Searching For Happy, When It's Swimming Beside Me

July 09, 2014

I think I’ve been using a mask and snorkel since I was about ten. Before ten, I held my breath, opened my eyes underwater, and felt with my hands, if I couldn’t see. ( I still hold my nose, when I jump into the deep end of a dock or piling, without a mask)

I’ve spent the last twelve days in St.Ignace, Michigan. I hit Huron Bay almost every day. The first few days the water seemed cold, but manageable. The last couple of days I swam, it was too cold to go without a wetsuit. Even with a suit, my feet and hands freeze! Especially since I refuse to get out until I cover a lot of territory, while spying on the lake bottom.

I was returning to Ann Arbor on Tuesday. So, Monday was my last chance to snorkel. I dug out a pair of heavy, long, black flippers, from the basement. I was determined to cover more area and fins were going to help.

Anyone who has used a wetsuit, weight belt, mask, snorkel and fins, can tell you, most of the hard work happens before you even get into the water. Pulling the skin-tight wetsuit on is not easy. The flippers needed adjusting. My mask kept fogging up (warm face + freezing, cold water = fog). And I wanted to get some cold water inside the wetsuit, so I could adjust my body to the frigid temperature, before taking off.

So, I sat down in the water (Flippers on) because I didn’t want to walk backwards in the flippers. I knew I’d topple on a rock and get immersed and freeze quickly instead of slowly, so I sat and scooted in, slowly, on my butt. I got pushed around by the waves, but I got use to the temperture. I waved goodbye to Mom and started swimming.

Swimming alone, I’m very careful to keep an eye on the shore and my destination, so I don’t get too far out, in the bay. Too far would be if I ended up in the traveling line the Mackinac Island boats use to go back and forth with "Fudgies", from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island and back. I didn’t want to give my mom a heart attack. She loves to be down on the beach, but she doesn’t need to be my life-guard.

Mom, on the Shore
(She loves to be by the water in the sun)

Those fins were amazing! I was able to "Duck Dive” and stay down a good length of the bottom, before I came back up, to blow air out of my snorkel. On my way back, along the shore, after swimming about 40 minutes, I was thinking to myself, "Cribs, cribs, cribs, where’s the cool stuff I want to see?” I continued to dunk down to get a closer look at some objects on the bottom, but didn’t even see a rusty, old horse-shoe!

I heard someone shouting, when I surfaced and I looked toward shore. There was a young man, on the boardwalk, pointing to me. He yelled, „There’s something big swimming by you, I don’t know what it is, but I saw it out there.”

I answered, "I’m not afraid of anything in this cold water,” I felt like I was a kid and my brothers were trying to scare me. I was SO sure he was teasing me.

"No, I really saw something!”, he repeated, with emphasis.

I laughed, "It’s probably a sturgeon coming in close”. I adjusted my mask and was ready to swim away. "Do I look like an idiot?” I thought, disgusted at taking the time to engage in conversation with this guy.

"I saw it swim alongside you,” he shouted, again trying to get my attention. "When you went down and I could see your flippers, it went down too. When you came up, it did too. It was following you. LOOK! There it is!”

I turned around (very skeptical, but playing along) I saw an otter, with only it’s head sticking out, swimming, about three yards from me. It was swimming by me! (Their little faces look like they’re smiling)

This is what I saw (picture from Google images)

"I see them down here in the winter, some times,” the man said. I thanked the very guy I was doubting and let him know he made my day. I had no idea I was swimming with someone. I’d have loved to play with it and try to get it to imitate me. (After recovering from MY heart attack, if I had been the one to see the little mammal following me)

The otter swam away, and headed for some large boulders, near the shore. I think our human voices didn't make him feel safe, anymore.

From now on, I will try my best to swim. Just swim and snorkel. Not for a goal at the end, but for the process. Maybe I will be more aware of what is swimming right alongside me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WaA5HAL9xs *link to video on Lake Sturgeon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi_x7S1ue5c *link to home-video of otters on Mackinac Island