February 18, 2012.

We met a guy at a garbage burn/ cocktail hour the other evening. He had bandages on his fingers on both hands so of course, I had to ask him what happened. It turned out that he was trying to get his fish hook out of a barracudas mouth and things didn't go quite as he had envisioned. I laughed. I'm sorry, but unless you've got some Starfish in your family tree your fingers will NOT grow back, let the barracuda have the 40 cent hook.

At a recent cocktail party in someones cockpit a woman seated near me said “I've heard that you're a beast in the water”. She named her source and he's a very skilled hunter so it was high praise indeed. In the past I've been referred to as the “vacuum”, no, not because I suck, but because the area is pretty clean after I've worked it. "Beast" rolls off the tongue, I think I like the upgrade. I might have to get my wetsuit monogrammed.

While in Spanish Well Bay we perfected “Messin' With Sharks”.

30 feet of line tied to a stern cleat with a lobster trap float used to suspend the bait. We had 2 hours of shark fun with the carcass of an 8 pound Margate. It was one hit after another until only the face of the Margate was left.

The other day I had a lobster on my spear and was trying to work him out of his hole when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I had to look twice as it was something I had never seen before. Twenty feet away, a foot below the surface, a lobster was swimming past. I didn't spook him, he was just out for a swim. Talk about bad timing. I left my spear in the hole and swam over and snatched him in mid stroke.

Maybe he heard I'm a beast and decided resistance was futile and just gave up. THAT would be a cool new trend.....