Blue Autumn Cruise (7 page)

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roup seven, please come to the boarding area.

Group seven, to the boarding area.”

Everyone in our family, except Grammy, sat in the auditorium at the front of the ship in our bathing suits with our beach bags. Over a loudspeaker, the cruise director called groups one at a time to come forward. Our ship was now docked in the Grand Cayman harbor, and we were waiting to board the tender to go onto the island. The harbor wasn’t deep enough for
our cruise ship, so we had to dock out by the mouth of a bay, and small groups of us would ride small passenger boats called tenders to the dock.

“I am so excited!” Lauren said, poking my knee with hers. “Aren’t you?”

“Yeah!” I couldn’t wait to see the island. Lynn had told us that Grand Cayman was a British territory, and so the people spoke with an accent similar to the British accent, and they drove on the left. When the Cayman Islands were first discovered by Christopher Columbus, they were called Las Tortugas because of the many sea turtles that were seen there. On the island was a sea turtle farm owned by the government, called Boatswain’s Beach, where captive green sea turtles were bred. In October every year was a special event where hundreds of turtles were released into the wild. Lynn had said that now some of the mature green sea turtles were coming back to lay their eggs on the beach near the turtle farm. The Grand Cayman flag as well as several of the Grand Cayman coins featured the sea turtle.

I was a little scared to go snorkeling. What if I saw a big fish? What if I saw a shark? I hadn’t mentioned being scared to anyone, and no one else acted like it was bothering them. I knew what Daddy would say. He was always pooh-poohing my fears. I had taken off
all my jewelry because I had heard that bright, sparkly things can attract fish like barracuda.

I sat between Diana and Lauren on one of the auditorium seats. That was the way we seemed to go everywhere, with me in the middle, like I was the only connection between them. Both of them talked to me but not much to each other. Yet both of them had been careful not to do or say anything mean to each other ever since they apologized. I had been praying for help keeping the peace. Of course, we still had three days to go!

I had looked for Evan and Guy and their families but didn’t see them. They had told us that they were going scuba diving. Probably their group had left earlier than this.

The whole situation with Manuel was strange. I didn’t want to doubt what Diana had said, but could she have made a mistake? Was she just trying to get attention? He seemed like such a nice person. And he sounded like he was such a caring father to all of those little children. I had just about decided that what we ought to do was forget about what she thought she’d overheard.

“Group nine; please come to the boarding area. Group nine, to the boarding area.”

“That’s us!” Daddy said. He put his arm around
Lynn and waved us toward the exit to the tender. We filed off the ship and into the bright sunshine, and then climbed onto the small passenger boat bobbing beside the ship. The boat had rows of benches, and we filled it up. Then the boat’s motor started up. As we puttered across the bay, the wind blew in our hair and the waves lapped against the sides of the boat. The sun bore down on us, and the water beneath us was so clear we could see the white sand on the bottom below.

“A short walk to George Town and shopping, and that way is Seven Mile Beach,” said the tender captain as we tied up at a dock.

We headed for the beach and saw a long, beautiful stretch of white sand lined with small, colorful hotels and buildings, lounge chairs in lines, and palm and coconut trees swaying in the breeze. Hibiscus plants, adorned with big red-and-yellow blossoms, dotted the landscape. Grouped on the sand were sailboats, kayaks, Jet Skis, and other aquatic equipment.

“Wow!” Lauren said. “It’s beautiful here!”

“And see out there,” said Uncle Ted, pointing toward the water at dark shadows beneath the surface a few dozen yards from the beach. “That’s a coral reef where you can snorkel and see all kinds of fish. I used to own a saltwater tank when I was young, and I used to have all these beautiful brightly colored fish.”

“I didn’t know that,” said Aunt Carol. “When did you have that?”

“Before I knew you, my dear,” said Uncle Ted. “When I had my swinging bachelor pad.”

Aunt Carol and Lynn laughed at that. “Oh, I can just imagine,” said Aunt Carol.

“I had a trigger fish and a queen angel, a royal gramma fish, a yellow tang, and a blue tang. And a tomato clown fish like Nemo. I loved that tank,” said Uncle Ted. “I named all my fish.”

“Aha!” said Aunt Carol, laughing. “So instead of inviting women over to see your etchings, you invited them over to see Nemo and his friends.”

“Yes, all the myriad of women I dated,” said Uncle Ted, chuckling.

We walked down the beach toward the area where Daddy had read the snorkeling would be good.

“I can’t wait to snorkel!” said Luke. “I wish we could scuba.”

“I wish I had an underwater camera,” said Lauren.

“I don’t have to snorkel,” I said.

“Oh, honey, of course you do,” Daddy said, putting his arm around me. “You don’t want to miss out on an adventure like that. Imagine coming to Grand Cayman and not going snorkeling!”

I knew he’d be that way. I decided not to say anything
else. Part of me did want to try it. Later, when I talked to Guy about our day on Grand Cayman, I wanted to be able to tell him that I’d snorkeled. Another part of me was scared, but I had told myself that I wasn’t going to let my fears get the best of me on this trip. I wanted to be brave like Diana!

It was easy to find a place that rented snorkel equipment. A young man from Grand Cayman who worked there pointed out the sizes of the flippers and masks.

“For small feet or small faces, you should choose these over here,” he said, with a slight British accent, as he held up smaller flippers and masks. Trying on the various flipper sizes was so funny; Lauren, Luke, and I walked around taking big awkward steps, like ducks. Diana even laughed. All of us finally found a good fit.

“I’ll stay with the stuff while the rest of you snorkel,” said Aunt Carol. And so she set the beach bags on lounge chairs while the rest of us carried our snorkel equipment down to the water.

“Everybody make sure they have a snorkeling buddy,” Daddy said.

Diana and Lauren both wanted to be buddies with me, but I wanted to make sure I was snorkeling near Daddy and Lynn. I put on the flippers and followed Daddy and Lynn through the gentle breakers out into
the water about waist deep. The water was refreshing but not too cold—just perfect—and the clear waves rolling into the beach were small. The sun was so bright, sparkling off the surface of the water. It was almost like a dream.

“See how calm the water is,” Daddy said. “Great visibility underwater.”

“Girls, you’re supposed to spit in your mask and rub the spit around the inside surface in order to keep your mask from fogging up,” Lynn said.

“Eww!” Lauren said.

“I know, it’s kind of gross, but it’s what you’re supposed to do.”

“And then tighten the mask strap after you put it on so that it doesn’t leak.” She showed us how to do that.

Finally I got the mask on, then pushed off, kicking with my flippers and looking at the sandy ocean floor below me. I kicked into deeper water and headed toward the darkness of the coral reef ahead. I could hear my own loud breathing through the snorkel. The deeper water felt colder, and I had a little chill, but I could see Daddy and Lynn out of the corner of my eye, and I could hear the bubbles coming from their snorkels, so I kept kicking.

Soon I was floating on top of the water with the green edge of the coral reef below me. I watched the
fronds of the water plants sway in the waves, and gradually I could see dozens of small, colorful fish darting in and out of the coral. They were such bright colors! One of them was like a big yellow coin, round and flat, with a tail fin. Another was pinkish with gigantic eyes. One was shaped like a pen, and it was half purple and half yellow—amazing! Another looked like Nemo from
Finding Nemo
—orange with round flippers and white stripes across its eyes. I floated on top of the water, listening to myself breathe and watching Daddy and Lynn as they dove down and pointed out the fish. The underwater sounds were so cool.

Just then I saw a long silver fish swimming along the top not too far from me. Was that a barracuda? My heart started pounding, and I heard the bubbles racing out of my snorkel. I struggled to straighten up in the water, surfacing and grabbing for Daddy’s arm.

“What, Steph?” Daddy surfaced, pulling his mask from his face, out of breath. “What’s the matter?”

I pointed at the long thin fish.

“That’s not a barracuda,” he said. “Just a needlefish. It’s okay. Keep snorkeling.”

I took a deep breath. It sure looked like a barracuda. But I put my mask back on and looked down at the coral. I took another breath, trying to calm myself. Schools of white fish with black-and-yellow stripes
wove and darted through the small crevices of the coral. A majestic blue fish with some yellow markings, shaped like a dinner plate, floated from behind a plant whose branches looked like long dark fingers. A delicately patterned sea fan moved ever so slightly in the current.

Diana swam over to me waving and pointing down. I looked down on the sandy bottom and saw a big reddish starfish. I held my thumbs up to show her I’d seen it.

It was truly a whole different world. I kept getting little chills down my spine.

Eventually Lauren, Diana, and I swam back to shore, then ran, dripping and out of breath, to rest on the lounge chairs where Aunt Carol and Lynn were sitting.

“That was so cool,” Diana said. “You know what I wish I could do? I wish I could ride on the beach here.”

“I think they do have a stable somewhere on the island,” Lynn said. “But we only have one day here, so we don’t have time to ride on this trip.” She adjusted her sunglasses and turned a page in the guidebook. “The Cayman Islands are home to several endangered species of animals,” she said.

“Like what?” said Diana eagerly.

“There are the green sea turtles. Do you girls want to go to the turtle farm?” Lynn asked, turning the
pages. “It says here that over thirty thousand turtles from the farm have been released into the wild. But it says that sixty percent of the turtles on the farm are for consumption.”

“Consumption?” said Diana with a gasp. “Do you mean to
eat?
”

“Yes, I think that’s what it means,” Lynn said. “The other forty percent of the turtles are chosen for breeding and release. There’s a big day in October—they must have just had it a few weeks ago—when they have a big release party and release hundreds of turtles into the wild each year.”

“I can’t believe it! That the turtle farm raises the turtles to be eaten. That’s horrible. I don’t want to go there!”

I wondered how the turtle-farm operators chose which turtles were to be bred and which were to be eaten. I agreed with Diana, it did sound horrible.

“I think they had turtle soup on one of the menus in George Town,” said Aunt Carol.

“Oh no! That’s horrendous!” Diana said. “I’m going to boycott that restaurant. How can they do that? In fact, I want to become a vegetarian.”

“Being a vegetarian isn’t easy,” said Aunt Carol. “You have to learn a lot about nutrition. And it may not be a good idea to become one before you’re an adult, while you still have growing to do.”

I supposed Aunt Carol was right. It made me think of Guy and how careful he had to be with what he ate as a diabetic.

“The guidebook says that keeping turtles on ships was one way historically that sailors were able to have fresh meat when they were at sea for a long time,” Lynn said. “And it also says that the people of the Cayman Islands have been eating turtles for five hundred years, and it’s often hard to change the way people think about cultural customs like that.”

“What other animals are endangered?” Diana asked.

“Let’s see,” said Lynn. “There is a certain kind of parrot called a Cayman Brac parrot that’s endangered. Cayman Brac is the only place in the world it’s found. There were about five hundred of them in the world before the last hurricane hit the Caymans, and now the numbers are at about three hundred, the book says.”

“What does it look like?”

“It’s got a green body and brilliant blue wing feathers. It has red cheeks and black ears, apparently. There is a parrot preserve on Cayman Brac. And there is a type of iguana called a blue iguana, and the Cayman Islands are the only place where it’s found. It says it’s one of the rarest breed of iguanas in the world. The blue iguana can grow to over five feet long. This guidebook calls them magnificent creatures. There is a
research and breeding facility for the blue iguana here on Grand Cayman. They saved it from extinction. I remember feeding an iguana once when I was on Saint Thomas many years ago,” Lynn said.

“What did it eat?”

“Hibiscus flowers. It seemed to love them. And it chewed very slowly. The flower would very gradually get pulled into its mouth. They seem like very gentle lizards. I came to think of this one that liked to sit on a rock beside our hotel patio as a pet. I would always look for it when we went outside.”

“Wow,” said Diana. “Were you with Dad then?”

“Yes,” Lynn said quickly. “It was before you were born.” I had noticed that Lynn didn’t really like to talk about the time she was married to Diana’s dad.

“Isn’t it amazing there are so many animals that are only found here on the Cayman Islands?” said Aunt Carol.

“I think there is a geographical reason for islands to have endangered species, when you think about it,” said Lynn.

Finally Daddy and Uncle Ted and Luke came out of the water.

“Wow! That was just gorgeous snorkeling,” said Daddy, dropping his mask and fins on the sand, then straightening the towel on his lounge chair. “I don’t know when I’ve seen water so clear.”

“So, what’d you think, Luke?” Aunt Carol asked.