AN AFTER-DIVE ADVENTURE THURSDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER

At the end of the last dive of my stay in Utila, we pulled farther into the harbor. There was a commotion along the docks: an Eagle Ray was acting strangely in front of the people along the quay. It turns out that a magnificent animal was in some sort of distress. It was flopping erratically on the surface and swimming in circles. We approached; Egil went into the water with his camera, to take some pictures and a closer look at what was going on. We could see a red raw spot on the top of the ray's head. The cause was unknown; it was also unknown if the wound was related to the distress. Sadly, there's not much that can be done for a wild fish in such an instance. I have seen fish swimming with terrible wounds on their bodies. Just this week I saw a Scrawled Filefish swimming merrily along WITHOUT ITS TAIL . . . this fish is sort of clumsy & comical in the water anyway, but this one seemed completely unconcerned about the absence of a tail. I can only hope that the Eagle Ray will be able to recover & survive. A local woman diver tries to ascertain what the injury to the top of its head is. Could be a remora scar, a boat strike, or some other manmade injury I have stopped diving. I have to wash & dry my gear so that my baggage is not over weight. When I left Kenosha, it was spot on 50 pounds! Any "water weight" will put me over the limit. I'll relax for the long, hot, hard trip home. I have two layovers at the airports for a total of five hours, making for a long trip. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll lose my Norwegian diving buddies, as they have to take the 2 p.m. ferry to the mainland to catch a 5 a.m. flight out on Saturday. Gary, of Gary & Dale, & I will be, AFAIK, the only guests at the Lodge. Tomorrow is KARAOKE night at UL, so I'll do a little singing, and say good-bye to the crew.

A MENU OF TRAVEL WEBSITES I MAINTAIN,
INCLUDING NEAL SKRENES' DIVE TRIPS,
JACKIE & TOM McGUINNESS' CRUISES,
LIZZIE HURTT & KAYE ROBERTS' TRAVELS,
THE WOMBAT BEND FOREST FIRE,
SIX RETIRED TEACHERS BICYCLING THROUGH GERMANY
ANDREA DENNINGER'S JOURNEYS TO ARIZONA
AND MORE, CAN BE FOUND HERE