What Lies Beneath

I look out over the ocean and feel that awe. Yes, I have that AWE moment, not an Oprah AHA moment..an AWE moment. I always think a whale, dolphin or sea otter is going to emerge from the great below and send chills down my spine. Maybe it's more like a 'Finding Nemo Moment?' The mass of the great ocean has always been 'the secret place' where my mind conjures up new life experiences and in the past, a few of them came true!

Yes, what lies beneath me when I row the boat or swim to a buoy yards away. What will happen to my left foot as I gently pull it out of the water because we know things lurk under floats, WE KNOW THEY DO.

I have had my share of scares that would even make the brave at heart flinch. Stories of everything from the fish that got away to the shark that came too close. I've been stung by the mighty Lion's Mane Jellyfish and trapped in a bed of kelp. Bring it on Stephen King!

We, as children, were tossed into the sea at a very early age. We were flounders or bullheads...whatever young swimmers were called back then. My Granny taught swimming lessons and my Uncle Peaches was a lifeguard. We all had our way with the waves and could do a mean cherry-bomb.

I was never one for the lakes. I found them too still and too clear...it just didn't leave enough to the imagination. But go into 'the deep' murky ocean and you are often rewarded with 'a story' you can share with bloggers and friends, friends who are bloggers and those who just drop in for a yarn.

I used to row my father's wooden rowboat out to our speedboat to fish by myself when I was just old enough to be alone at sea yet 'tied to the buoy and anchor'. Yes, I'd pull out some form of meat from the icebox and hook up four or five lines to lower into the sea. I'd amuse myself with some glorified tale of catching a seal by accident or falling overboard and coming face to face with an orca..but, they were just fancy stories to keep me alert for the next 5 hours.

Then it would happen. Lines would bob madly and I'd know, I WOULD KNOW that a very fierce dogfish was on the end of that line. And I would know, I WOULD KNOW that I would have to reel that line in to see two very angry eyes glare up from the deep. AND I WOULD KNOW, I would have to share the bottom of the boat with this thrashing, vicious monster until I knocked the life out of it. Yes, I would know all of this but still put myself through the nightmare of facing these mini-sharks. Back then, those mini-sharks were not so small..some were actually over 4 feet long and they would snap and whip their barbed tails AT ME...yes at me. They seemed to know who it was they had to attack for putting them on death row. Yes, that would be me, the little rowboat boy.

And if the dogfish were not enough, I would lower crab nets too. Yes, I'd load them up with morsels of chopped mini-sharks to lure in the crabs. The crabs were also fierce. Yes, they had pinchers that could snap the baby finger off any child and could scurry across the boat in seconds to get to your baby fat. It was a war in that boat. The young boy in the sea was a good swimmer, a lover of the waves and rocky shores but his heart would skip a beat when anything emerged from the depths below.

So, I'd put myself through my own perfect storm many times over a Summer or on long weekends at our cabin. I'd brag about the big one that got away. I'd wish with all my might that one day a huge salmon would trade place with the ugly dogfish and I could make my family proud of my time alone in the boat with my dachshund and my peanut butter sandwiches.

A few times I actually swam out to that boat and climbed aboard 'without' the rowboat. I'd dare myself to swim above the mini-sharks, the huge rock cod, an unlikely octopus and a territorial seal. I dared myself to reach under the boat to feel the barnacles and the slimy kelp.

Then, you grow up and you swim fearlessly in the same sea but you still remember what lies beneath. The boats are now a thing of the past and the charm has worn off but the mystery is still beneath me. I did have my day with the huge shark and I did have my encounter with the killer whale but those are stories far too big to keep in this fish net of a blog. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZing, there's a fish on the line!