The World Underwater

    The sergeant major damselfish  greets me as I tumble under water. He is decked out in his ceremonially white and yellow tunic with   five vertical black stripes. Great my mask and   snorkel did not fall off and the water is not cold. I tread water in slow motion aided by fins. My gaze is transfixed to the colourful underwater world. It is like swimming in an aquarium  without   a glass wall.  Might I be fed down here? I press my mask just to ensure it does not fall off. What a tranquil world it is here! I just left a noisy tour boat of fins and foreign languages with English spoken in many accents. There are eight of us in my group and the plan is to swim  to the reef and  back.

    Of course we must return to the same boat which could be a problem since there are many tour boats anchored here. The two sisters from Calgary are in the other group. How were we divided? By apparent fitness or who might tip the guide? Amongst the eight are two young boys who appear to have much energy and probably have designs   on leaving the group. Yes, there is one honeymoon couple. We were told no selfie sticks. I have a small light to shine into crevices and I have been trying get my new sport watch to work. I start the timer, so I think. It has a GPS built in and is supposed to report the distance of the adventure.

    As I gaze below, I see stoplight parrotfish, blue tang, yellow tail parish all going about their business. There are yellow butterfly fish and moorish idols. Was that the same   yellow strip goat fish I saw last year? Before the advent of glass we could not view this kaleidoscope. We have to thank the Venetians living on the Island of Murano for this wonder.  Leonardo da Vinci studied water, but did he ever go snorkeling?  The colours of the   moving fish  incite cosmic comparisons. I once read that with this visible light spectrum  colors disappear underwater in the same order as they appear in the visible light  spectrum. Can I tell which colours are warm or cold?

    The pink coral must be alive and I have been told not to touch it. In between the coral there is white sand  ripples. Is there pirates’  treasure buried down here?  I see the boat’s anchor planted in the ocean floor in car tire, forming a Pythagoras like   hypotenuse. The anchor chain links us to the tour boat and life in the other world and I would be happy to swim around here keeping  it in sight. This a good place to ponder mathematics as wave theory is everywhere. Will there be time dilation? Is Einstein’s  Special Relativity  valid  on this outing? 

    Quick better follow the leader. She has extra long  yellow fins and a  red T-Shirt. I am also wearing a  T-Shirt, a white one to reduce sun burn. The visibility  is good at about  9 meters permitting  my orange swim suit to be seen. Where did that wave come from? I am no longer holding my mask but swimming with my arms along side my body.

    I am staying at a tropical resort whose name I still can’t pronounce. I booked for a morning snorkeling  and the mini bus should return me to the hotel after lunch. The resort could be anywhere in the tropics. The  world on a  reef at these depths is the same. The high light of the outing would be sightings of a  turtle or stingray. I used to scupa dive but now I enjoy the informality of snorkeling. We are moving at a good clip over sand away from the anchor. I am swimming behind a couple who are holding hands. He has a   blue   swim  suit and she has a pink out fit. I wonder what colour tooth brushes   they have? I think I see something move in the sand. We exchange waves with a band of returning snorkelers. Do we all take the same route?

    Suddenly we are at a wall of coral and the reef fish appear to have put on a party for us. Well some of the group  have brought minute crumbs. Now what music are we meant to hear? Some   Mendelssohn or Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon? The leader is up ahead and signaling   for us to keep together. Two young boys  that had been at the back now appear. The visibility is about   9 meters or 30 ft. Red is absent and orange is not in fashion but   yellow and green are in vogue. Did I spot a shade of teal?  The leader has something in her hand trying  to communicate with us. We try to get close  without  causing bodily harm to other, with our fins. I think it is some kind of eel and it looks big down here. Maybe the  moray eel. Is the eel on the payroll of the tour company? 

    I look down and cannot see the bottom. It must be deep. We   circle the reef  gazing and marvelling. I shine my light into a crevice. Could this be part of Fingal’s Cave? Wrong, that would be Scotland.! Some body bumps into me. People are taking photographs of the fish who  appear to enjoy the latest   troop of tourists. I have a book on coral fish back in the hotel room and wished I had studied it more. The fish are in a freezie. Yes, several swimmers are trying to take selfies. Is this one of   the few places that people  don’t text. The visibility is poor and another   new group of snorkelers descend  on the reef. I feel a tug on my fin alerting   me  that yellow fins and red T-Shirt is swimming away from the reef.

    Where are we swimming  to? I have lost all sense of direction and time. A few isolated fish appear to be marshaling the way just as in a cross country race.  Are they volunteers? A blue fish swims away from me and demonstrates the red doppler effect by becoming  red. Could it be Dory?  I follow a blue swim suit and pink outfit.

What time is it? Time appears different under water. Will the time on my sport watch be different than the boat time? Am I in a spacetime situation? The light changes and I feel cooler. Maybe a passing cloud or a para-sailer?   

    Being underwater induces associations of creation. Primeval. Didn’t all life come from the sea? I recognize a lettice coral and a bowel sponge. We meet a bunch of snorkelers and wave at each other. We must be swimming the right way?  

    Water again has got into my mask so I look up to clear it. I hear a sound overhead. Another  tour boat? It has become a Foggy Day down here but suddenly I see three anchor lines, all are making different angles; is this a Pythagoras test? Is there a 3, 4 1 triangle here?

    Which is our boat? I forget about my GPS watch and I place my money on the two young boys knowing which boat. 

    When I look up, the sun is in my eyes. There is laughter and I hear French spoken. I hand my fins to a smiling  face. It is to one of the Calgary sisters.

“How was it? Did you see the turtle?”