Shark!

My sister over at PakArt has been doing some reminiscing and that got me to thinking.
A few times I might have mentioned that I lived on a sailboat when I was a kid. My family lived on it for almost 3 years. Most of it is good memories. I do have one scary memory.

I don't know what island we were at. My Dad and I were out spear fishing. I not so much fishing as holding on to the coat hanger that had the string of fish that my Dad had gotten with the spear gun. The fish we were getting weren't that big and we needed enough fish to feed all 6 of us. ( 6 people on a 40ft sailboat! I have lots of stories)

I was at the top of the water watching my Dad below and I looked around and not more then 10/15 feet from me was a 20ft long shark! OK maybe he was all of 4 or 5 feet but when you're in the water with a string of bloody fish it looks real big! I had a snorkel in my mouth and I hollered at my Dad " Shark!" but you can't holler underwater with a snorkel in your mouth! More of a garble then anything!

By the time I got my Dads attention the shark had circled me (us) a few times. My Dad came to the surface and told me whatever I do " DO NOT LET THE SHARK HAVE THE FISH" He was worried that if the shark got the fish it might get a little excited and bite us! And I'm thinking to myself " Yeah right. I'm going to hang on to fish with a shark on the other end? Right! "

The sailboat was about 100 yards away and we hollered to family that we had a shark with us and to come get us with the dingy RIGHT NOW! They finally figured out what we were hollering about and came and got us fast! I don't know if you ever had to get into a boat when you can't touch the ground, it's hard but I never climbed into a boat so fast!

I was back in the water by the 2nd day. Had no choice. That's how we bathed!