One of the many fun things about Arabia was the scuba diving.. I remember Half Moon Bay and the sunken boats, one of which several of us put a goat skull on and called the Holy Grail. But the most fun I ever had, inspite of almost drowning from laughter, was the day that Chris Mohlman, super diver, and a bunch of us were out in the bay and poking around.
Remember how you had to dive below forty feet to get under the layer of jelly fish-- seems as if they had found a level they liked. Anyhow, there was this huge sea turtle and Chris decided to spear it. That thing probably weighed over a hundred pounds. (And I did see the one that washed up on the beach in RT that they said weighed over 300 pounds). Chris managed to hit the turtle, but not fatally and the turtle got mad. I think he actually hit the tail. So this turtle starts spinning and Chris has a wrist strap on his spear gun and can't get loose. Pretty soon this turtle and Chris are flying thru the water, fifty feet down. The dammed thing takes him up and down thru the jelly fish at least ten times and drags him for what seemed like miles, before Mr. Goellner caught up with them and cut Chris free. Chris had welts like you wouldn't believe. But to top it all off, James Goellner was still at the bottom and the rest of us were heading up when he sees a big fish and spears it.
Turns out to be a small, four foot shark and as it turned on him and us,I learned to walk on water with swim fins that day. I know the rest made it to shore faster than you could believe. I almost gave up diving after that, but now the stories are fun to tell.
Well, that's Fish for thought...
Mike Crocker(DH65)
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 09:24:17 -0500