It Only Hurts When I Breathe

After another day in Barnes Sound just waiting out the wind, we finally brought up anchor and headed out on our way to Cary's Fort Reef so the guys could go snorkeling again.  Seems they've now got a passion for it and I'd deal with it as best I could.

We had to go back under a bridge we cleared nicely just a few days ago, so we were feeling confident we'd be fine this time.  I was down below mending a rip in one of our quilts when I heard an epithet escape from Gary's mouth followed by, "Elliott!  Watch out!" Then a loud bang.  Oh my, this couldn't be good.

I came up to find two shaken men and pieces of our anchor light strewn about on deck.  We fought the bridge and the bridge won.

Bridges have a strange design flaw; they may be 65 feet high, but right smack dab in the middle hangs a light, meant to be a lining up beacon, I'm thinking, but it hangs down just enough to be a problem.  Today, it was our problem. 

Keeping control of a boat is much easier when you have some speed behind your actions; unfortunately, going under bridges for us is a slower operation because we just don't know when or by how much we're going to clear.

A strong current, waves from another boat, midjudgement, all can make a difference.  Thankfully, the light was all that fell.

I got the dustpan and swept up the smaller pieces and collected the larger for inspection later.

We hoped that this was not a portend for the day.  Continuing on our way, we slowly bur surely, got to the reef.  The seas were rolly and we thought (I hoped) that they'd be too heavy for us to stay.  But, as reefs are known for, as soon as we were in the middle of them, the seas calmed and we left the boat and got in the dingy to get closer to the one they wanted to dive on.

On Shark (or any unknown dangerous creature) Watch

Gary was so happy; he said they'd hit paydirt.  I stayed in the dinghy, newly named The Safety Officer.  After about 20 minutes or so, I saw something surface near me.  It was so brief, I couldn't even begin to identify it, but it looked fairly large and was a sandpaper color, which could be some type of ray or a shark.

I waited and watched, not too worried, but it surfaced again, still only a flat shape in the water.  A few minutes later, it came up again.  I alerted Gary that I saw something and did not know whether it was something to worry about.  After a little while, it came up again, and I still didn't know what I was seeing. 

Elliott loving the beauty of the sea

The guys had tired out by now, so they swam to the dinghy and pulled themselves in.  Elliott had used our underwater camera for this dive, so he was excitedly telling me about all the different fish and how he had gone swimming with barracuda.  (Only later, I hear from a friend that sharks don't scare him, but barracudas sure do--great!)

Because I was in the bow of the dinghy, I turned around and leaned over the boat to pull in the painter that was attached to the mooring buoy.  I pulled and as we moved closer, I pulled again and then fell back into the boat in pain from a "pop" I had felt at the top of my rib cage.  Took my breath away.  God, I hate getting hurt.  Total loss of control of a situation.

I sat for a while catching my breath and holding my ribs.  Gary pulled the line the rest of the way in and, after sitting with me a while, we made our way to the boat.  Because the boat was so rolly where it was, we had to get on without using the transom, which is easiest.  Climbing onto the side meant waiting for the boat to roll down and the dinghy to roll up; I finally got a good grip, planted one foot on the outer rail, but then the dinghy went down again, so I was stretching crazily.  Finally, pulled myself up, stressing the rib injury again, but at least I was on the deck.

We got underway and after a few sailing hours, motored behind Rodriguez Key to anchor for the night.  Bugs came early, so we sat inside for our evening meal. 

Since then, I've been wrapped with an Ace bandage, which seemed to help by putting pressure there and I've taken pain killers and used SalonPas pads on the area.

Definitely feeling sore and bruised this morning, so I hope that's all it was; just can't figure out what the popping feeling could have been.  Obviously, if it gets worse, I will visit a local island doctor.

In the meantime, maybe I need a special remedy of some lime in coconut (with a splash of rum, eh?).  Take care, everyone.

NEXT POST:  Undersea Photos!