Grand Turk Island is undoubtedly beautiful. White sand beaches, clear turquoise water, refreshing trade winds. All the makings for an amazing day at the beach. While on our cruise, Griff and I got the amazing opportunity to power snorkel in Grand Turk. It was our first port of call so we anxiously grabbed our sunscreen, towels, and water proof camera and disembarked the ship. After a short drive to the beach we were greeted by stunning scenary.
I have always wanted to snorkel but I will admit I began to get a little nervous after reading several reviews that stated the baracuda are a little too friendly. I have always been freaked out by what swims with me in the ocean and have a fairly strict rule for myself that I do not swim unless I can see my feet...that pretty much limits me to the Caribbean. However, I decided to cross off an item from my bucket list and go for it. We grabbed our fins, snorkel masks, life vests, and camera and headed out on the boat. After a short ride in seemingly calm water we were told to jump in and test out the power snorkeling machines. Now I am no Missy Franklin but I can hold my own in the water and am a fairly decent swimmer, so I chose not to inflate my life vest very much because I wanted to be able to dive under just a little to get the full experience. So I jumped in and then the real adventure began!
That seemingly calm water that I mentioned earlier...completely different story when you are in the water. That crystal clear turquoise water sure can get rough. As soon as I jumped in I felt like I had never swam before. The waves were crashing into me, filling my snorkel with sea water, and I felt like I had been swimming for days, not less than 5 minutes. I eventually managed to find my groove with the power snorkel and even though I drank more than my fair share of sea water, I started to manuever my way through the other snorkelers and saw things that will last in my memory for a lifetime. I swam with a baracuda literally a foot away from me. I saw a stingray just chilling on the bottom of the ocean. I saw unbelieveably beautiful coral reefs filled with curious colorful fish. And most amazing of all I saw a 7,000 foot dropoff into the black abyss. (I might as well have a seen a shark, I swam away from that cliff so fast!!!)
I took away a little lesson from this snorkeling adventure. Perhaps what we see on the surface is not always all that is out there. Maybe what seems beautiful on the surface is actually not what is best for us. Could it be that we need to dive deeper and swim into the unknown sometimes to fully see what is meant for us to see? I think so! That turquoise water sure was beautiful on the surface and to be honest I was scared to dive into the unknown. Little did I know that I would feel more calm and more at ease under the surface of the water swimming with the baracuda and stingray than I did on top. Under the water the sea was completely calm and I felt like I was in a different universe. The rough seas on top did not affect me down below. The same is true in our everyday lives. I think sometimes we get so caught up in what we can see and assume that is what must be best for us. "It looks beautiful, so it must be right." That is not always the case though. Sometimes we need to set aside our fears, jump in, pull on our snorkel masks, and dive deep to see what we didn't even know existed.
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