Sunday, March 27, 2016

A Whole Lot of Tang at Virgin Gorda



More tang than I would try to count and it's glorious when you first spot them because there are so many becoming a wall of color.  The camera was kind of crumby as the water was more clear than that but the plastic on the watertight case didn't do the image any favor.


Something you may notice is there are no tall walls of coral.  You may also know the Caribbean is well-populated with barracuda and these run out to about six-feet in length, most of which is probably teeth, extremely sharp teeth.  We don't know if barracuda like eating tang but we suspect they would be like Chicken McNuggets for them.  In open water with a clearly visible food source is probably not the best photographic opportunity but it does not appear that insight had occurred prior to this one.


For Virgin Gorda, I was way over my head but not for swimming.  The cost of it was exorbitant but corporate disease was running high at this time and it felt like it befitted the responsibility of my big shot job.  You had to be a big shot, did you ... (larfs)

That was just one aspect of the raving madness of the time and the hell of it is there was zero dope of any kind, legal or illegal, and that was true for years.  That's also when things went full-tilt crazy but all with the appearance of design, process, productivity, everything to a purpose.


Virgin Gorda is an extremely cool memory in part because of the clarity of the water and also because it was the first time I had seen any fish while snorkeling.  As you see, it was a lot of them.

There was a place to rent a dinghy for not too much and that was wonderful for roaming about Leverick Bay which has islands all around.  On one of the jaunts, I approached an island, many of which were deserted, and thought it was empty.  Approaching the beach it became clear there was a woman walking along the beach and she wasn't wearing a filament of clothing.

This statuesque beauty was a goddess from a French fashion magazine with the regal demeanor of someone accustomed to beautiful things and receiving them.  There wasn't a hint of any haughtiness, this was simply a moment she wanted to walk on the beach.  Then we noticed her friend higher up the beach, sitting there on a blanket while reading something.

Rather than disturb their peace, I turned the boat around and pulled away but the image remains of an Amazonian goddess, someone so beautiful she cannot possibly even be real.  She was Star from the Glory Road.  If you know the book, you know her look on that beach ... which was exactly how Oscar met her.  (WIKI:  "Glory Road" - Robert Heinlein)


Ogling immensely-beautiful women is a clearly-intriguing occupation but I still wanted to see more fish.  See, Casanova guides your life but the Great God Mescalito guides mine and sometimes he wants to see fish.

On a solo run with the little dinghy, I was near one of the islands and I had some kind of anchor so I figured this looks like a good place to slip over the side.  The result was stunning since the water was immaculately clear and I could easily see twenty- or thirty-feet.

The water was also mesmerizing and I kept snorkeling around until I realized, hey, the bottom is about twenty- or thirty-feet down now.  That's plenty for creatures much larger than your miniscule self.

There was no big drama since the current wasn't strong and the dinghy wasn't all that far off but it did give sufficient time for the thought, you are food.


All that from a picture of some fish.

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