me. At this point I was starting to get real excited knowing that this was going to be something really special. Again the seal was staring at me with it’s dark soulful eyes as I just sat there not making any sudden moves, trying not to breathe too much so as not to scare it off. I think he sensed that I wasn’t going to freak out or try and hurt him, so the seal came right to me with it’s fins open as if it wanted a hug. I slowly put my arms around the seal. It just sat there looking up at me and checking out my regulator and mask. This embrace lasted a few more seconds before I felt it easing away, so I let go. The seal turned and slowly ascended to the surface. I then turned to look for Lesley, completely flooding my mask as I smiled from ear to ear! After clearing my mask, I could see that Lesley was hooting and hollering and had a big smile all her own.
We got our bearings and continued on our way into shore when again I felt the seal grabbing and this time biting my hood. As I looked up to find the seal I felt something grabbing my arm. I turned and found the seal swimming side by side with me, holding my arm in between its fins. It held on for a while as I continued to swim before letting go and swimming around, stopping right in front of me. This time it didn’t want a hug, but floated on its side right in front of me. I reached out and started to scratch it’s side. It seemed to really enjoy this. It didn’t take long for the seal to figure this whole thing out and turned to get its belly and neck scratched. This continued for a couple of minutes as it floated in front of me, turning to get it’s back and the top of its head scratched too. After all this the seal turned and looked at me one last time before ascending.
This is one of my favorite diving moments. To think this ranks a close second to diving within arm’s reach of a great white shark, and I didn’t have to pay or sign my life away to do it. Moment like this make me realize the great diving that we have right here at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment