It's hard to get out of a black hole

When I was a kid, growing up in St. John’s, the newspaper ran a comic strip called “Joe Palooka”. From time to time, the strip would feature a character named Joe Blfsspkk ( or something similarly unspellable), who was always followed around by a black cloud. He represented the average joe for whom nothing ever seemed to work the way it was intended. Now, I just have to get out from under my own black cloud.
The live-aboard snorkel trip to the Similans was supposed to be one of the highlights of our trip and it turned out to be an interesting three days. But not quite everything we had hoped. Things were just a little off–you know, where you turn left off the boat and the shark’s to the right or you turn right and the turtle’s to the left. That old saying–a day late and a dollar short.
There were eighteen people on the cruise, at least two more than the boat could comfortably handle. Throw in five crew and quarters were cramped. It was a good group with six English-speakers--one honeymooning couple from California, a married couple from England and an older couple from Canada (yours truly). The remaining twelve passengers (and the guide) were Swedish, though most spoke some English and several were very fluent. There were a couple of families with children (Easter break for Swedish schools), a couple wishing they hadn’t left the children behind and a single male who seemed adrift.
It took almost four hours to reach the first island–we definitely weren’t on a fast boat to China. While the boat was underway, there was space up front for four people to lie out in the sun. The others had two choices. You could lie on your bunk down below in the dormitory (the air conditioning worked only at night when the generator ran) or you could sit around the table up top on hard wooden benches which seemed to be designed to preclude a comfortable position.
The guide was a nice young Swedish lady named Anna who was working to finance a prolonged stay in Thailand. She had no background in marine science and had only been in Thailand since November so her guidance mostly consisted of announcing where we were, that there were fish in the ocean and we might see certain special things (mostly not). There certainly were plenty of large, colorful fish but not as much variety as we had hoped. There were extensive coral beds in some places but very few soft corals. Most of the places we stopped to snorkel seemed to attract the dive boats also. About 80% of the time we were snorkeling in water that was 6+ metres deep so everything was well below us surface floaters (we like 3-4 m).
The weather was beautiful and the food was plentiful and varied. The islands are a wonderland of rocks and trees and, as a national marine park, well maintained. We had a couple of shore breaks so we could sample the beach sand (much better than the mainland beaches). When we anchored in Donald Duck Bay on Island 8 (the islands are numbered, not named), we went ashore and climbed the rocks to Sail Rock for some impressive overviews. On the way down, I made it all the way to the bottom before disaster struck. Where people step onto the trail from the beach, there was an accumulation of sand. As I made my last step, my foot slipped on the sand on the rock and I found myself sitting on my rear nursing some serious bruises and scrapes on my right arm and some nicks and cuts on my fingers.
I’m definitely getting too old for this jumping around from boulder to boulder and scaling cliffs. I don’t have the same agility and sense of balance as I did even five years ago. I could blame it on slippery footwear but I don’t think that’s the case. As Shakespeare said, “The fault lies not in the stars but in ourselves.” The old man’s just going to have to be a little more careful and pick his spots better. The injuries weren’t serious and didn’t cause any great hardships but it’s interesting how it affects the little things. Do you know it’s hard to put on suntan lotion with one hand? Or brush your teeth with your left hand? Talk about out of your comfort zone!!
The next morning I decided to forego the first snorkeling venture and soak my wounds to remove the congealed blood. Who needs to get into the water with an invitation for any sharks in the neighbourhood? I’m sure the other passengers appreciated my gesture. ;-) As it happened, the first spot was followed immediately by a second snorkel before I could get my gear together so I missed that one too. Doreen tells me that was one of the best spots we stopped. Just my luck.
The other thing we’ve been having problems with are our camera batteries. Doreen keeps changing batteries every day and is convinced her batteries aren’t charging properly here in Thailand. After using only one set of batteries in Japan and another set in Korea, I went through four sets in one day while snorkeling. I popped in a new set of batteries after my camera quit during our first snorkel, jumped in the water, snapped off six or seven pictures and got a camera warning to change batteries. Talk about frustrating. To top it off, my new waterproof case has the same problem that the old one did–you can’t see the viewfinder in bright sun while snorkeling. So it becomes an expensive point-and-shoot-and hope you’ve got something. What really galls is that there are several people on the cruise who have similar Canon cases (different camera models) and their cases have accessories on the front and the back to deal with the problem. An updated model since last fall? There’s a Canon regional headquarters in Singapore so I hope to find a solution there.
I have to give Poseidon high marks for the land portion of the venture. They picked us up at the Suwan Palm on time, stored our excess luggage while we cruised and delivered us to the Briza when the cruise was finished. They even offered storage of valuables in their safe while we were asea. If I’d known that in advance, I could have left my laptop behind with them and saved myself some room (and weight).