It’s always fun to meet friends who travel together. Russia-born, Alex and his friend Peter came down to visit us from the USA to try some diving here. Alex had his license and proved to be a great diver. Peter, however, did not have a license, so he took the PADI open water course with us. After a couple days, we had Peter diving like a fish! On the 3rd day of the course, I promised them something special for Peter’s last 2 check-out dives. We would be going to Tortugas reef in search of not only turtles, but a massive school of tarpon that frequent the reef in the summer.

We had planned to do a free descent down to 50ft and begin our search. The current pushed along nicely through the clear water. We passed numerous turltes and a couple morays, then out of the blue…here they come! About 300 tarpon between 3-5 ft long weighing between 30-100lbs! I scanned the faces of my divers and they were all smiling from ear to ear. Guess they were having some fun! After we passed through the school, we burned off the rest of the air from the tank then started up to the safety stop level. Once back on the boat, they talked incessantly about the animals we had encountered. The second dive we made over Barracude reef. This is a reef shaped like a hand and is loaded with bright corals, fish, and some turltes as well. As we crossed the sandy patch heading to the next “finger” I noticed what looked like a 1 inch small piece of coral floating just inches from my mask. My eyes focused and I realixed it was a baby seahorse riding the current to the next bit of coral. I cupped my hand gently around him to show Alex and Peter. Alex snapped off some foos and then I hekpd the lil bugger over to the reef safe and sound. That had made my day! We continued on til we got tabout the end of the dive and then we had Peter remove his mask and replace it…which was the only skill he was a bit worried about. We all kneeled down on the sand and let him go for it. He nailed it! We all applauded him and lifted up off the sand to continue diving.

Once back on the boat we all congratulated Peter for finsihing the course and now being “part of the Gang”. He wasn’t no longer a guppy, but a full-fledged dolphin. I could see that Alex and Peter’s friendship had just taken a new turn….and that Alex would be dragging his buddy to a whole new set of diving destinations, which isn’t that what some of diving is about?…Travelling, making new friends, and creating memories with the ones you already have!